THREE IN A ROW!

Cross Border Challenge~~April 20

Well, well, well. It is becoming almost an expectation. We are going to find ourselves in unfamiliar territory when the next Cross Border comes around as we’ll probably go into it as favorites. Once you acquire the sweet taste of victory, momentum carries, confidence rises and opponents start reeling. And, for a refreshing change, you begin to win close matches.

I’m going to start with the doubles matches. Usually, if we can salvage just one victory on the doubles court it would be a success, but history was made this day and let it be documented that on, Saturday, April 20, the DAC did in fact win all three doubles matches, a feat never before executed, a result the Windsor team will be picking up the pieces from for months to come.  



Bob Burton, John Dunwoody,
Herb Funkenhauser, Dave Hornby



Starting the ball rolling, Paul Flanagan and Andrew Spohn got the jump on their lesser experienced opponents Rich Routley and James Konrad with a quick first game spanking. The Windsor pair fought back nicely in the second to square it up, but the pressure was too much as team DAC were too steady in the 3^rd and 4^th to take the 3-1 win. Next up were Mike Counsman and George Kordas taking on the father and son team Tom and Brian Porter. Brian was forced to use his singles racquet for the match since his doubles stick had broken strings, and maybe that was the cause of some unforced errors. But no excuse. Mike and George meshed fairly well together and the 3-1 win was a solid result. The third match was a very one-sided 5-set affair. John Dunwoody and Bob Burton were either unbeatable, or complete mush. The same could be said for their opponents Dave Hornby and Herb Funkenhauser. With score lines of 15-2’s, 15-4’s, swapping games, the DAC team won in 5. We’ll take the win of course, no matter how peculiar the match turns out!

Of the 13 singles matches played, only 4 of them were 3-0. Naturally I want to win, but it is more important to me that we have an even, competitive event. I want players coming off the court – win or lose – satisfied that they had a great match and the result could have gone the other way. Many new faces on both teams made the match-ups a little tricky, but kudos to Windsor pro Graeme Williams who was on top of things and made everything smooth sailing. 

Kevin Prather, Grace Kim, Margi Scholtes, Marge Holman



A lot of young DAC members stepped up to the plate. First timers Ethan Steiner, Margi Scholtes, Tom MacEachern all performed commendably. Tom blitzed through  his match 3-0, Ethan scored a 3-1 win over a tricky veteran, and Margi lost 3-1 to the clever Marge Holman, who once again proved that reading the play well nullifies speed and fitness effectively!

Come back of the day goes to Josh Slominski who found himself in a deep 0-2 hole against James Konrad but managed to keep his head in tact (and his racquet!) to regain control of the match. Given, James had already played the doubles match, but as I always say, “if you’re on the court you’re fair game”, and Josh wore James down to claim the 5-set victory.

Justin Jacobs went toe-to-toe went Dan Petoran as the players exchanged games all the way to the fifth game. Fitness helped push Justin to the finishing line and he took the tough 3-2 win. Dave Devine started off his match struggling to get anything going and went down rather quickly in game one. But it is amazing what a little better length can do for your game. Dave started to hit the back corners with more regularity and the match turned immediately. He swept the next 3 games for a well played 3-1 triumph.

 

Jody Brown and Derek Aguirre



The final match of the day featured Derek Aguirre and Jody Brown. The contest was a little bit scrappy – but certainly entertaining. Jody runs his backside off and on occasion launches himself horizontally when desperate. It can be difficult to find a comfortable rhythm when your opponent is throwing his body around and Derek grappled to find consistent tightness and was more prone to unforced errors. When somebody is continuously retrieving your “winning” shots, the tendency is to try to hit the ball even closer to the tin. With usually bad outcomes. Jody ended up a 3-2 victor.

 

As you can see from the scores, the contests were tough. The DAC retains the trophy 10 matches to 6. Three in a row is more a trend, is it not? We can now walk around with our heads up high, boast a little, certainly give our Windsor friends some much deserved lip, and see if they can reach the height of the bar we have clearly raised it to! The next Cross Border is scheduled for September in Windsor.

SQUASH SHOTS XV

Creatures of the Squash Universe – Part 2

(See Part 1 here.)

