January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Squash honours plentiful for Bermuda
Squash honours plentiful for Bermuda
The girls were well beaten by a Guyana team that has become renowned as the powerhouse of the region and the blueprint for others to follow.
But the boys took them to the final match in a dramatic finale in-front of a full house at the Bermuda Squash Rcaquets Club on Saturday afternoon
Bermuda, seeded fourth, had beaten top seeds Trinidad in the group stages and knocked out OECS in the semi-finals before falling to the impressive Guyanese.
The Bermuda team started well with Noah Browne comfortably dispatching Abhishek Singh in straight sets in the Under-15 match.
Browne, who is well over six feet tall, used his height and reach to great advantage cutting off any loose cross court shots and being able to play winners without undue pressure. He dropped just two points in the final game.
In the Under-17 match-up Alex Arjoon's hard hitting attacking style proved too much for Kristian Muldoon in a fiercely competitive match.
Both displayed great athleticisim and stroke play but Arjoon's never-say die attitude helped him grind out a 9-4.9-4.9-6 win.
Robbie Maycock, who had won the Under-19 individual title earlier in the week, restored Bermuda's lead with a crushing straight sets win over Raphael deGroot.
In a seesaw encounter Guyana once again pulled level as Beckett Simmons, the star of Bermuda's semi-final victory, went down 3-0 to the talented Nyron Joseph in the Under-13 match.
The decider came down to Micah Franklin for Bermuda against Olive Kear-Downs for Guyanese.
Both players ran incessantly and played great shots and lengthy rallies that had the packed gallery cheering every point.
Kear-Downs took the first game 9-3, but Franklin fought back well to claim the second by the same score. The battle was on.
The two continued to battle it out in the third but Franklin, who had suffered a groin injury early in the tournament, slipped and was clearly struggling from that point on.
He battled on but his opponent was too strong claiming 9-5, 9-0 victories in the final two games to give Guyana a double victory in the team championships.
Earlier in the day their girls team had won a comfortable 5-0 finale against a battling Bermuda side.
The Bermudian girls - Alex Marshall, Kelly Barnes, Rachel Barnes, Emma Keen and Jenni Schroder - had surpassed expectations to reach the final. But their glorious run came to an end against a Guyana side that has dominated girls' squash in the region for several years.
Roger Sherratt, spokesman for Bermdua Squash Association, said it had been a great few weeks of squash and the tournament had been a big success on and off the court.
"The Junior Caribbean Squash Championships have been held annually since 1981 between teams from throughout the Caribbean, and it's a major event for us to host in tiny Bermuda.
"We're one of the smallest countries involved, and it's always a challenge to host almost 150 competitors and their families and friends.
"The whole tournament went off without a hitch. By all accounts, all of the visiting teams and officials rated it as one of the best, if not the best, Junior CASA Championships ever, thanks to the organizers led by Ross Triffitt, Patrick Foster, and David Elliott, and all of their volunteer help."[[In-content Ad]]
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