The Bermuda, New York, New England Challenge Squash Tournament went down to the wire at the BSRA Squash Courts on the final day of competition, with the Bermuda “A” Team just edging out New York by a single point to win the overall competition, while Bermuda “B” placed third and New England took 4th place.
Bermuda “A” started the day with a 3 point advantage from their previous matches (each player who wins a match scores a point for his or her team). With the lowest seeded players going on court first, a very strong New York ladies group, of Camilla Lancaster, Tracy Gates and Kathy Mintz reeled of 3 successive wins for New York followed by an epic 5 game match between Sergei Parmanov (NY) and Shane McDonnell (BDA A). McDonell struggled valiantly but eventually went down 3-2 to Malinowitz, giving the New York team a one point lead for the first time in the tournament. Their lead increased when Sergei Parmenov defeated Christian Ince 3-1.
Greg Fitzgerald, Daniel Sullivan and Peter Barrett then rattled of 3 wins for Bermuda “A”, but Tony Prentice (Bda A) lost to Harrison Sebring (NY), which meant that the two teams were then tied overall with just one match left to play.
It was more than appropriate that the deciding match would be between Micah Franklin for Bermuda “A” and David Uprichard for New York. Uprichard had recently completed the New York marathon and is super fit, but he had lost to Tommy Sherratt (BDA B) on the first day and Franklin beat Sherratt on the 2nd day. Despite Uprichard doing his utmost to chase down every ball, he had no answer to Franklin’s shot making skills. Franklin has reached a point in his career where he seems to effortlessly stroll around the court even when he’s under pressure as he was at times in this match. But in the end he was just too strong for Uprichard and won in 3 straight games for a valuable deciding point to seal the tournament for his team.
In the second section Bermuda “B” were up against New England, and after the 2nd day Bermuda “B” held a one point advantage over New Egland. This match-up turned into an exciting duel to decide 3rd and 4th places overall.
Michele Hodder, Murray Brewer, Mary Brewer and Anthony Fellowes all won their matches for Bermuda “B” but Lauri Sklar, Navid Mehta, Joe Lardner, Chris Ceasar and Thomas Hedemann all rattled off victories for New England to set the scene for a deciding match between Tommy Sherratt for Bermuda “B” and Thomas Kiedel for New England. Both players had great shots and moved well around the court, but Sherratt was able dominate the centre of the court and occasionally send his opponent in the wrong direction with deceptive winners. He cruised to a 3-0 win to give his team 3rd place in the overall standings.