Returning from my treacherous almost-2-year trek, I have been able to unearth more fascinating organisms to tantalize the mind and fascinate the senses. Their one thing in common is their peculiarity, whether placid or deadly, all show unique traits never before understood or revealed. Until now…

Complimentius ad Nauseum 

Glass half full? This beast’s glass is overflowing. No matter what the situation entails, whether it is winning or losing, playing well or poorly, nothing rattles it’s cage. It showers their opponents with abundant praise for every shot, rally, effort, and even mistake. Winning is certainly not a priority and how this animal hasn’t gone the way of the dinosaur is another one of life’s enigmas. Theorists speculate they since they are so repulsively friendly, they spark sympathy and are rewarded with mercy. Other hypotheses advocate it is in reality an abnormally clever attack sequence. By actually lulling its prey into a false sense of security, it can then pounce in for the kill. However, no one can claim witness to such an act.

Racquetus Whackus Disintegratii

Squash can frustrate the best of us, and taking out ones anger on inanimate objects can be a satisfying and soothing solution. However, most are able to control that urge. Racquetus Whackus Disintegratii cannot. Never totally satisfied with its performance, any error, any lucky shot by its opponent, any referee call, can ignite this brute into an uncontrollable rage. Not much is needed to initiate the obliteration of its racquet. Although belting it unmercifully against the floor or walls is the most common form of demolition, seeing it fly at light-speed from one end of the court to the other is not unheard of. Once it has reached this level of fury, its enemies smell blood and dispatching him becomes a straightforward process. Some Racquetus Whackus Disintegratii are able to mutate into more placid creatures like Complimentius ad Nauseum but only when their escapades threaten their financial livelihood.

Mathematiclus Challengeum

By all accounts, this animal is about as normal as you can find. It is not overly violent and does not project any obvious threatening attributes. However, Mathematiclus Challengeum’s claim to fame here is the very subtle – but effective – score change. Timing is everything when one is fighting for survival and this creature is at its deadliest when the match is strenuous, long, and particularly exhausting. When it’s victim least expects it, usually after a lung-bursting rally, the beast will announce the score but either add one point to its own total, or taking one off its opponents. With a quick serve to nullify any counter-attack, the strike has been made and very often the victim is not even aware it has been bitten. The method is used multiple times in one match so even if only half the attacks are successful, it still gains an advantage.

Fashionista Ridiculii

This is one of the more irrational organisms I came across in the study. When one submerses themselves into the gladiatorial arena of the squash court, with the expectation that severe physical exertion will occur and blood will be spilled, how one looks should be the last thing on one’s mind. Standard of play is irrelevant here; this being pops up at all levels. It is incredibly easy to distinguish by its trendy clothing, well-known brand names, and matching color all the way from the shoes to the headband to the racquet strings and grip. Much time is spent (wasted) before the match starts to make sure everything is in place, every hair is combed properly, stripes are matches up, and any fashion faux pas are avoided. Even during the matches, it will constantly look at its reflection in the glass wall and adjust and correct any deviations from its perception of fashion perfection. It is important to take note, however, that Fashionista Ridiculii are all males. How they multiply is unknown, but the hypothesis is that they adopt offspring of other species and assimilate them. The equivalent females of this species are anything but ridiculous when kitted out in the same manner and are classified as Eyepoppingus Sweetcandium. They have never been known to mate with Fashionista Ridiculii.

Helicopterus Guilloteenum

One of the more dangerous predators in the squash cosmos. Entirely unpredictable, one has to be on alert at all times if you ever cross paths with one. Helicopterus Guilloteenum’s number one weapon is its capacity to expand its wingspan to almost unfathomable lengths at a blitzing speed. Victims constantly find themselves ducking out of the way and even hitting the floor in order to avoid the thrashing blades and in turn are left utterly defenseless. The wearing of eye-guards for protection here is totally inadequate as one needs full Kevlar body armor with matching helmet. So treacherous are these creatures there are orders to shoot on site if spotted at a professional event.

