Softball Doubles Tournament

     On Saturday afternoon 16 squash players competed in the 2nd annual softball doubles tournament.   Softball doubles is played with a softball on a singles court.  That may sound crowded but you would be surprised how much room there is.  Here is a video on softball doubles.  Keep in mind that this is being played on an actual softball doubles court.
     It was a very eclectic collection that gathered to compete for the $80.  On paper it appeared the favourite teams were Kabir Bhangoo/Ryan Guthrie & Graeme/Phil Dimitrov.  Matches were very close and no one team was dominating.  The semi finals saw Dalla Bona squared play Guthrie/Furmanek.  On paper the team of Craig Guthrie/Stan Furmanek didn't put fear into anyone.  However, once they stepped on the court the magic began.  After shaking off the rust in the first few games, Furmanek caught fire, hitting winners all ofter the place.  It was too much for the Dalla Bonas and they were relegated to the 3/4 game.  On the other side of the draw, Willams/Dimitrov took on Obremk/Demarco.  Obremk/Demarco are crafty veterans of softball doubles and were too much for Graeme/Dimitrov to handle.
     The finals were a rematch of the first match of the night in which Obremk/Demarco dominated Guthrie/Furmanek.  However the finals were a different story.  It was clear to all the spectators in attendance that all the squash during the afternoon had taken a toll on Obremk/Demarco's fitness levels.  Guthrie/Furmanek appeared to get younger as the day went on.  In the end, Guthrie/Furmanek took the match 2-0.
     All in all, it was a fun day of squash and everyone is already looking forward to the next tournament.

Canadian Junior Open

     294 of the best juniors from all around the world descended upon White Oaks this weekend.  The calibre of squash was so high it made a typical Ontario Gold event look like a mid-summer training session.  Players that have dominated the Ontario circuit were suddenly struggling with these new players.  12 of our juniors set out to match their skills with the rest of the world.  After the first round, only Stefan Houbtchev (still technically our junior playing in his last junior tournament), Berto Mill and Natasha Pensler remained in the main round.  That said, everyone of our juniors played strong and were able to stay in many rallies.
    In the consolation round we started to find some more success.  Sara Khan, Amin Khan, David Mill, won and advanced to the next round in the consolation.  Stefan was defeated in the second round of the main draw and ended up playing his old training partner, David Mill, in the next round.
    As the tournament headed toward Tuesday, less of our juniors remained in the draws.  Stefan was forced to withdraw in the 4th round of the consolation due to an injury.  Aparna and Ananya met each other in a sister showdown in the finals of the Bronze draw with Aparna winning it in the end.  But the highlight for Windsor Squash was Natasha Pensler.  Although Natasha lives in the states she has been coming to Windsor to train with our juniors.  Natasha lost in the finals of the U13 to a fellow American.  Well done Natasha!
    Despite being a very long weekend, the juniors gained a lot of experience playing, watching and listening on how to be successful at such a high level.  Complete draws can be found here.  Follow them on Instagram @ windsorsquashandfitness

Ontario Junior Closed Championships

  

    This weekend, 14 of Windsor’s juniors headed up to Vaughn to participate in the Ontario Junior Closed tournament.  Overall, 130 juniors from across Ontario came to compete and attempt to become provincial champion.  The competition was very tough but our juniors held their ground. 

     

    Luca Dalla Bona, Aaron Nagy, Amin Khan, Sara Khan, Ananya Maheshwari, Aparna Maheshwari, Berto Mill and David Mill all won their first round matches.  This was a big turning event for some of these players as this was the first time they have been able stay in the main round of a Gold event.  However, that also meant even tougher competition in the next round.  Only Amin and Ananya were able to move on past the first round. 

     Saturday was a tough day for most of our juniors, as many of them were knocked out.  Come Sunday only Ananya, Amin, Sara, Usman, Hannah, and David still had matches to play. 

     Ananya cruised to another tournament win, barely losing any points.  Well done Ananya!  Despite having match ball in the ¾ match, Amin could not hang on in a very close and exciting match.  Sara Khan lost in the semis of the consolation and Usman lost in the consolation finals.  Aparna won the consolation of her draw and Hannah cruised to a Bronze division victory and David won the ¾ match.

     Overall, there was definitely an improvement in our play.  Each tournament our juniors are getting closer to winning against the rest of the province and everyone is noticing.  Windsor usually brings the biggest contingent to any of these tournaments and people notice how much our players are improving and supporting each other. 

