Canadian Team Championships, Day 3

      After a great party on Saturday, matches began first thing in the morning.   First matches up on Women's side was a battle for the bronze with Ontario 2 battling it out with Quebec.  Team Ontario pulled out the victory, securing our first medal.  On the men's side, it was Ontario 1 vs. Manitoba and again Team Ontario won, giving us our second medal.  

     Then it was time for the big matches and the crowd began to swell.  First up were the women's matches with Team Ontario 1 taking on Alberta.  On paper it looked like this match could go either way.  In the opening match it was Hollie Naughton (Ontario) playing Jackie Moss (Alberta).  Despite the 3-0 score in Hollie's favour, the games were very tight.  1-0 Ontario with the #1s on each team up next.  Sam Cornett vs. Danielle Letourneau.  Sam came out in game 1 very strong and over-powered Danielle.  However, game 2 was all Danielle as she forced Sam into numerous errors.  Sam settled down for game 3 & 4 and took the match in 4 games, giving Ontario 1 the Gold medal.  To finish off Ontario's dominance, Micaala Seth defeated Jaime Laird in 3 games.  

     Next up was the men's.  Team Alberta vs the favourite, Team Quebec.  These matches were

difficult to view if you didn't get there early and staked out your spot.  The first match was a hint of the kind of match it would become.  #2s, Graeme Schnell (Alberta) vs. David Baillargeon.  The first game was full of long rallies, incredible retrieving and great shot-making.  David took the first game 13-11 in about 1/2 hour.  

     Just as game 2 got underway, Jahanger Khan arrived to watch the match.  You could feel the energy on the court rise (if that was even possible).  Game 2 saw more of the same with Graeme taking this one.  Graeme would go on to win the match 3-1.  Alberta 1, Quebec 0.

     Because the first match took so long, matches 2 and 3 were sent off about the same time.  The match that drew the biggest crowd was Shawn Delierre (Quebec) vs. Andrew Schnell (Alberta).  Shawn forced Andrew to hit perfect shots as he retrieved just about everything Andrew hit.   On the court next to them, Shawn's brother, Jason, was battling it out with Jacob Hooker.  Both matches finished about the same time with Shawn winning 3-0 and Jason winning 3-1, giving Quebec the Gold medal.  

     Somehow during all this, Jahanger found time to get on the court and play 3/4 court with all the juniors.  No matter how long since you last played, some things don't leave you, like the pure hitting of the squash ball.  Thank you Jahinger for spending time with our juniors, it is a memory they will cherish the rest of their lives.

   The streams of the matches can be found here.  A write up from Squash Canada can be found here.  Pictures of the weekend can be found here.  Overall it was an amazing weekend of squash and camaraderie.  It was great to hear the players praise how great everyone treated them in Windsor and how great Windsor is and what a fabulous event we put on.  Graeme and Dave showed Canada that Windsor is the place to be for squash right now.  Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of Anis Khan and Darrin Peterson.   Thank you to all the VIPs and spectators that came out to support this weekend.