Selfoverratem Doublesii

A conniving animal and somewhat irritating to its peers, Selfoverratem Doublesii lacks the ability to look at itself in the mirror. It simply cannot accept the fact that their perceived strength is nowhere near their actual strength. At every opportunity, it will enter into battlegrounds where it is obvious to everyone (except itself) it is categorically out of its depth. It is in essence a shrewd strategy since they always pair themselves up with a stronger partner and any loss is immediately blamed on them. Victories are distastefully then bragged about even though they only occur in spite of their lack of skill rather than because of it. These life forms are seldom seen on the singles court since they have no one they can heap the fault onto when they lose. To amplify aggravation levels, during tournament season Selfoverratem Doublesii will undergo a metamorphosis and transform itself into Selfunderratem Doublesii and only beat up on lesser adversaries. This is commonly known as “sandbagging”.

Protestum Neverendus

Competitiveness is profoundly ingrained with this one. This life form can be found at all levels, but the percentages of them increase as you move up the rankings. Once they have tasted some form of success, an uncontrollable addictive chemical reaction takes place in their brains and no argument is too petty to tackle. Sometimes confused with Letcallum Perpetuum, it does not however ask for interference at every opportunity, Protestum Neverendus will simply argue about interference at every opportunity, often violently – no matter how illogical their reasoning is. It is because of these creatures that the myths of the squash rules exist, since they will simply invent stuff up to justify their case. Curiously, off the court it immediately camouflages into the background giving the innocent bystanders no idea of its true identity.

It has been an exhausting adventure. Filled with dangers and wonders it indisputably keeps the universe of squash enthralling and captivating. There are no doubt more species yet to be discovered, maybe sometime in the future these too will be exposed.

KEEP YOUR GAME HOT

There are 168 hours in the week. Of that, if you’re like me and need at least 8 hours of beauty sleep every night (not that it helps), that leaves 112 waking hours. I’ll give you a few hours a week where you no doubt want to putz around a golf course attempting to emulate Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson or that new(ish) young Scot on the block Rory McIlroy, or maybe even Happy Gilmour, so I’ll knock off a few hours and should leave you with about 95 give or take. Add on BBQ’s, watching a few Tiger’s games, we’ll drop it down to a generous 80. We all work (kind of) so for a summer week, we’ll average 40 hours which leaves you another 40. So much time and you need to fill it with something, right??

Squash! All I’m asking is one hour per week of your time. Just one. Not even that. And, in fact, I’ll give you a couple of weeks off now and then. Summer League squash is bearing down on us. You know what the worst thing you can do for your squash between now and next season? Not play. Everything will suffer. Your touch, timing, fitness, waistline. So don’t waste all of your winter squash work –

The Summer League is scheduled for Monday evenings starting on May 13 – take note of the following important points:

• All levels are invited to play. Beginner through advanced.
• I will be putting the teams together. There will be 8 teams.
• 64 players required. If I receive 72 registrations, I will expand it.
• The season will be 7 weeks long, plus 2 weeks of finals.
• The top 4 teams will advance to the finals.
• Season ends on July 22

Registration deadline is May 3 – or until it is full. Don’t be left in the cold… errr, heat.

VALIANT DAC PERFORMANCE

McQueenie Cup Apr 12-14

The odds were against us from the very beginning. Mainly because we were going into the 4^th McQueenie Cup competition one man short. With the format of the event, having a 7-man team as opposed to an 8-man one makes it almost impossible to win. Even though our representation in the B, C and D level was rather sound, we lacked an A player. No offense intended to Eric Green who was a real trooper and “took one for the team” as he agreed to step into that level as our sole ambassador even though he should have been playing in the B’s. We needed bodies on the court and he obliged.

This event is hosted by the impressive University Club of Chicago (UCC). Their court center is 11 stories up overlooking Lake Michigan. Needless to say, the surroundings were very comfortable. It’s an ideal location because, simply put, it’s Chicago. The easy – if not mind-numbingly boring – 4 hour drive away was made a little more interesting with the company involved, and the slick driving skills of Brien-there’s-plenty-of-room-to overtake-Baker.

