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| BAC team captain Derrick Glencer |
Farris Cup 2019
It was ominous. After winning the Farris Cup the past 2
years, the BAC were hardly going to sit idly by and not add a little beef to
their lineup. When I received their team, it was pretty much what I expected it
to be: Impressively deep. We were going to be in for a punishingly difficult
day. We would need our players to be at their absolute best, and we would need
some luck on the way as well if we were to have any chance of retaining the
coveted trophy.
Such is the relationship between the 2 clubs now, more and
more players are members of both. It makes the atmosphere so much more amiable,
and it was marvelous to see the social interactions as such that an outsider
would not be able to tell which person represented which club. This was the
15th running of the event, and up until today, the DAC held a tight 8 to 6
advantage. It was noted today - thanks to the research of Walter Oerhlein
- that 4 of the representatives also took to the court in the inaugural year of
2005: Peter Schmidt and John McRoberts from the BAC and John
Roarty and John Dunwoody from the DAC. That’s longevity!
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| Julie Vande Vusse |
I am all about inclusivity. Up until 2012, we only had 18
players per team and in 2013 it was expanded to 20 to include the 2.5 division.
And up until 2018, every single player had been male. That changed this year
when we introduced the first ever female competitor in the history of the
Farris Cup: Julie Vande Vusse. Unfortunately, her match didn’t go as we
had hoped, but I was extremely pleased to have her represent the club. I
certainly hope more women will follow suit in future years.
Julie wasn’t alone in her performance. The cookie wasn’t
exactly crumbling the way we wanted it to. John Roarty put up a valiant
effort but the consistency of John McRoberts proved to be too much. It
was a close 3-1 result, but ‘close’ doesn’t put a mark in our win column. And ‘close’
started to be a little bit of a recurring theme for the DAC.
David de la Torre was not someone I expected was going to
win against Jordan Yellen. A quick leftie with a quality boast. David
started off fantastically - 11-3 in 5 minutes, catching Jordan by surprise with
his power and fine length to his backhand corner. As expected though, Jordan
came out a different player in the 2nd game and the tide turned, Dave had to
work a lot harder. Too hard? Those extra couple cheeseburgers were probably
starting to cause some guilt as Dave struggled to keep pace, losing the next 2
games. But he dug in. He somehow found some energy reserves to take the 4th and
force a decider. However, by that time, the milkshakes was screaming at him as
well. Jordan held on to win 3-2. It was the best I had seen Dave play for quite
a while, so it was a great effort. Now stop ordering pizza.
As all this was unfolding, the first doubles match was also
finishing up. This one I thought we had a decent chance, but once again we
failed at the finish line. Bill Oddo and John Dunwoody had a 2-1
lead on Tom Post and Nick Post and were looking healthy. But closing
it out was a massive problem. It wasn’t to be, luck or otherwise, another 3-2
loss for the DAC. By this time, were now 5 matches to 0 down and it was on the
verge of getting very ugly.
Hail our savior! (Temporarily at least!) Andrew Peleman
stopped the rot and at last got the DAC on the right side of the board with a
3-0 victory over Nick Barker. However, my elation was short-lived. We
were being out-gunned at every other turn… their fire power was coming at us
from every angle… there was nothing we could do! Nowhere to turn! It was a
slaughter I tell you! A slaughter!! … Meh, maybe a tad over-reaction, but it
wasn’t pretty.
Another ‘close’ loss came from Riley English who
really had his work cut out for him against Max Franklin. On paper, it
should have been a comfortable 3-0 for Max - and it was 3-0 - but it was
anything but comfortable. Riley blasted his way to a 9-1 lead in the first game
but then somehow figured out a way to lose that game 12-10. I am not
even sure how one can do that even if you wanted to. It takes effort to lose
from that position: it must have stung. Good news though, Riley didn’t let that
setback get him down and he attacked the second and third games with just as
much vigor and effort as the first. In fact, Riley reached to 10 points in all
three games before Max, and if he could only remember that in squash, to
win a game, you need 11 points, he may have actually won 3-0 instead.
Riley’s next lesson may have a mathematical component to it. He played very
well though - so it was another exceptional effort!
We pulled a couple of matches back with wins from Mack
Gembis and Mario Ferrini but it just for fluff. By now the Farris
Cup was out of our reach. Another 5-set loss on the doubles court - which
again, was a great effort from our lads Ryan Covell and George Kordas
(team “Co-Ko”??) against veterans Peter Schmidt and Jon
Uffelman but tight losses are exactly that: losses - and the BAC had
reached the magic win number of 9. Now we had to save face.
Step up Stefan Houbtchev, our newest hot-shot as he
took on the BAC club champion Seth Rogers. This was no contest, as
Stefan showed and proved his superiority here, but I also commend Seth. His
effort is always second to none, no matter the score, no matter how tired he
may be, he never gives up. Very special quality.
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| Joey Gaylord and Kevin Thomas |
Vikram Chopra also helped us look somewhat more
respectable with his 3-0 win over Terry Barr, and we were down to
watching the final match play out - another 5-setter on the doubles court. We
all could witness a treat here, as our lads
- Joey Gaylord and Kevin Thomas - honoring the clothing
rule of the BAC, presented themselves in an all-white ensemble from the “Bob
Thibodeau” collection, silky long trousers, a button-up polo and a
woolen vest picked up from theme of the 1938 English Test Cricket Team. Ahhh
yes, a throwback to the good ol’ days, all that was missing were the wooden
racquets (cricket bats?) and the comb-over hair styles. Traditional garb did
not bring out traditional squash, in fact both teams produced a rather
unorthodox style of doubles. Kevin couldn’t quite decide whether or not hitting
the ball while sliding, diving or lying on the floor was more effective for him
than standing up, and quite often the attacking shot (from all of them) of the
half-soft-lob to the middle of the court straight on the opponents forehand
volley, was a tactic one should be living by long term. It was though, Joey and
Kevin making the DAC score board appear somewhat more honorable and we picked up
that last match 3-2.
The final tally: BAC - 11 v DAC - 6
So we have to relinquish the Farris Cup for the next 12
months. Full credit to the BAC, they were - simply put - too good. We were
gracious in defeat, thank to all of our players for their gallant endeavors.
The BAC were distinguished in their victory, a big thank you to them as well
for their sportsmanship, respect and achievement. But beware… we’ll be back in
2020 for ya!