     On a side note, many of our parents were approached by people that came down to our tournament (October, Gold #2) and they all commented on how it is the best tournament on the calendar and it is becoming a “must attend” part of the squash season.  The other positive thing that everyone experienced was how friendly people were when they were out in the community.  Well done Windsor!

    Final results can be found here and pictures here.

Fall Down Classic

   102 players entered the first big tournament weekend of the year.  Very few were left standing on Sunday afternoon.  Literally.   Whether it was the many squash games or the after-squash outings, the weekend was a tiring one.  Play started Friday with many of our younger juniors gaining their first tournament experience and shortly after saw the first rounds of the adult draws get underway.  I use "adult" loosely because no matter what draw you were in, it seemed it was full of our juniors.  In Open draw, Micaala Seth upset (?) (or beat up) Brad Hanebury to advance in the main round.  Many of the favourites advanced through the other rounds.
       Play began early on Saturday with matches becoming tougher.  Junior Mackenzie Elliott raised many eyebrows with her play in the C Draw.  However, the big thing that was was noticed was the recurrence of Khan vs. Bradd.  The Bradds from Sarnia descended on Windsor with their entire family and it seemed like they were in every draw and it seemed like they were playing a Khan every time you turned around.  However, the news of the day was all the close double matches.  At one stretch there were 5, 5-gamers in a row.  Because of this, the doubles matches became very backed up and matches continued until midnight on Saturday.
        On Sunday the draws were finally widdled down to the finals.  In the Open final, Steve Poirier of London couldn't slow David Mill down, allowing David to take it 3-0.  The A Final had two of the bigger tournament players trying to share court space as Paul Gabrael and Robert Stevens of London looked to take the A title.  The match lived up to everything it promised with long rallies and great shot-making.  Unfortunately for Windsor, Gabreal went down in a very close game 5.
     The B Final was a story of two different games.  Deidre Bradd played a high pressure game against the soft hands and retrieving of Ryan Guthrie.   However, in the end, Guthrie couldn't match the pace of Bradd's shots.   Another loss for Windsor.
      The semi-finals of the C draw saw Usman Khan upset his older cousin, Sara Khan.  Usman entered the finals playing the best squash of his career and exuding confidence.  However, he met up Betsy Carson, a very steady and methodical player who refused to play Usman's game.  Usman lost in 3 games.
     The 40+ final was like a scene from Groundhog Day.  David Guthrie and Al Valente play each other very often and know each other's game inside out.  However, Valente could not match David's shot-making today as David eased to his second 40+ victory.
     In the juniors event, Rajan Sandhu got his monies worth as he also ended up filling in in the C draw.  This experience must have helped him as he took the junior title of Zara Khan.
     The usual suspects dominated the doubles again this tournament.  Eugeni/Hanebury were barely pushed on their path to the championship.  Local favourites, Caille/Houbtchev won the B doubles. Out of towners, Etheridge/Bissonette won the C doubles over Hewer/Shaw.  Holman/Corchis easily won the women's draw and Seth/Stevens took the Mixed title.
     Possibly the biggest winner of the weekend was Dan Barisic as Dan won the C Draw Bracket Challenge.  Dan walked away with $200 and the juniors added $200 to their fund.  Final results can be found here.  You can find complete brackets here.  If you want to continue the squash fun, Nov 21-23 is the Simon Warder Tournament.  This is a very fun tournament and supports a great cause.

Windsor Gold

 

Sara Khan awarded her award for winning the
Club Championships

    This past weekend Windsor hosted 101 of the best squash players from across Canada.  We literally had players from sea to sea.  Due to the success of last year's event, Windsor was awarded a CORE Gold Event.  A CORE event allows players to earn points towards participation on national level teams.   Including parents and players, we had over 200 people in our club this weekend.
     Play began on Friday at 4pm and continued straight through until Sunday afternoon.  Once again, Windsor had many players competing (19) and all the Windsor players represented themselves in an exemplary manner.  Ananya Maheshwari continues her domination of the Girl's U11.  Ananya has yet to lose a game in this division this year.
      The last match of the tournament saw David Mill try and make it 2 for 2 in Gold tournaments.  David cruised to an effortless 2-0 lead before his opponent began attacking and forcing David into making some critical errors.  Game 5 was tight all the and ended up having to go to extra points.  Unfortunately, David could not hold on.  Despite the loss it was an excellent match.
     A big thanks goes out to Anis Khan for arranging to have many dignitaries come out and join us for the evening including Mayor Drew Dilkens and MP Brian Masse.  Not only was the food great, supplied by Windsor Palace, but the evening provided the perfect opportunity to hand out some well-deserved awards.  A new plaque was created to honour the previous junior club champions.  As well, in what we hope will be an ongoing traditon, the first ever school bursary was awarded to 3 of our oldest juniors who have moved on to other academic challenges.  Congratulations to David Mill, Marcus Moceri and Stefan Houbtchev.
     Despite all the great squash, the most gratifying moments from the weekend were all of the