The drawback of having to play in Chicago is that they get automatic home-court advantage. The UCC have a remarkably deep pool of players to choose from. Considering they didn’t have to travel, most of them were no doubt readily available. They were strong – very strong – at all four levels. Seeing that no other club really had a shot of winning, my main focus then turned to beating Toledo. They had eight players. It would be great to end up second with only seven. Could we do it?

The fourth competing club was the Union League Club of Chicago (ULC). Unfortunately they could only field a six man team – so they certainly had no shot of claiming the trophy. 



Eric Green and Jeff Sawin



I’ll start with Eric. As I mentioned, he was stepping up a level and on top of that was the only player in the event that had to play 4 matches instead of just 3. The A draw was a five-man round robin, but players from the same club were not to play each other.  Furthermore, he was scheduled to play the UCC number one player, Jeff Sawin, first up. It was a tough way to kick off, Jeff frolicked through the entire event winning every match 3-0 playing virtually at half pace.

But Eric improved with every match. His second encounter was against Toledo’s Nick DeMarco. Nick was also stepping up to the A level from the B’s so this match-up was a lot more competitive. An awkward style, Nick plays a lot of short-swinged “pushy” drop shots that continuously stretched Eric to the front of the court. It was one of the best matches of the weekend as they went toe-to-toe for 5 games with Nick eventually squeezing out the final game 12-10. Two more matches on the Saturday, Eric went down 3-0 in both, but made his opponents sweat it out. If he wasn’t already sore from Friday’s battles, this certainly would have him figuring out a new way to walk. A special thank-you to Eric – great warrior spirit!

The B draw was the closest of the weekend. We could easily have had 2 finalists here, a couple of points either way could have made the difference. Anthony Fracchia drew UCC player Matt Singer first round and we were in for another grand hour of squash. Anthony’s undoing in the end was unforced errors. Not too many, but more than his opponent’s!  It was by no means a bad loss – it would have been an excellent win – but the 2-3 loss pushed him to the consolation side of the draw. He won his next match 3-1 and then for the 5^th and 6^th play-off he played Fateh Ahmed from Toledo. Fateh received a forfeit for his previous match, and was clearly fresher than Anthony. And it proved to be the deciding factor as Anthony suffered through another 5-set loss. He ended up 6^th.

Derek Aguirre won his first match 3-1 to advance to the semi final where he played the other UCC representative Shubham Bansal in what turned out to be another epic battle. And somewhat bizarre. Shubham started off the match playing perfect squash. Error free. He won the first game 11-0 with Derek not quite finding his rhythm or touch. And it continued on for the second. Shubham was 5-0 up before Derek won his first point. At that point I had to laugh because when Shubham lost his first rally after winning the first 16, he got angry at himself. Did he really expect to win 33-0? That tiny crack in the armor was all it took. The game changed. Unforced errors started to roll off Shubham’s racquet and Derek won the 2^nd and 3^rd. A more even match evolved at the start of the fourth and Shubham steadied the sinking ship. Great long rallies. Desperate retrievals. The fifth game was inevitable and frankly the match deserved to have one. Both players also deserved to win, but we all know that can’t happen. At least we had a tie-break. Match-balls were earned and saved on both sides before Derek fell just short at 14-12. The loss put him into a match for 3^rd place, a match he lost 3-1 to ULC’s Milan Krakta. Energy may have had something to do with that.

Our most successful showing was in the C draw. Paul Ward stormed through his first 2 matches 3-1 appearing to gather rhythm and confidence with each outing. In the final he met up with Rutwik Kharker from the UCC (where else?) who could hit a mean ball with significant power. Paul’s game plan was to simply keep the ball in play. Don’t be fancy because Rutwik also had the tendency to go for winners and tin out. After losing the first, Paul’s tactic almost paid off. He worked very hard in the 2^nd and 3^rd taking them both to a tie-break. Unfortunately he lost them both.

Brien Baker lost to Rutwik in the semi final 3-1 after winning round 1 also in 4 games. Another too-many-unforced-errors result Brien couldn’t find the right balance of good length and the attacking volley after executing that tactic well in the first game. He then moved onto the 3^rd / 4^th play-off where his take no prisoner attitude against Toledo’s Neil Garrison saw Brien stomp all over him 3-0.

