Cross Border Challenge
- April 11, 2015
Talk about waving the flag. In the absence of our shameless
fashion guru Karl Lagerfeld - a.k.a. Sante
Fratarcangeli - John Mann
stepped up to the plate and supplied the patriotic robes to many of our
players. At least the shirt this time had some sleeves, but the golden nugget
of apparel had to be the knee-high socks adorned with the American flag. The
cape was also a magic extra, but pretty much impossible to play in. Made for a
great photo-op though.
Inspired by the prolific amount of red, white and blue, the
17th Cross Border Challenge produced a wealth of closely contested matches and
our DAC members were well up to the task. Tom
Fabbri got the ball rolling for us, his sock flags waving in the wind as he
controlled the middle of the court with solid length. He was consistent enough
to hold off the charge from Trevor
Charles for a 3-1 win, which included a 3-10 comeback in game 2.
 |
| Tom Fabbri |
Jon Dengel had
a chance at revenge. A year ago he lost to Grace
Kim in four games during the Cross Border Challenge, and he was determined
not to lose to the same woman twice. But, as Jon pointed out after the match,
it’s rather difficult to tire out a player who is clearly in better physical
condition than himself (?!?). Testosterone, however, can be a powerful
motivator and Jon almost pulled it
off. Going down 10-12 in the 5th was a gallant effort. Kim was made to work
hard for her win, she was seen later on rehydrating hard, a wine in one hand,
and something mixed in the other which wasn’t
a Gatorade…
After Julie Vande Vusse
made the fashionably late entrance, she took care of business against Michaela Birley 3-1, which was then off
set by Ian Edwards’ 1-3 loss to James Konrad. At this stage, the two
countries had 2 wins apiece, but then we started to pull away.
The igniter was the first doubles result - Bruce Shaw and Ken Katz tackled Peter Wares
and Derek Roth for the best doubles
match of the day. Back and forth they went, trading games with scores lines of
15-14 and 15-13 all the way through a nail-biting 5th. Our home boys kept it
together and absorbed the pressure well, breathing a huge sigh of relief taking
that last game 15-13. They couldn’t get to the keg fast enough.
Josh Gershonowicz
then produced another down-to-the-wire victory. He had to hustle continuously against
the experience of Dave Hornby, a
doubles specialist that loves to use weird angles on the singles court. It can
be troublesome to find any rhythm against such players, so Josh did well to
claim the 11-9 in the 5th and put another notch in the DAC’s win column.
A lot of interest was on our new member Vikram Chopra. It was a good chance to see him under pressure as he
tackled the flamboyant Dan Van Moorsel.
Dan is a big guy, but covers the court well and can also put the ball away.
Vikram has a wristy swing that produces a lot of power and can be relatively
deceptive, making his opponents stretch out into the corners. A little
consistency cost Vikram game one, as too much over hitting set Dan up a bit too
easily. But Vikram improved that tightness in the next three games to take the
3-1 win.
Special mention must be made to Alan Howard who we can excuse for being late to his match. He was
on a good-will mission. To make sure that all the Windsor players were indeed
able to leave their club safely and get to the DAC, Alan decided to drive to
the Windsor Club first, confirm there weren’t any stragglers, and then return.
A true gentleman. I doubt Andrew Della
Bona thinks so though, Alan’s good-will only went so far as he took all 3
games.
Andy Adamo
will be kicking himself slightly as this one got away. He was looking rather
good heading into the 3rd game against Doug
Fields as he held a 2-0 game lead. Doug is a feisty adversary, and would
always be thinking he had 3 games to go, Andy appeared to take the foot off the
gas ever so slightly. And that is all it takes. Doug took the next 2 games and
the fifth was a battle - Andy stepped it up again as he had to in order to stop
Doug’s momentum. It could have gone either way - but it was Doug who got to the
finish line first with a 12-10 in the 5th win.
Another 5th set tie break result fell to the Windsorites. Derek Roth made amends for the doubles
loss earlier by somehow staying on his feet long enough to beat John Mann 13-11 in the last game. That
result almost turned it around for the Canadians - with three results to come
in, we still needed one more win to secure the trophy.
But this is what these competitions are about. I would not
have been upset in the slightest if we didn’t win the day. The closeness of the
matches and the camaraderie is why we run these things. That being said, we
still wanted the victory! And finally securing that win was the third doubles
match of the day - Patrick Petz and Dane Fossee survived to take their
match in 5!
The final two matches had Derek Aguirre battling the hard hitting Paul Gebrael. Paul loves his power - and he has plenty of it - and
it can be awkward to counter such a tactic. I instructed Derek to slow the pace
and not try to smack the ball with him. The strategy worked for one game, but
consistently controlling the ball when it’s coming at you with an uncomfortably
quick pace is something we all know is easier said than done. Paul took the
match 3-1.
The final match of the day was also a 5-setter. Dave Porter got off to an excellent
start and won the first 2 games over Dane
Fossee who had jumped immediately from the doubles court to the singles.
Maybe Dane couldn’t find his ‘singles’ touch initially, but as the match wore
on, Dane was looking stronger as Dave was beginning to fade. Dane made the
comeback complete, taking the 5th game and ending the day well for the DAC.