compliments that were given to us by the visitors.  Many people said that we put on the best tournament of the year and it was the highlight of their season.  The out of towners kept commenting on how friendly the people of Windsor were.  Well done Windsor!  It is reasons like that that we will continue to get these big events from Squash Ontario.
      Any matches that were played on Court #2 were streamed and can be seen here.  Also, here are all the pictures from the weekend.  Complete results of the weekend can be found here.

Gary Waite Tour Stop #1

 

 The Gary Waite Tour of 2015/16 has officially begun.  The first host site was Huron Oaks at Sarnia.  38 players took part in this event and over half of them from Windsor!  Not only did we have many first time tournament players playing but we had many veteran players returning to get some more tournament experience.  In the end, tour veteran Jagroop Bhangoo lost out to tournament newcomer Manav Mehta in a very tight final.

Gold #1

      The first Squash Ontario Gold junior tournament was this weekend at Mayfair Parkway in Toronto and it saw a very large and impressive contingent from Windsor.  19 juniors from Windsor Squash and Fitness participated and Graeme also came up to provide coaching to each and every one of them.   Friday night got off to a bit of a rough start with many of our juniors drawing seeded players in the first round.  Despite this, every one of our juniors played these matches extremely tough and were never outclassed on the court.  At the end of Friday, only David Mill & Berto Mill stayed in the main round.  Amin Khan, Ananya & Aparna Maheshwari and Vishaal Mehta all played in a round robin format.
     Saturday saw a lot of activity as it seemed like our kids were playing every time you turned around.  Berto got knocked out of the main round by Ravi Seth while David advanced to the finals on Sunday.  Some of the juniors advanced in the consolation while other got relegated to the bronze draw.  Ananya and Amin were steadily beating all their opponents in the round robin.  By the end of the day Saturday many of our players took up table tennis and basketball for the remainder of the weekend.
      With only a handful of Windsor players still playing on Sunday, it gave everyone an opportunity to cheer on their teammates.  Mackenzie Elliot won her first gold match, advancing her to the finals of the U19 Bronze draw.  Unfortunately, Mackenzie came up against a very strong and older opponent.  Hannah Guthrie bounced back from a rough start by handily winning the U15 Bronze division.  Ananya breezed through her draw not even dropping a single game all tourney to win the U11 draw.  Great job Ananya.  

     However, the most exciting match of the day was a nail-biter between Amin Khan and Griffin Manley for the U13 championship.  Amin went down 2 games despite playing great squash.  Amin kept the pace up and worked his opponent around the court and easily took the next 2 games.  Game 5 saw long rallies and tense shotmaking.  In the end Amin pulled it out 11-8, winning the U13 division.  Well done Amin!
       The final match of the weekend saw David Mill and one of his training partners at the National Squash Academy, an Egyptian named Mohanad Hekel, play for gold.  Hekel has amazing array of deceptive shots (see Amr Shabana) as well as great retrieval skills.  David was out for redemption after losing to Mohanad at last year's Gold #3 at NSA.  This time around David proved too much for Mohanad to handle.  Congratulations to David for winning the first Gold tourney of the year!!!
      All in all it was a great weekend of squash.  Final results can be found here.  Many of us overheard how good the "Windsor crew" looked in their clothing and about what a big impact we are making in the draws.  When you think back one year ago, many of these players were playing the Gary Waite tour, if they were playing tournaments at all.  The other comment that we heard was how much people were looking forward to coming back to Windsor for Gold #2, October 23, 24, 25.  Speaking of which, we are looking for sponsorship and volunteers for this tournament which is going to be far bigger than last year.  If you are interested please contact Graeme or Victoria.