In the D draw, Elliot Shafer lost his first round to UCC Chris Nazaruk. The match could have easily been mistaken for a C match, quality squash was on display from both players. A little lack of experience from Elliot cost him but it was a great performance. Some impatience, knowing when to play that defensive length, Elliot will find events like this invaluable for his squash. He lost 3-1 to drop to the consolation where he won his next match 3-0 and the 5^th / 6^th play-off 3-2.

Sante Fratarcangeli was the fashion highlight of the event when he rocked up on Saturday morning with extremely deafening pink shorts. The shorts regrettably didn’t seem to faze his more experienced opponent Wade Judge (UCC). We all know Sante is competitive, this guy is in the same boat. Very clever player – great defensive strokes with slow, high rails that die in the back, surprisingly fleet of foot for someone of his veteran skill, and obviously reads the ball well. Sante was in for a tough one. I’m not sure who gets the prize for the loudest battle cry during the match, but Wade ended up with the spoils of all 3 games. The match was closer than the 3-0 suggested. For the record, Wade also won the final. Sante rebounded from that loss to take the 3^rd / 4^th play-off match 3-1.

Clearly, UCC won. Six of their 8 players reached the final of their division. The DAC and Toledo were playing for second place. It was close. Oh, so close. We could taste it. Feel it. Smell it. But it wasn’t to be.

Final scores:

1. UCC – 160 points
2. Toledo – 104
3. DAC – 102
4. ULC – 70

2 points!! It was an admirable effort. I am very proud of all seven players. Everyone put in 100% and we cannot ask for more than that. Everyone supported each other. And everybody socialized… as you should when one is in Chicago.

I believe next year’s event will also be in Chicago (hopefully). I don’t know the exact weekend, but sometime in April. Even if you are not part of the 8-man team, this would be a great road-trip to join us.


Left to right: Brien Baker, Elliot Shafer, me, Sante Fratarcangeli,
Derek Aguirre, Paul Ward, Eric Green



AS SMOOTH AS BUTTER… WITH NUTZ

Boasters League final~~

Carrying on from the first two weeks of play-offs, the final was also nip-and-tuck the whole way. No clear winner could be declared until the final two matches of the season. “Butter Nutz” and “Vivio’s” were the last teams standing, 21 weeks since the season began back in October.

The all important bonus point played a vital role in keeping “Vivio’s” alive. They picked up 11 of them, including two from team members that had their matches rearranged – (that’s great support) where “Butter Nutz” collected only 9. For a final, that’s relatively low. Would it cost them?

It all started well for the “Butter Nutz”. Two matches were completed before the scheduled Wednesday, and they won them both. Kevin Prather handled Matthew Nichols 3-0 and Drew Creamer out-experienced Brian Schrage for a 2-1 win. 

Andrew's beer was too powerful for Tom's salad!



The first match on Wednesday was between Andrew Tignanelli (“Butter Nutz”) and Tom Delaney (“Vivio’s”). The two were having a back-and-forth battle, until a waitress bought over a plate of fruit salad which abruptly stopped play for Tom’s attack of the munchies. A few quick bites and back on court he went. Also re-fueling between games, Tom almost pulled out the victory, but alas he was a couple slices of melon too short. He lost 2-1.

Getting “Vivio’s” back on track was Brian Bartes as he tackled Brittany Paquette. Brian has been working hard on his game over the past few months taking many lessons and recently his results have reflected that. Brittany had a difficult task ahead of her although she did take a game from him earlier in the month, so she was capable of pulling out a win. Brian, however, made Brittany cover a lot of court and had her breathing hard late in the games, which as we all know is not a favorable position to be in. Brian took all 3 games.

Nullifying Brian’s win and coming up trumps for “Butter Nutz” was Chuck Doyle as he chopped down the furious effort from Joe Schaden who almost injured himself in the third game as he chased one of Chuck’s balls into the front corner. It was a handy 3-0 win and kept the “Butter Nutz” a couple of points clear.

