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GALLERY:
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Thu 11th, Teams Day One
Three days of team
matches started at 10.00, with Men's, Women's and Vets titles up
for grabs. It was always going to be hectic,
but it turned out to be dramatic
too as play had to be abandoned for the night after a power cut.
Read on ...
Vets (6 teams, round robin):
10.00 Barbados 4-1 OECS
good start for the top seeds
Bahamas 1-4 T&T
T&T beat 3-man Bahamas
Jamaica 3-2 Cayman
hosts upset as Jamaica win rollercoaster
19.00 T&T 2-1 OECS
Cayman 5-0 Bahamas
no sweat as Cayman bounce back
Jamaica 1-2 Barbados
Men (7 teams, 2 pools)
10.00 Jamaica 3-2 Guyana
top seeds take control in Pool A
Barbados 5-0 T&T
second seeds show no mercy
Bermuda 0-5 Cayman
defending champs beaten
19.00 OECS 1-2 Guyana
Barbados 1-1 Cayman
Bermuda 1-2 T&T
Women (3 teams, round robin):
19.00 Jamaica 0-5 Barbados
favourites at a canter
Morning Session Report
Evening Session Report |
Night of drama
and delays at South Sound
There was drama on and off court in
the evening session at South Sound Squash Club, as players were
falling like flies and then the lights went out ...
The evening started with the opening ceremony as the teams
paraded onto the showcourt, followed by speeches from CINSA
chair Janet Sairsingh, Cayman Premier McKeeva Bush,
and by minister of sport Mark Scotland who declared the
event open - not forgetting a nice $15,000 donation in support
of the juniors by Butterworth Bank, and the team photos.
 Then
it was on to round two of team matches.
Favourites Barbados made quick work of Jamaica in the
first women's match, leaving Jamaica needing to beat Cayman
tomorrow to deny the expected final showdown on Saturday.
 Cayman's
Vets bounced back from the morning's disappointment against
Jamaica with a quickfire win over under strength Bahamas, but
that was as far as we got in terms of completed matches.
The matches had started at around 19.00, and there were some
fiercely contested ties and a couple of injury timeouts.
Then, at around 9.15 the lights went out - the power cut
affected the whole of South Sound apparently, and a decision was
taken to abandon the evening's play shortly before ten.
Here's the state of play in the unfinished matches ...
Barbados' Vets lead Jamaica 2-1, in a match which was
delayed by an injury break at 5-all in the fifth in the women's
40+ encounter. Kristina Evelyn had a neck problem, got some
treatment but lost on the resumption as Barbados took the
advantage.
 T&T
Vets lead OECS 2-1 in a match that was played out on court
four, which has very limited viewing so that's all the info we
have, I'm afraid!
In the Men's matches T&T lead Bermuda 2-1. Micah Franklin
kept Bermuda in the hunt with a lengthy 3/0 win over Kale Wilson
which was thoroughly enjoyed by his teammates.
 Guyana
lead OECS (that's the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States)
2-1. Poor old Richard Chin, after playing Chris Binnie twice in
just over 12 hours, tonight he had to take on former world
number ten Joe Kneipp, who despite claiming to be just making up
the numbers, looked pretty good as he beat the individual
finalist 3/0.
Which takes us to Cayman against Barbados. "Don't you
just love Caribbean squash," a few people asked during this
match. Passionate, noisy, committed, controversial, dramatic and
damn good fun ... oh yes, we like it a lot.
Cayman took the lead at number five (didn't see it), then Rhett
Cumberbatch and Jake Kelly played out a storming match which
went down to the wire. In the fifth Jake played some superb
touch shots, as he can, and some daft attempted winners, as he
does, and it was Rhett who edged it 11/9 for Barbados, but not
without a lot of shouting from both sides, and a few arguments
and finger-pointing at some decisions - within the crowd,
nothing to do with the players.
 So,
tempers were already way above lukewarm when the number ones
took to the court, Cayman's Cameron Stafford and Barbados's man
mountain Shawn Simpson, who had sat out the individual event to
give himself more time to recover from an injury.
Shawn took the first, but Cameron picked up his game in the
second, was getting marginally the better of things, especially
in the numerous counter-drop exchanges they traded in the front
right corner.
Then Shawn went towards a Cameron drop in the front left, some
sort of collision occurred and Shawn catapulted backwards and
went flat on the floor.
His ankle was the problem, and after being helped off court he
started getting treatment on it.
At first the decision came down that he had three minutes
recovery time, later (and correctly, it definitely wasn't self
inflicted) extended to an hour.
 Starting
the next match seemed the logical thing, but that's apparently
not allowed in the local rules, so there we were, all waiting
for Shawn to decide whether he would be able to play at the
allotted time, when phutt ......... down went the lights.
The rest you know ... after about half an hour of darkness with
the conditions getting muggier by the minute, the call
came to abandon the day's play.
So, it's a 9am start in the morning to finish the four matches
in progress, and the 10am session has been pushed back to 1pm.
Some lucky souls will then play their third match of the day in
the 6pm session, and after that we'll know the finalists.
Simple really ... see you in the morning.
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Morning: Mixed start for Cayman,
Jamaica avoid Guyana bananaskin ...
The first round of team matches saw a number of routine wins,
and a pair of 'upsets' involving the hosts Cayman Islands.
Technical Upset
Cayman's men's team started well, beating defending champions
Bermuda, who admittedly have a weaker side this year, but still
a 5-0 win for the sixth seeds over the third seeds is notable.
Having said that, it wasn't unexpected, since the rules dictate
that teams can only move up or down a maximum of two places from
last year's finish, so Bermuda with a weaker team went down to
three, Cayman with a much stronger team than the one that
finished bottom last year moved up to six ... but everyone knew
what was likely to happen so this goes down as a 'technical'
upset.
"We all played pretty well actually," said Bermuda number one
Micah Franklin, "but they're a very strong team."
Jamaica vets progress
Jamaica's 3-2 win over Cayman in the Vets was the real thing
though, as four beat two, all the matches finishing 3-0 with
Jamaica winning the first, third and fifth on court.
"Janet [Sairsingh W40+] played well to keep us in the match,"
said Cayman skipper John Macrury [M50+], "and Frank [Brennan
M40+] nearly pulled the third game back which might have made a
difference.
John went on to make it all square, but in the decider Douglas
Beckford [M60+]was too strong for Ian Patrick as Jamaica sealed
the match.
"They're a strong team," concluded Macrurie," they'll go far."
Guyana fall just short
 Meanwhile
Chris Binnie repeated his win individual final win over Richard
Chin, 3/1 again, as top seeds Jamaica - who didn't compete last
year - took on Guyana.
Fifth-seeded Guyana still took the match
to a decider though, in which Jamaica's Bruce Burrowes squeezed
past Alex Arjoon 16/14 in the fourth!
The opening ceremony is at 17.30 tonight, with the second
round of team matches starting at 19.00 ... |
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