AND THE WINNERS ARE…

2011 Club Championships~~

Here we are once again. The Wimbledon of the DAC Squash Calendar, the Daytona 500, the Oscars, the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and, in some cases, the Darwin Awards, but whatever you want to call it, the Club Championships is that one tournament a year where members can insert themselves into history, put their hands on their hips, dance a little jig, blow a raspberry and pronounce, “Na na ni-na na!” to all of their fallen comrades!

2.5 – Don’t underestimate the Handballer…
Just because Tom Fabbri is used to patting around a larger, bouncier blue ball with his hands, doesn’t mean he can’t wield a squash racquet with some level of skill. This isn’t the first time we have had someone from the glove department try their hand (pardon the pun) at squash. Alex Bieri did it successfully in 2005 when he won the 2.5 category. Tom’s experience also helps him to understand that you need to play smarter, not harder, which is a big reason for his rapid improvement over the past 12 months. On his way to the final, Tom dropped only one game which was in the semi to Chuck Doyle. I wasn’t exactly stunned to see him in the final (I predicted he would be), but I was surprised at his opponent when he got there. Dark horse Sante Fratarcangeli did it the hard way. He beat last year’s 2.5 finalist Andrew Spohn in the first round 3-2, then he beat Ted Mabley 3-1 in the quarters, before knocking off my other finalist prediction Brandon Dobbins in the semi in a tough 3-1 contest. Could Sante’s good form get him over the wily Tom? Well, for a while it appeared as if it could. Sante started strongly taking the first game 9-4 but he seemed to lose the momentum early in the second as Tom quickly evened it up with a 9-1 win. The next two games were close. Tom moved the ball around very well making his opponent cover a lot of court. Sante kept up nicely but fell a couple of points short on both occasions losing them 9-6 and 9-7. A very pleased Mr. Fabbri now has his sights on the 3.0 next year and has already started his training!

3.0 – Don’t underestimate the Racquetballer…
When Robin Basil asked to be thrown into the squash Club Championships, I initially thought he was joking. Robin is the DAC’s best racquetball player – and racquetball chairman – so I wondered why he would want to try squash. He mentioned he had hit the squash ball a couple of times – never seriously - and we had no idea which category to put him in. I contemplated the 2.5 draw, but in the end decided the 3.0 seemed a good guess. Back then. How wrong we were. He systematically destroyed everyone that came his way. After racquetball, the squash racquet must feel like he is swinging with a tea-spoon but that didn’t stop him from generating plenty of power. He is also very quick, and is used to hitting unusual angles at unusual moments which of course throws the ‘normal’ squash player off. With a little improved technique, Robin could easily be competitive a couple levels up. His finals opponent (or unfortunate victim in this case) was James Van Dyke. James is another player that has improved considerably this season. He won the 2.5 category last year, and if Robin wasn’t in the draw, could have won the 3.0 this year. He may be disappointed with his 3-1 loss, but he was the only player in the draw take a game off Robin and make him work for the win. It is fantastic for the squash crowd to have Robin getting involved. We hope he sticks with it. For the record, he also won the open Racquetball division. [Pictured - Robin Basil and James Van Dyke]

3.5 – Can this Fracchia fellow stop winning...?
The 3.5 draw has always been the most populated one so you can make the argument that it is the hardest to win. The most unexpected detail I found over the course of this event was how few 3-2 results came in. Last year, this category yielded 6 five-set results, there were 7 in 2009 and 5 in 2008. This year: 3. One of those belongs to Chris Van Tol, who has made everyone look twice at the draw to make sure they weren’t seeing things. Firstly, he beat one of the category favorites Rich Stimson 3-0, then Al Iafrate 3-1, and to back that up, in the comeback of the tournament, after being 2 games to 1 down and 7-2 down in the 4th, he beats Ken MacDonald in five to reach the final. Standing in Chris’s way to victory was Anthony Fracchia. Including the 3 matches leading up to this final (that he won 3-0), Anthony has won 16 of his past 17 recorded matches. He is another member that has shown swift progress over recent months. Watching the match, many of the rallies went back and forth with both players having to explore all four corners numerous times. It is one thing to hang tough during the point, but another thing to end them. Chris unfortunately kept on finding the tin before Anthony did and that of course hurt him. Even though he had to work hard, Anthony took all three games proving without a doubt he deserved the title.