The strangest match of the evening was between Josh Slominski (“Butter Nutz”) and Shail Arora (“Vivio’s”). It was odd in the fact that it was an on-again-off-again-on-again contest that originally wasn’t going to happen at all, then started with one game, was interrupted for a doubles match that Shail had to play for the Club Champs, and then completed for the last 2 games afterwards. Josh took the first before the break. Maybe the wait caused Josh to lose all momentum and rhythm since Shail took games 2 and 3 even though he had stepped straight off the doubles court.



Captains Rich and Sante



 “Butter Nutz” captain Sante Fratarcangeli and Jay Poplawski certainly had the most intense contest of the evening. Both players were not willing to give even a smidge of an inch, and actually the squash was rather good. Hard rallies, tough running, a few controversial let calls, tight result, the crowd pretty much received the gambit of entertainment with this one. Sante pulled it out in the end with a 2-1 victory.

“Vivio’s” captain Rich Stimson also led by example as he took on Mike Petix. I watched a good portion of this match and even though I did expect a few rallies in the front corners, I didn’t think there would be so many. At every opportunity, drops were being played (and at times when the opening wasn’t there!) and because of that, quite a number of unforced errors materialized. Both played a similar tactic and Rich proved to be the steadier of the two on the day and snatched a 2-1 win.



Bumble bees Andy Adamo
and Brien Baker

Maybe the biggest surprise result of the evening came from Andy Adamo (“Butter Nutz”). I have always thought he is capable of beating anyone – in this case Brien Baker. Brien has been playing well of late so I did think he was favored to win, but when Andy steps up – as he did here – predictions go flying out the window. Andy placed the ball delicately and smartly into the corners and made Brien cover the floor extensively. Even with Brien’s reach and propensity to hit uncharacteristic angles, Andy was up to the task. When he moves freely, he’s tough. And he was too tough for Brien. Andy took it 2-1.

We had to wait for Thursday for the next two 2 matches to be played. By this stage, “Butter Nutz” had a 3 point lead. They needed to win outright – a tie was no good to them as they had lost the bonus point battle. In this case it was advantage “Butter Nutz” as well. Both Xander Wagner and Mike Reno had beaten their opponents last time they met. Could they do it again? Xander could – he charged to a 3-0 win over Bill Rivard but Peter Ulbrich cancelled that result out. Taking revenge on Mike’s 2-1 victory over him earlier in the season, Peter’s timing was spot on as he scored his 3-0 win of the season – leaving “Butter Nutz” once again with a 3 point lead and one match to play.



That match was put on hold. Unfortunate circumstances forced everyone to keep waiting – over a week – which is why this article wasn’t posted earlier! The scenario was that “Vivio’s” player Matt Turnbull had to beat Chris Moyer 3-0 in order for his team to win. A tough ask- Chris has improved significantly over the past few months and in fact had not lost a match all season. But he still had to perform when it counted. He did. Chris took the match 2-1 and secured the Boasters League title for the “Butter Nutz”! So another season comes to an end. But only for a short while.

Summer League is just a few weeks away – make sure you sign up and keep your squash game in tact for the warmer months.

IT’S ALMOST SHOW TIME

PST World Championship May 3-5~~

Remember back in December when we had David Palmer and Thierry Lincou came out and played an exhibition match? Showed us how squash can be played, how it can be mastered, how it can be humorous, entertaining, and breathtaking? Well, it’s time to relive those emotions as the boys come back in May and play for the real deal – the PST World Championship title. This time, they’ll be playing to win.

The rare prospect of witnessing squash of such caliber cannot be snubbed. Don’t be like many members last year who regretted not making the effort to come and watch. Not only do you have the chance to observe and be amazed at these professionals, but you could also mingle with them and ‘pick their brains’ too. Accessibility to the public is an important trait of PST events; all I can do is encourage you all very strongly to take advantage.

The line-up for this year’s PST tour finale has a different look to 2012. We will be seeing David Palmer again who have qualified for the event along with 3 new faces: Stephane Galifi of Italy, Australia’s Wade Johnston, and a young American hopeful Bradbury Thompson. That leaves 4 openings still yet to be claimed, and those positions will be decided over the next 2 weeks as PST run their final leading up tournaments.

We are overly grateful at the support of our sponsors. Without them, this simply wouldn’t happen.