Nash Cup

     Congratulations to Sara Khan who got her season off to a great start with a win at the Nash Cup in London this weekend.  Sara won the Women's B draw by fighting off some very tough competition.  The first round saw Sara in a very tight match that she was able to squeeze through.  All that summer training paid off.  In the semis, Sara met up with the top seed but dispatched her 3-0, paving the way to the finals.  In the finals, she defeated the number 2 seed in 4 games.  Well done Sara!
      In other matches, Paul Gabreal lost in the A finals while David Mill lost in the Open finals to Mick Joint.
   

Golf Tournament

Jagroop, Phil and Hannah waiting to tee off

       Thank you to the 48 people that participated in our 2nd annual WSF Golf Tournament.  The weather cooperated and I believe a good time was had by all.  Last year's winners of Valente, Leavitt, Wilbur, Guthrie (Dave) just couldn't put it together this year.  Mike Wilbur was forced to carry the team and a big load he had to carry.  We had many rookie teams participate this year, most notably 8 of our juniors who should probably stick to squash.  And it was a new entrant into that tournament that ended up winning it.  Somehow, Jody Brown, Aaron Gillis, Matt McEachran and Graeme Williams(?????) turned in a -6.  What is more amazing about this score is that they basically did it as a threesome.  I thought they were in trouble when Graeme texted me an hour before tee-off asking if he could rent clubs at the course. :)  Well done guys, enjoy your Red Wings tickets.

Tournament Champs- Matt McEachran, Aaron Gillis, Jody Brown, Graeme Williams
Longest Drive (male)- Jody Brown
Longest Drive (female)- Marge Holman
Closest to the Pin (male)- Mike Wilbur
Closest to the Pin (female)- Kathy Moceri
Hole-in-One winner- no one.  Al Valente can rest easy for another year
Best Dressed- Rod Larson

     The money raised from this event go into fund that is used throughout the year to assist and promote the game of squash and those playing it at the junior level.  This fund is used to subsidize our junior's lessons, travel, clinics, coaching certifications, and referring certifications.  It is also used to fund new, economically-challenged players to the game as well as assist entry into our tournament from players who would otherwise be unable to participate.  

This event couldn't have happened without the following sponsors:

Tom Porter, Anis Khan, Nick Dimitrov (Radix), Windsor Squash and Fitness, Graeme & Victoria Williams (T-Sports), John Mill, Al Valente (Valente Travel), Jeff Derochie (Jeff Derochie and Associates), Peter Wares (TAB), Arthur Nagy (CAPS Canada), Melinda Nagy (Provincial Pharmacy), Fratelli Pasta Grill, Andrew DallaBona (Riverview Steel)

Also, we would like to thank the following who donated a door prizes:

Andrew DallaBona (Riverview Steel), Graeme & Victoria Williams (T-Sports), Mark Hipkins (Wilbur-Ellis), Chris Chamandy (South Windsor Animal Hospital), Mike Wilbur (Holland Cleaning Supplies), Barry Leavitt (Enwin), Jim Scarfone (Scarfone Law), Ron Funkenhauser (Crimestoppers), Arthur Nagy (CAPS Canada), Matt McEachran (Centerline), Steve DeMarco (Promoworks), David Scarfone, Marge Holman (LAWS)

All pictures from this event can be found here.  Stayed tuned for next year's event which promises to be bigger and better.

Die Hard Summer League Final

The 2015 Die Hard Summer League final came to its conclusion 2 weeks ago.

In the final we had the Happy Tinners taking on Skid Boast as the 2 most consistent teams over the course of the Summer.

Since replacing Dave Guthrie at the top of the roster Emir Crowne had helped his team rack up the points and I heard many of his team mates comment that their name did not really suit with him at the helm.

Unfortunately many of the regulars were unable to make the final for The Happy Tinners but Skid Boast had a full team at they disposal.


All the matches were tight with Julian Paquette putting Skid Boast 1 up by beating Mark Morgan by 46pts to 33.  This was the 5th time these two had met this summer!

Marco carnival beat Guy Halifax in an earlier match 44-39 so things were 1-1 when Hannah Guthrie and Sara Khan stepped onto the court.  The quality of the match as high as both players showed the benefits of the hard work they had invested in their games over the summer.  In the end Sara won 41-37 to edge Skid Boast ahead.

Ryan Guthrie levelled things up by beating Adam Pole 49-39 also reducing the over all points difference too.  Things were getting close.

