WINDSOR REDEMPTION

Cross Border Challenge - Saturday, September 13 @ Windsor

Our winning streak over the Windsor squash club came to a spectacular crashing halt in April when they pulverized us 20 matches to 8 – not to mention that within those 8 victories, 4 of them were on the doubles court! Even our uber-patriotic uniforms could not deter them from walloping us (it probably gave them good reason to laugh, though!). The 28 matches was a record for the Cross Border and although I don’t expect we’ll reach such heights this time around, we should be able represent in solid numbers.

Even though we had great participation, it’s hardly worth calling the Guinness Book of World Records to see how far off we were from the most registrations ever for a single event. There was recently a table- tennis tournament in Tokyo that had 791 players (and an estimated 188 million viewers in China alone… squash could use a number like that!). Sounds like a lot, but the record number for a single table-tennis event stands at 2,038. (Before the event started, there were a lot more, but 288 of them no-showed! I wonder how frustrated the organizers were?) Squash hasn’t quite been able to eclipse that participation level. The best I’ve heard about is still impressive: US Squash Junior Open had over 800 players in 2012. That event attracts players from all over the world.

A fencing tournament in Ohio this year attracted more than 4,300 musketeers… ummm, I mean fencers. That’s one huge sword fight. But all that pales in comparison to a woman’s only bowling event that attracted over 77,700 of them. It took 96 days to complete. Who has three months to play a tournament? I wonder how many courts we’d need to run a draw of that size…? The parking must have been a nightmare. As the line for the loo. (Makes our DAC Classic look puny!)

This will be our 16^th meeting over the years with Windsor, and currently they lead the overall head-to-head with 9 victories to our 6. We need to close the gap and we need you to help us. Singles or doubles, step up and represent the good ol’ U. S. of A. and more importantly, the DAC! Patriotism is definite must. I’m sure with help from Sante, we can utterly overdo the red, white and blue, splash it around shamelessly. Clothing, flags, tattoos, badges… whatever screams “America”, display it with pride!

E-mail me if you wish to be a part of our team and join in on all the fun. Matches will be at Windsor, starting around 3pm. A keg will be available for all to enjoy (it will probably be Canadian beer in it, but in this case, we can hardly complain about that!). It doesn’t matter what level of player you are – along with Windsor’s pro – Graeme Williams – we will attempt to find a competitive match you. Registration deadline is Monday, September 8.