Bank of America have been wonderful to step in as our lead sponsor.

Sean Moran was once again without hesitation backing the event through Morgan Stanley.

Many, many compliments are to go to Patrick Petz and Skidmore Inc for his (their) help with the posters and banners,

And in no particular order, we have had a wonderful contribution from the following sponsors as well: Burroughs (Alan Howard)

Troszak North America (Doug Troszak)

Bob Garvey is the reason behind Racquet Up Detroit’s tin display

Aaro Companies (Tom Fabbri)

Edward Jones (DJ Boyd)

Roxbury Group (James Van Dyke)

Clark Hill Law Firm (Tom MacFarlane)

Baker Tilly (Kevin Prather)

Franklin Templeton (Paul Silva)

Ameriprise (Glen Milligan)

4 Men in a Box Syndicate (John Dunwoody, Mark Hayduk, Chris Terry, Paul Aubrey)

Talmer Bank ( Elliot and Tom Shafer)

The great thing about this event is that it’s the right amount of squash. Three days and 8 matches is a perfect schedule that leaves you wanting more once it’s done. There are 3 prices of tickets to choose from:

$150 – This allows you to watch all the matches through the weekend and you can attend the players cocktail party on the Friday evening where you have the opportunity to have a more personal access with the players. It’s also a way to show your support for the event! There are only a limited amount of these tickets available, so be quick.

$100 – This allows you to watch all the matches through the weekend.

$40 – One day pass. You can choose which day you wish to attend.

And the schedule. All matches will be on court 7:

Friday May 3:

• First of four matches starting at 4.30pm. Matches usually take an average of 40-45 minutes.
• The cocktail party is scheduled for 7.30pm in the Randolph Suites. (Depending on how late the matches run.)

Saturday May 4:

• 10am – The “Play with the Pros”. Major sponsors have the opportunity to hop on court with some of the pros.
• 1:30pm – The first of 2 semi finals.

Sunday May 5:

• 1:30pm – the 3^rd / 4^th play-off
• 2:30pm – The 2013 PST World Championship final. 

Ready to be entertained? Blown away? Inspired? Tell your DAC friends, invite them to attend – let’s be hanging off the rafters, jamming ourselves in to catch a glimpse – no excuse not to attend. Book your ticket now- don’t be left in the wings and having to wait another 12 months.

CROSS BORDER MARAUDERS!

Cross Border Challenge – April 20 @ DAC

 

I can hardly believe it myself. We are still the current title holders of the Cross Border Challenge. In fact, we have won 2 in a row and 3 of the last 4 meetings. And the good news is we are playing to defend on our home courts! The trophy has almost morphed itself into part of my office furniture.

Not that we should get carried away – we all know what home court advantage does for us in the Farris Cup… … … (do I hear crickets chirping in the background?) and no doubt the Windsor crew will be sending over a team worthy enough to pillage the trophy away from us. This will be the 13^th battle of superiority in what has turned out to be a magnificent rivalry between the 2 countries, and we’ll be crossing swords once again on April 20.

Would you like to wave the DAC flag in our attempt to nullify our frenemies? Let me know if you are willing to put yourself out there – all standards are welcome. Together with the grand poobahs from their band of merry men (and women) we will attempt to line up a match with a player of matching ability. We are also looking for 3 doubles teams. Usually I would say that the doubles is a kamikaze mission, but incredibly, we won a doubles match last time around. The impossible was proven to be possible.

Rules of engagement:

1. Finding a match for you cannot be 100% guaranteed. It depends on who from Windsor also registers – we will however do our utmost to get you on court.
2. There is no cost to play.
3. There will be a keg. Yummmm.
4. You play one match, best of 5 games. Then you drink. Or, you can drink first, and then play. Or drink while you’re playing. Or all of the above.
5. Matches start at 2pm. We should be done approximately 5pm.
6. Socializing is highly encouraged.
7. The winning team will be the club who wins the most matches on the day. – That should be us.
8. Registration deadline is Monday, April 15.
9. Even if you aren’t playing, come and drink and support the team. It could be a great pre-Saturday-night giddy-up!

Okay – what are you waiting for? E-mail me your entry.