4.0 – Baker’s sweet revenge…
Twelve months ago, Brien Baker and Matt Jarboe played off in the 3.5 final in one of the most entertaining matches you could witness. Kind of like the Rocky Balboa versus Apollo Creed fight in the second Rocky movie where in round 15 they are both lying on the canvass and the first one able to stand up would be declared the winner. Matt won that match 10-9 in the 5th, and since then these two have been battling each other in what has turned out to be an extremely challenging and engaging rivalry. Since that match, in recorded results (box ladder and boasters) they have played 5 times. Brien has won three times (twice 3-2 and once 2-1) and Matt twice (once 3-2, once 3-1). That’s not counting practice matches, where I am sure they have had many down-to-the wire scores too. And here they were again playing off in the 4.0 final. This time however, it went against the trend. It was a 3-0 result. Both players still came off the court sucking wind, but it was Brien who managed to win the games. It was a satisfying win for Brien, but he didn’t have long to savor it. Both of them were also to face off in the 4.5 final.

4.5 – Jarboe’s sweet revenge…
I could simply re-write the above paragraph for this category. While it doesn’t occur all that often, it does happen often enough that we get one player in the final of two categories. In this case, we have the same two players in the final as the 4.0 category. That’s just silly. So, for next year, we will only allow members to play one level only. It may also help with having matches completed before the set deadlines if everybody only has one opponent at time to worry about. Both Matt and Brien had tougher roads to the final here than in the 4.0 category (as they should have had). Brien overcame last year’s 4.5 winner Scott Adlhoch in 5 in the semi, and Matt dropped his game against Paul Ward in round 1. Two days after the 4.0 final, it would be interesting to see how both players would react from that result. Could Brien keep the mental edge he had created, or could Matt step up and make a mends? Once again, it was a 3-0 result. It’s strange how things turn out. Maybe the loss from 2 days ago motivated Matt to run even more, and maybe that win gave Brien an overconfidence to make him relax too much. Either way, it was Brien’s turn to give up the goods. It was along 3-setter, and if Brien managed to snag the third game I think we would have been in for another marathon encounter. He didn’t, and the Jarboe-Baker series for 2011 ends at one title apiece. [Pictured: Matt Jarboe and Brien Baker]

5.0 – George keeps rising through the ranks…
At this pace, George Kordas should be winning the open category in about 2 years… no pressure, my friend! Just to give you an idea of how quickly George has ascended, he won the 3.0 level in 2008, the 3.5 in 2009, and now he is competing for the 5.0 title in 2011! This was actually the one category that I could have had a long list of potential winners. One any given day, these results could have been reversed, so no result was really too shocking. I suppose the two scores that did get me to raise my eye-brows just a little was Andrew Pitters’ 3-0 win over Derek Aguirre in round 1 and Chuck Hamill’s 3-2 victory over Eric Green in the semi after being 2-0 down. But maybe I shouldn’t have been so shocked at Chuck’s win. He showed that his success over Eric wasn’t a fluke as his awkward – but clever – style raced him to a 2-0 game lead in the final. George is not a stranger to having to dig in and guts out a match and he needed every ounce of effort in this case if he were to do so. Taking it one point at a time, he slowly reeled Chuck in and eventually completed the comeback to win the match 3-2. Afterwards, a very satisfied George praised Chuck at just how tough an opponent he is.

Open – Old rivals back at it…
Ever since 1992 – with the exception of 2 years – the winner of the Open category has been split between Peter Logan and Kirk Haggarty. Peter has won it 8 times, and Kirk 9. However, this is the first time these two have actually played each other in the final since 2008. Both of them got there without dropping a game, which was to be expected. But naturally they both couldn’t continue to win, so somebody had to give. Sadly, what gave was Kirk’s leg. At 4-7 in the first game Kirk had to concede the match due to an injury which he had sustained a few days earlier. It was an unhappy ending to this much anticipated match. Believe me, there is nothing more frustrating as a player to have to withdraw in the middle of a match, and there is no more unsatisfying way to win either when you are on the other side. That’s not to take anything away from Peter. He works hard to maintain his standard and level of fitness and – I hope he doesn’t mind me saying – at the ripe ol’ age of 53, we could all learn a thing or two from him of how to look after our bodies. We all hope Kirk can recover quickly from this and get back on court regularly and once again pick up this rivalry to the stage of where it should be. [Picture: Kirk Haggarty and Peter Logan]

So is the Logan / Haggarty domination nearing its end? Even though these two continue to win the Club Championship titles, the rest of the crowd is getting closer. The good news is that the Open draw is becoming more competitive. With 12 registrations, it is the most players we have had since at least 2005. The emergence of the younger crew – for example Rakolta, Kordas and Jarboe amongst others – is placing more pressure on the top pair and they will continue to improve. The next couple of years might be very interesting. To see all the DAC Club Championship results since 2005, you can go to: http://thesquashjoint.blogspot.com/p/dac-club-championships-results.html

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists for 2011! Don’t forget you have all qualified for selection for the 2012 Farris Cup versus the BAC which will be scheduled for January 7 in Birmingham. We need to get that Cup back now that we let them have it for a year!