Emir Crowne and Andrew Little were last on and playing for the title.  Many neutrals had Andrew as the favourite especially in the 20 min format but Emir was on fire.  Using all his trickery and racket skills he never let Andrew settle and won 58-35 to win the Summer League for the Happy Winners!!!

The final standings were as follows:

1st  Happy Tinners

2nd  Skid Boast

3rd  Out of Office

4th No Let

5th The Nicks

6th -Wooden Spoon The Boasters

Team Canada Exhibition

     What a day for Windsor Squash & Fitness Club!  The fun began for our juniors as the Women's Pan-Am team (@dzlet,  @CornettSamantha,  @NikoleTodd1,  @HollieNaughton) showed up for a Q & A and a training session.  Our juniors got to see how much training goes into becoming one of the best in your sport.
      The evening brought out what everyone was looking for... exhibition matches.  Before the main matches, the girls played games against many of our juniors.  I could have swore that I heard Kabir say he was going to win his game.  I never did find out how it ended.....  In the end the juniors appreciated the experience to hit with the team.
      Finally it was time to see what Team Southwest could do against Team Canada.  First match was Elora-born, Sarnia-living, Windsor-favourite Micaala Seth taking on Danielle Letourneau.  Unfortunately for Team Southwest, Micaala wasn't at the top of her game and went down to Danielle.  Team Canada 1, Team Southwest 0.
     Stefan Houbtchev took the court to compete against Hollie Naughton.  Hollie's retrieving and shot-making proved to be too much for Stefan to handle.  Team Canada 2, Team Southwest 0.
    This put a lot of pressure on David Mill as he tried to outshoot Nicole Todd.  This was the most entertaining match of the night as they tried to outshoot each other, providing the audience with many entertaining shots.  Nicole played the entire match with a smile on her face which made the crowd think she was just enjoying running David around.  However, in the end, David couldn't close out the match.  Team Canada 3, Team Southwest 0.
      This means that there was no way Team Southwest could win.  So the final match of the night (Graeme vs. Samantha Cornett) was about personal bragging rights.  Student vs. Coach.  Graeme played like he was 10 years younger (not really but he never reads the blog so he won't know I said this).  Graeme ended up with Team Southwest's only win.
      It was great to see all the people out, old squash players and new and a great time was had by all.  Good luck in the Pan Am Games!  Here are all the pictures from the event.

24 Hour Video Montage

I meant to post this for a while now but due to technical issues, I can't post it on our Youtube Channel nor embed it directly here.  So here is a link to a video montage I put together of the 24 Hour Squashathon from last month.  Once Graeme sees it he will realize how much fun he really had, he will be willing to do it again next year.  :)

24 Hour Squashathon...... done

     When the junior committee first talked about doing a 24 hour squashathon, I thought ok, cool idea but is it really that hard?  After all, some of our tournaments already feel like that.  As I was nursing my sore back and legs from watching Graeme play opponent after opponent I realized just how long 24 hours can be.  Was I expected to sit here for 24 hours???  If you think of all the things you can do in 24 hours, I bet no one had playing squash with 32 people on their list.  I really don't know where to begin with this post so I'll start with Friday night....


Friday

The highest bidder for the foot
massage is.... Victoria

   Graeme kicked off his 24 hours at 4:00pm playing long time club supporter Nick Dimitrijevic.  When I showed up at 4:30, I was a little concerned at the amount of sweat that Graeme already had going.  At his first break at 7:00, a foot bath and foot massage (that was auctioned off to the highest bidder) was required.  Unfortunately, the juniors also started out with loads of energy, as many were already on the court at 4:00 playing 3/4 court (more on that later).  To add to the Friday night activities, Dave ran a handicap tournament for the juniors.  With most of the juniors playing, it ran a little longer than planned.  However, the final was worth the wait as Kabir and Maxi overcame their handicaps (scores) to meet each other in a very entertaining final.  Kabir continued his strong play (no Al, it has nothing to do with you "mentorship") and defeated a much-improved Maxi Bistrev.
     Thanks to the many people who hung around late into the evening and created a very festive atmosphere.

Saturday Wee Hours

Carol and Emily dancing the
night away

   When I say morning, I mean after midnight.  A surprising number of people were still around and the juniors were still going.  I thought we were clear when we said they were to play in shifts and not continuous.  Victoria, Erika and Tara busted out the tunes and the festivities continued on.  We finally had to tell Carol that the event ended at midnight and we were all going home just to get her to stop dancing.

