2021 DAC Club Championships
The DAC Squash Club Championships is an event steeped in great tradition, with the names of the champions lining the walls of the club dating back decades. Unfortunately, due to the global pandemic we could not hold the 2020 edition, and so we were chuffed when we were given the go ahead to run it this year. That fact alone made it a success before it began. Deciding the seedings this year was slightly more arduous than in the past considering a fair percentage of members hadn’t recorded any results going back almost 12 months or - in some cases - even picked up a racquet, Luckily, using the power of “gut-feeling”, reading tea-leaves, and downright guess work, the draws were put together with confident precision. About as much confident precision I had that one time I played “pin-the-tail-on-donkey” and managed to stab my brother in the side of the head. I swear it was accidental.
Overall entries were down comparatively speaking, which was totally understandable. Still, over 70 participants in the singles and 60 in the doubles was a very satisfying number, and didn’t diminish anyone’s fully deserved victory…:
2.5
– AJ’s day…
The 2.5 category was (again) the one with the most entrants and when looking at the draw it seemed to be wide open with dark horses in every quarter, highlighting the improving depth we have coming up in the lower ranks. Finalist Kyle Keppen squeaked out a 3-2 win in the first round against talented newcomer and shot maker Daniel Dusina, chalked up a 3-1 win in the second round before taking on top seed Paul Gormley in the semi. Stu was witness to this particular contest, and in his true non-sarcastic manner, proclaimed it was a “fantastic game of squash with both gents playing in the true spirit of the game”, Kyle getting through the carnage 3-1. Based on that assessment, Stu immediately predicted Kyle would win the final. Stu also once ate a hard-boiled egg with the shell on, so we’ll take that forecast with a grain of salt.
AJ
Peleman was seeded
2 and proved that ranking correct reaching the final. It wasn’t straight
forward though; he dropped a game in the second round to the crafty Fred
Minturn before scraping through a 5 gamer against the strong but unseeded Niko
Ahee in the semifinal. Both AJ and Kyle are rather quiet, gentlemanly
characters, and the final must have been one of the most polite (and hushed) in
the history of squash. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t a ripsnorter. In fact, it was up
there with one of the best finals of the tournament. Pity it wasn’t played on
the Awards night in front of a crowd. We missed out. AJ, though, must have
managed a tiny – even a barely audible whisper – squeal of joy as he took the
match 3-2.
In the 3.0 category, it got a bit wonky. Most of the matches ended up with a straightforward 3-0 or 3-1 win. Going against that trend however, Colin Casey and DAC newcomer Tom Pastore had a ding-dong battle in the first round with Colin eventually making it through in 5 agonizing games. Clearly inspired by his win, Colin toughened up his game face and took down the 3rd seeded Henry Gembis in straight sets in the quarter final. However, his run was brought to an abrupt halt at the hands of top seeded Jack Bernard in the semi. Jack was clearly taking no prisoners and was carving through the draw in much the same way as I slice up my fruit for breakfast: quickly, quietly, happy not to lose any digits and a carnage of mess left behind.
Jack’s final opponent would be Jordan Dean. Jordan had a tougher route to the final having to fight back the determined Ted Morris in his first match and then the much experienced David Walker in his second. Both results went to 4 games so based on these results and perceived form, Jack was heading into the final as the favorite. Of course, Jordan was having none of that. Despite a losing record against Jack in the past – and in fact the previous 2 recorded results, Jordan went down 0-3 - he brought a new found laser focus to the court, timed his precision strikes perfectly, and sent Jack packing 3-0.
3.5
– Iron-Mike
The 3.5 category was a different kettle of fish altogether with 7 of the 9 matches going 4 or 5 games. Arguably, the title of “dogfight of the tournament” could be awarded to this category’s quarter final match between two of the clubs most unorthodox players, Mike Parker and David Zack. Anyone who has played them will know they both hit a lot of cheeky winners into the front and that David is deceptively faster than one would expect. Mike ultimately managed to justify his place as second seed and shut the shop with his 187 boasts and a 12-10 in the fifth win. His semi final had him up against Dave Devine who is vastly improved thanks to regular lessons with Stu and upset the odd-makers with a 3-1 take down of Rich Stimson in his quarter-final. Dave clearly wasn’t bothered with Mike’s front corner assaults and marched himself to the final in straight games.
