Cross Border Challenge - September 14, 2019
Continuing
on with the Cross Border Challenge tradition, this would be its 22nd chapter! The
Windsor Squash Club and the DAC have been sharing the spoils pretty evenly
since its inception in 2005. The trends are usually streaky. At one time
Windsor won 7 times in a row, the best we have managed is 4. Before the start
of last Saturday’s episode, we were on a win streak of 3 and a 4th would have
been not just dandy (I mean, who likes to lose?) but it would have also tied up
the overall standings. Windsor have won 11 times, the DAC, 10.
To
break that winning streak, Windsor decided to change the look of their lineup
somewhat. Throw us off our game, make us feel… old. Especially since it
was the start of the season, a decent chunk of our players were still rubbing
the summer out of their eyes, barely able to remember that you are supposed to
actually run after you hit the black ball and not stand there looking up
to the sky trying to track the white one, forgetting the pain associated with a
heart rate above 80. The nerve! Sending us opponents that don’t understand what
the word “tired” means, or “chiropractor”, or “defibrillator”…
opponents that were born in this century! Yes! I am talking about juniors!
Aaarrrggghhh! The horror!
Okay,
they weren’t all juniors. Only a third of their singles matches (5) featured
these awful scary adversaries. Just ask Jay Bonahoom. Or Derek
Aguirre. Or Steve Brown. (It was great to have Steve back in the
club - he made his way from St. Louis to join us this weekend… not sure he
regretted it after the match though!). Neither of our guys could pick up a game
against their youthful counterparts. (Although Steve did have 2 games balls in
his second game.) One would think that experience would be a helpful advantage,
and it can be. But, these kids can play. And run. And lunge. And run some more.
And hit a hard ball. And hit an accurate ball. And run. And by this time, it’s
only half way through the first game and out guys are searching desperately for
the lung they have already coughed up. And for the keg outside court 5.
And
that wasn’t the worst of it. Vikram Chopra was also a victim of this
adolescent onslaught. We all know Vikram as one of the hardest hitters in our
club, and even he was surprised at the power of his combatant, Amin Khan.
Some of you may remember Amin from Windsor as a small 10 or 11 year old - who
was decent enough back then - the kid with the 2-handed backhand. He was
knee-high to a smurf in those days, now he’s taller than me, has (thankfully)
moved on from the double-handed technique, showed us just how skillful he can
be as he slotted some eye-popping winners on his way to a 3-1 victory over
Vikram. Impressive. Not sure he broke a sweat.
 |
| Vishaal Mehta and Bashar Fakhoury |
They
had one more junior on the roster - Vishaal Mehta. However, we had
countered this fresh-faced move with one of our own. Bashar Fakhoury is
one of our up and coming 14 year olds, working very hard on his game and
starting to rise up through the US junior rankings. He’s had a great summer and
keen to make an assault on the tournament season just around the corner. It was
a great match. Vishaal is one cool customer. Smooth mover, long reach. Bashar
like to step up and attack, take the volley. Vishaal’s steadiness in the end
proved the difference, taking the match in a tight 3-1. Just a little more
patience was required on Bashar’s part, but his game is coming together nicely.
 |
| Tony Sorgi and Jeff Patterson |
So
once their juniors had their way with us, we were left to pick up the pieces.
The rest of the matches ended up pretty evenly. Windsor still won them 8
matches to 6, but the results were a lot closer. In the tightest contest of the
day, Tony Sorgi probably experienced the longest match of his life
against Jeff Patterson. It was difficult to tell which one of them was
hurting more, they were both sucking wind so hard, the walls were bending
inwards. Blow for blow, in the end, Tony crawled off first with the 11-9 in the
5th victory, Jeff right behind him, as they barely managed to hoist themselves
to the bench where I then forced them to stand up again for this photo. I am
sure those smiles took a lot of effort.
Brian Ellison also suffered through a 5-set match
against Shabaz Salem, but unfortunately for the DAC, we were on the
wrong end of this one. It was Brian’s first match for a while, so even though I
am sure he would be disappointed for not pulling out the win, and his body no
doubt would be screaming at him the following morning, it was actually a pretty
respectable effort.
Brian’s
partner in crime - James Van Dyke - also went down in five games, but it
could have very easily been a 3-0 victory. He carried a 2 games to love lead
over Dean Lansens, and was only a couple points off closing it out in
the third set tie-break. But the failure to convert gave Dean the boost he
needed, and James’ balloon popped. He couldn’t keep up the pace and Dean ran
away with it for a 5 set (fitness) win!
The
4th 5-setter of the day belonged to David de la Nacho-Guapo-Chapo-Torre.
Taking on the stubborn lefty in Doug Fields, it was a match that was
played upstairs so I didn’t see any of it. I am sure it was another heroic saga
that should be forever etched into the chronicles of squash legends history, as
Dave’s intrepid skill-set had him getting to the winner’s tape first. Either
that, or it was his ‘smash-it-at-all-costs-low-and-hard’ racquetball
strategy. Whatever works, right? Win is a win.
 |
| Ryan, Vikram, Kevin, Steve |
Our
other singles winners on the day belonged to Chuck Doyle (3-1), Han
Peng (3-1) and Matt Paradiso (3-0). The victories were few and far
between for the DAC, Windsor piled it on us. The doubles matches were much of
the same.
We
did take the first doubles match of the day, however. Vikram Chopra and Ryan
Covell took just over an hour to overcome the hard hitting Kevin
Furmanek and leg speed of Steve Allen
in 4 games. I didn’t see much of the match but it did appear Vikram and
Ryan were playing the eye-formation? You don’t see that a lot, but apparently
(if they did that for the whole match), it paid off. There wasn’t much joy in
the other 3 doubles contests. Joey Gaylord and John Dunwoody
picked up one game, as did Justin Winkelman and Bruce Shaw. The
excuses came thick and fast… rustiness… beer… they cheated… it was Saturday… they
made me play a backhand… my partner… All valid I am sure (cough, cough).
