Pro Exhibition

Tom Richard, Darin Peterson,
Graeme Williams, Chris Simpson

      On Tuesday night, WSF was fortunate to have a couple of the top squash players in the world join us for a night of squash.  Tom Richards (#40) and Chris Simpson (#22), came to Windsor Squash and Fitness.

     The night began with our juniors meeting the pros and playing a game of "Who knows the pros better?  Phil or themselves?  To their amazement, Phil won!  The juniors then headed on court with the pros, where they learned about each of their favourite shots.  All the juniors then practiced these shots as Tom and Chris assisted.  Let's just say there were a lot of nicks being hit!  After that it was a 3/4 court challenge with our juniors playing for either Team Tom or Team Chris.  To wrap up our junior session, they finished as always with domino court sprints.  The juniors on Team Chris would like to thank him for continually drawing a double set of dominos :).

     As the crowd started filing in to enjoy the free beer and pizza they got to see Darin Peterson, the Khan family, Kathy Corchis,  Jody Brown and the Guthrie kids take on the pros.  WSF got off to a great start with Doc Peterson hitting a frame winner off the first serve.  However, it would be all downhill for Peterson after that.  Jody did more running in his one game than he did in his previous 2 matches as Chris worked him over from corner to corner.  Chris and Tom agreed the toughest matches came from the juniors who managed to win a couple of hard earned points.
   

      Then came time for the main event.  The exhibition match.  Those that showed up were treated to the highest quality of squash ever played at WSF.  We saw everything from trick shots to long rallies with incredible retrieving.  It kind of reminded me of Valente/Wilbur matches, minus the tins, heavy breathing, double bounces and made up scoring.  Tom Richards ended up winning in the fifth.

Q & A

      After the match, Chris and Tom did a Q and A with the members.  What is your training like?  (hard) Do you ever take time off? (no) Who do you find hard to play? (Gaultier) What separates you from the guys in the top 10? (fitness, skill, speed, power).  Tom and Chris were nice enough to hang after and chat with the members and sign autographs for the juniors.  This was a great opportunity for Windsor Squash and Fitness and hopefully next year we can gain some more support to bring in some more players.
     Pictures from this evening can be found here.
   
     Thanks to all the members that supported this event and a special thanks to Darin Peterson made sure this event was possible.