Seeded one, Mike Jenkins is another new young member gracing our courts. Mike runs like a greyhound chasing a rabbit and insisted on maximizing the court time to get his money’s worth in every match. From winning his first match against Dewey Steffen in 5 and probably hearing the familiar “BooYaah” more often than my wife asks me to take the trash out on a Sunday evening, to having to quarantine for 2 weeks, then edging past another slick quick customer in Shail Arora in the semifinal in a very tight 4-setter, to concluding his campaign against the great Double D in a marathon 5 game final. In fact, I think Mike is still running…
4.0
– Bartes in Charge
No, Brian Bartes was not the oldest player in the 4.0 draw. He was the second oldest. But – as I have recently been reminded – age is but a number. It was a small draw of just 7 players, Brian was probably one of the fittest amongst the group despite his ‘veteran’ status. Because of that, I had him seeded number one, and in the end, he did prove me right (for a change!) although the final could have been completely different.
Both
semi finals came down to the wire. Brian had to withstand the stubborn
persistence of Justin Jacobs, someone who manages to hang around for a
lot longer than one would think. Justin has the knack of keeping opponents on
court for extended periods of time and can be quite the steady-Eddie as well.
Was it fitness in the end that carried Brian over the line in this challenging
5-setter? Either way, Brian earned his spot in the final where he would meet a
very different type of player.
Jeff Rogers, Brian Bartes
Jeff Rogers is a hustler. Unorthodox in his play, he can be an awkward fellow to counter. It also seems that Jeff loves to get the most out of his matchers and if squash is advertised as 1000 calories an hour, then gosh-darn-it, he’s getting his 1000 calories worth. He beat Han Peng in his first match in 5, a match that no doubt went way beyond the allowed booking time, then another 3-2 win over Josh Gershonowicz in the semis, because why not, right?
For the final, however, Brian was not having any part of Jeff’s desire to play until the sun went down, especially since it was arranged for 6.45 in the morning. In and out. Business like. No mucking around. Thanks for coming, but Brian was surgical with his “I’ll-take-the-3-0-win-if-you-don’t-mind” attitude. All at his pleasure as well.
4.5
– Ian is on It
 |
| Ian Edwards, Brandon Tasco |
I was fortunate enough to see some of this back-and-forth bout, both players determined not to give an inch. Long rallies, few lets (refreshing!), great court coverage. It really could have gone either way, but from what I observed, it was Ian who had the slightly more consistent length. Having Brandon dig the ball out of the back one or two extra times gave Ian the slender edge. And when you go deep into a 5th game, that’s all you need. Great effort from both players, but it was Ian breaking the Tasco losing streak and taking the 4.5 title with a 3-2 victory.
5.0
– Amore for De La Torre
I’ve
got to give it David de la Torre. El Guapo. Nacho Libre. El Chapo…
whatever you want to call him, he was a man on a mission. Between throwing
around that Ecuadorian accent that weakens the knees, to heading down south
every other week for golf outings, Dave must have been somehow secretly
training as he hit form at the perfect time. I didn’t have him seeded to win
this – on the contrary - I even gave him a feed-in match. A match, it turned
out, to be his most difficult of the event! On paper, Dave has a decent record
against John Rogers, but that didn’t stop John from pushing him all the
way to 5 games only to run out of gas, a victim of the COVID fitness regime.
Matt Paradiso, Dave de la Torre
Dave only became stronger from there. A 3-0 drubbing in round 2, then up against one of his Achilles’ heels in Greg Allare in the semis. Greg would be going in with the confident edge. Of the 28 recorded results between the pair, Greg had won 21 of them – including the last two. But Dave was determined to change his fortune and went on with a specific game plan to counter the hard-hitting, bulldog like approach of his opponent. Not an easy thing to do since Dave’s game is also based on power shots. But he managed to keep to the script and sustain the ball controlled and tight enough for a 3-0 win.
A different tactic was required in the final against Matt Paradiso. Matt must be one of the fastest, most improved players in the club over the past 2 years, he is a smooth operator, never gets ruffled, reads to play very well. Dave was not going to be able to push Matt around, he needed to overpower him somewhat. And he did. Strong squash, not giving Matt much opportunity to control his front court game, and steady enough to survive three games. The 3rd was the closest of the match, and Dave admitted if he had lost that one, he probably would not have survived.