Chatham

     However, as people left, things began slowing down.  It was perfect timing for the the Chatham crew to show and liven things up :).  The next thing you know I was in a game of 3/4 quarter with 10 people at 2 am.  Now the problem became that the juniors were now tiring but we still needed to have some of them on the court in the wee hours of the morning.  We insisted that some of the juniors got some rest and forced some of them to stay on.  As the nighttime crawled by the energy level slowly dropped causing me to maybe fall asleep in a quiet, dark corner of the building.  Mary Pat, Victoria, Erika and Tara kept the show rolling by getting the juniors out of bed and on the court and seeing the Chatham guys off around 5am.

Andrew & Erika DallaBona

   A squash event just wouldn't be a squash event without the DallaBona's showing up in some kind of crazy attire.  I often wonder where they find these things.  Andrew and Erika dressed up as Fred Flinstone and Wilma.  While I didn't see Fred play, I hope he didn't use a stone racquet but the way Andrew plays, it might have helped.  
     I am not a morning person and it amazed me to see how many people that were willing to come out and play Graeme at what I consider a horrid time slot.  Your participation really helped us and got us through a difficult time.  A special thank you to the Chatham group who really went out of their way to help us out.


Saturday Morning

     By the time I returned to the fold at 6am, energy was at an all-time low.  The women were tired, the juniors were barely moving and setting a record for complaints in a 24-hr period.  Then came in the Moceri's.  At first I thought that John was having some intestinal issues until I realized he was going to keep Graeme going with his "fart app" (no endorsement here).  Little did John know but Graeme had his own version of the app, only this one actually created an odour.  The energy level slowly began to rise as people began to filter into the club.  I just feel bad for that poor member who showed up at 6am thinking he would be the first into the club and get a nice quiet workout.  There was nothing quiet about 6am.
    And so began the club waking up and as people started filtering in, everyone's mood lightened (except for the kids sleeping on the doubles court that had to leave because of a 9am scheduled match).  Graeme began hitting nicks again (not that many really) and the juniors began to repopulate the courts.  Before you knew it, we were starting the Adult/Junior doubles tournament and heading into our last few matches against Graeme.

Saturday Afternoon

      For the Adult/Junior Doubles Tournament, adults and juniors were randomly paired with each other and playing a one match knockout to the finals.  The rallies were long and the matches were incredibly close.  Many matches went the distance and in the end, the team of Marcy Porter/A-a-ron Nagy defeated Arthur Nagy/Amin Khan.
 DJ Thor was spinning the tunes to help Graeme and the juniors to the finish line.  Or maybe Victoria really hired DJ Thor because she didn't feel like taking Maisy to dance and instead had Maisy dance at the club (see photos).  Whatever the case, the excitement was building as Graeme was approaching the end of his 24 hours.  And what could be better than getting to play with his wife in one of the last time slots of the day.  Oh, and Kathy Moceri too.   Hmmmm......
   David Bshouty decided that he would contribute to the cause by riding a stationary bike next to the court for the last 4 hours of the event all while collecting donations.  Thanks Dave!  With all this going on,
     At 3:59:50, the countdown began and Graeme completed his 24 hours with his best shot of the day (literally), a cross court nick that Nick Matthew wouldn't have got.

Thank you's

     In the end it was great to see the support for Graeme and his junior program.  The amount of people that supported in one way or another (not just this event) really shows the community-mindedness (is that a word?  I teach math) of the squash club.  I know that our juniors are very appreciative and it is great to see the way that they interact with all the squash members because that is really what it is all about, creating solid citizens.

"It is done, can't wait to do it again!"

     Of course this event couldn't have happened without Victoria who organized a lot of this.  Without her we all agree that Graeme would be lost.  Thanks to Erika DallaBona (a new addition to the team) who arranged for our food, Graeme's food, music, keeping things on track, highlighting, and for the personal entertainment.   Thanks to Tara Jankuloski and Mary Pat Scarfone (she just refuses to take my name and I blame it on Dave) who kept the juniors on track throughout the 24 hours and assisted wherever possible.
    After watching a ton of squash this weekend, I am positive that I saw significant improvements in some of our players over the 24 hours.  Which makes me think about how many balls do you actually hit in a 24 hour event (great math question.... Phil/Matt).  Even Graeme was busting out some new shots that I had never seen.  I really think that we may be onto something here and I could have swore I heard him talking about making this a monthly event........
     Here is a folder that contains pictures from this event.  It is public so please upload any photos you have here, although you may need a gmail account.  If you don't you can email me.
   