Open
– Quick Flick Trick Vik
The Open category was one for the ages. It always is. This year, in person viewing was limited for the traditional Club Championships Finals Night so we were streaming it to the pavilion for the members to watch. Leading up to the Vik-Jed final were a couple of humdingers to mention. Derek Aguirre almost produced the big upset when he was 2-0 up on Robin Basil in the first round but failed to capitalize. Robin escaped the scare only to get the reward of being bounced by Jed in the semi. The other surprise came at the hands of Jason Currie who took down the 4th seeded Ryan Covell in 4 games. Of course, Jason’s prize wasn’t any better than Robin’s. Vikram was waiting in the wings for him to hand out the beating.
For
the final both Vikram and Jed looked slightly nervous at the prospect of
playing on the custard and jelly (British slang for the television:
“telly”), something that I imagine may have been a first for both of them. This
was evidenced by the lead up to the match, where Vik who is usually good for a
bit of rabbit and pork (“trash-talk”) was uncharacteristically quiet and
Jed took on Vik’s usual role as the entertainer. The nerves clearly led to a shaky
first game from both gents, with Vikram hitting the lesser of the slew of
errors and so took the game that was never really in doubt, 11-7.
Vikram Chopra and Jed Elley
Both men came out in the second looking more relaxed and the level of play shot up, with Vikram’s shot making ability on clear display and Jed hustling away we looked set for the rest of the match to be a cracker. Down to the tie-break, it was Vikram pinching the 13-11 win, an important mental boost for him and a clear blow for the now desperate Jed. But you could see on Vikram’s face he was hurting from the effort and slightly concerned that the big springbok was about to bring it in the third which he duly did. Jed came out hitting the ball like he was trying to break it and Vikram was now on the back foot defending for the whole game. Jed rolled through 11-6. The fourth set was full of drama, with it being nip and tuck most of the way. The lads kept it tight, but Vikram seemed to have one or two more answers and slowly increased his lead, eventually earning 3 match-points at 10-7 and only needing one. Vikram would hold his nerve and buried a wide forehand crosscourt to close out the match and win the open title for the third time.
Doubles
Adding on to a very successful 2021 Club Championships for Vikram, he also dominated the Open Doubles category. He couldn’t hook up with his usual partner who he won the 2019 title with – Stefan Houbtchev – thanks to the ongoing COVID restrictions that prevents Stefan from crossing the border, so he took the next best option… Robin Basil. Robin has proved himself to be a formidable doubles player, translating that Racquetball knowledge of angles and natural power to the squash court. Vikram and Robin had to overcome the 2018 Club Champions in Jed Elley and Ryan Covell and did so without too much bother it seemed. The first 2 games were pretty much one-way traffic before Jed and Ryan found their footing in the third albeit way too late to make much of a difference. A convincing win for Chopra / Basil 15-6; 15-8; 15-13. The tough question for Vikram now presents itself: next year will you stay with Robin or switch back to Stefan? Should make for a fascinating event if all our top boys can play…
 |
| Roarty, Stimson, Jeff Rogers, John Rogers |
We had 10 pairs fight it out for the Doubles B. This category truly does get the mix of veteran teams and the fledglings to doubles that seriously have barely removed their training wheels. It’s great to see some new competitors and hopefully it encourages them to join the doubles leagues and get more involved in the future! Especially when you win… Tripp Kennedy is no stranger to the doubles, but his partner this year certainly was – Spencer Eick. Talk about being thrown into the deep end, Spencer had to learn to stay afloat without the water-wings. A quick study it appears. Making their way through to the final, they had their hands full against Jordan Dean and Colin Casey, both of whom are still relatively green but aren’t neophytes to the games either. Just like Trip and Spencer, Jordan and Colin only dropped one game to get to the championship match. Jumping out the gate with the same determination as a sumo wrestler running to the buffet table, the Casey / Dean combination took control of the match early and showed their opponents they meant business. It was a quick 2-0 lead. But not to be outdone, Kennedy / Eick calmed the storm and settled in pegging back the advantage and suddenly the pressure shifted. One game back, then two and now they could feel the Casey / Dean team cracking… It was all they needed. A great come from behind victory, Tripp and Spencer took the match 3-2.
So
there you have it. Winners and finalists of the singles category have qualified
to represent the DAC at the 2022 Farris Cup versus the BAC next January (we are
hosting). Congratulations to our winners, many of whom are first time title
holders so it’s fantastic to see the new names making DAC history.