Save the Date- Golf

      Because so many people are inquiring, the date for the Second Annual WSF-Junior Golf outing has been set.  Plus, I heard that a certain team is planning practice sessions all summer to retain their lucky year one title.
      I hate to disappoint all of you that were looking forward to golfing again in arctic temperatures but the date has been moved up significantly.  This year's outing will take place on Sunday, September 20th.   And I have been able to secure a shotgun start.  Mark it on your calendars.  Details to follow.

Club Championships 2015

Last Saturday saw the conclusion of the 2015 WSF Club Championships.  Over 60 entries were received across all the events as memebrs battled it out to be crowned Club Champion in their respective Divisions.

A Event:

The final saw the past 2 winners, David Mill and Mark Eugeni battling it out.  The first 2 games were shared but David then took the next 2 to record a 3-1 win.  Mark is the most successful player in terms of Club Championships won and beating him is never easy.  It was a shame more people were not around to watch this high quality match.

B Event:

There were lots of Juniors present in the B draw all looking to make there mark this year.  Barry Leavitt was the top seed with Doug Fields looking to make a charge from the bottom of the draw.  As always seeding meant nothing and the early round saw lots of upsets.  Toby Scott battled through to the semi finals where he would face Kabir Bhangoo and Barry Leavitt and Anis Khan made up the other semi final which was a repeat of the final 2 years ago.  Anis defeated Barry before Kabir held his nerve to put an end to Toby's impressive run 3-1.
  Kabir started well in the final before Anis's experience carried him through to a close 3-1 victory.  Congratulations to Anis!

C Event:

Trevor Charles was the favorite for this event and he made comfortable progress through to the final.   In the bottom half Sam Habib and Hannah Guthrie made it through to the semi final.  This match was probably the match of the tournament as Hannah played some of her best squash to push Sam all the way.  Sam eventually won 3-2 but Hannah should be proud of her efforts and she now looks like a genuine A player.  In the Final Trevor's  court awareness clever ball placement was the difference as he took the spoils to be crowned C Champion.

Woman's Event:

It was great to see so many entires in the Woman's event this year and I hope this division continues to grow.  Two of our up and coming juniors battled through to the final.  Mackenzie Elliott and Hannah Guthrie then played a match of the highest order which attracted various compliments from audience members and passers by.  Hannah won in 4 tight games but both should be proud of the progress they have made this year and the way they played the game with minimal interference and few lets.

40+ Event:

A competitive field started the event with many players having a genuine chance of going all the way.      In the end the top 2 seeds Al Valente and Dave Guthrie battled through to meet in the final.  In a one sided affair Dave Guthrie took the spoils although Mike Wilbur mentioned he had beaten Rod Larson (Dave defeated Rod 3-2 in the semi finals) 3-1 last time they played so he has a real claim to the title. Well done Dave!

Junior Event:

Number 1 seed Aaaron Nagy dropped out with injury before the event started which was a shame and we wish him all the best with his recovery.  The quality of squash throughout was a joy to watch and I get so much satisfaction watching these guys develop and grow on the squash court.  Kabir Bhangoo and Niki Bistrev fought through to the final and what a final it was!  In easily the best performance from Niki this year he really took the game to Kabir playing at a pace I have been pushing him to adopt for a long time!  Indeed it took Kabir by surprise and he found himself 2-0 down before mounting a superb come back to tie things up 2-2.  In the 5th Niki got off to a great start and held onto take the match 3-2.  Again the game was played in a fantastic spirit with few interruptions and both players playing through interference and playing the ball which is great to see.

A Doubles:

Mark Eugeni and Mike McKitterick took on Paul Gebrael and Nik Dimitrijevic in the final.  The current holders took the first before Paul and Nik fought back to square things up.  The next 2 were close all the way through but Mark and Mike found the winners when they needed them and ran out 3-1 winner to retain last years title.

Mixed Doubles:

After a few withdrawals we had one semi final between Dan Petoran and Grace Kim against Adam and Renka Gesing.  The Gesing's showed there greater experience to progress to a final against Doug Fields and Deb McMahon.  Doug and Deb won 3-0 but Adam and Renka put up a good fight in all games and Adam told me he was happy they competed!

The rest of the doubles events are still to be completed.