MARCH MADNESS MAYHEM

By Stu Hadden

March Madness Doubles Tournament – London, Ontario, Feb 28-29

As many of you may be aware, Mick and I are far from doubles specialists. But, we have recently made the decision to work on our doubles game. Last weekend Haytham Hermiz, Mick and I traveled to the 'fake' London (Ontario) in search of glory and silverware at the hardball doubles event appropriately named “March Madness”… even though it was in February for some strange reason.

Friday night’s match for us was anything but straightforward as we had only ever played one doubles match together and were struggling at the start to get to grips with the very different tactics of this type of squash. Our opponents on the other hand almost exclusively play doubles and were, for want of a better turn of phrase, crafty little scoundrels. We slowly but surely adapted our strategies throughout round 1 and by the end of the match had hit decent form. I was playing mainly high and deep, generating loose balls for the Australian sniper waiting on the right wall to shoot the lights out.

Haytham, as per usual had brought his running shoes with him and picked up far too many balls for his opposition to be in with any reasonable shout of winning. In the bar that evening he and one of his opponents for the semifinals – Owen - produced one of the finest displays of Jamison drinking and smack talk that I have ever witnessed, the kind usually reserved only for Australia vs England cricket matches. When I am king of England, I fully intend to offer him honorary citizenship for his efforts both in the bar and on the court where he miraculously turned up for his at 9am contest the next morning and duly backed up the trash-talking with a 3-1 shellacking over Owen.

In our semifinal we were up against stiff opposition in the 2 seeds who are serial winners of the DAC Classic A doubles draw. Unfortunately for them we picked up where we left off at the end of our last match and I had finally figured out the technique for putting the ball away on the backhand side. Ultimately we trounced them 3-0 in just shy of 45m, putting on a clean and crisp display of doubles.

We then watched the other semifinal and realized we were in big trouble. The left wall in our match would end up looking like Harry Potter vs Hagrid as the left hander from Toronto (Will Byrick) had me by well over a foot. The oak hit the ball like an absolute rocket and had a polished classic forehand technique. Surveilling his first game was pretty amazing as he rolled out nick after nick beating Brad Hanebury and his partner Derek Moore almost single handedly 15-2. On the left wall, Mick was also clearly going to be in for a bit of a night. His opponent (Chris Boden) not only hit the ball harder than both of us but had a real set of wheels on him, regularly throwing out full length splits, dives and pirouettes.

After watching Haytham claim victory in the C doubles we felt inspired (pressured?!) to go and do the same. A late start at 9pm, but the time came around quickly and suddenly we were up. As expected our opponents got off to a good start, slotting winners and trying to hit the ball through the front wall. I hadn’t found my range on the cross court nick yet and gave away a bit of a lead which we would eventually peg back. We made it to 14-14 before Mick’s opponent jumped about 3 feet in the air and rolled out a nick to give them the first. Bugger.

The second was one of the worst games of squash I personally remember playing, with yours truly missing the ball on three serve returns in a row. Mick was probably getting ready to bury me in the hill out back – or make me walk back to Detroit in my squash shorts in the 25 degree weather.  Needless to say with my “scintillating” form we were quickly 2-0 down.

We were far from done though.  Coming out guns blazing in the third, we caught them off guard with a far more aggressive style of play. Comfortably taking the third. The fourth game was solid but at the back end of it, Chris suddenly caught fire and had a patch of about 5 mins where he simply couldn’t and wouldn’t miss – which made him shoot even more - and was completely unplayable. Even Mick’s last ditch dive (old-man stumble?) wouldn’t be enough to keep us in the match and our Canadian contemporaries ran out a 3-1 victory in over an hour.

Cheers to London squash club for having us down and to Rob Doherty for organizing the event. We are really looking forward to going back next year, hopefully with a large contingent of DAC doubles players.

LONDON DELIVERS THE GOODS

Nash Cup - September 18-20

The day didn’t start well. I was very disappointed when I looked up the results of the PSA draw on Friday morning of the $15,000 Nash Cup event. One of the reasons I was looking forward to going this year was because I had the chance to see the current world junior champion Diego Elias from Peru perform. By all reports, he is rather good. However, in a huge upset, he had lost his quarter final the day before in 5 games. It seemed I was stuck having to watch the others... who, as it turned out (unsurprisingly), are also well above average.

Maybe it’s that I am getting older and it takes longer for my synapses to send those messages to my brain, but the professional men’s game appears to be getting faster. And the depth of competition is increasing. The top 3 seeds did not get past the second round, and the final was between 2 players ranked outside the top 50, but played as if they should have been well inside it.

Declan James is from England, ranked 51, and a short 6 foot 4 but carries himself a lot taller than that. He has to bend his knees in order to hit an overhead volley. Abdullah Al Tamimi is from Qatar, looked half the size of James, and is ranked 78, and probably auditioned for the part of “Flash” in the Hollywood movie. ‘Quick’ doesn’t describe him. ‘Breakneck’?

It was so enjoyable to watch the final, James’ reach more than making up for Abdullah’s zippiness. It was also apparent that James was - on this particular day - the smarter player. At times, Abdullah’s shot choices were very questionable, none more dubious than the return-of-serve volley cross-court drop that clipped the tin - at game ball down. That error put him in a 2 games to zero hole, a hole that with the way James was hitting, looked monumental to climb out of. And it was. The 11-7 third game was really never in doubt, and I’m sure everybody was hoping for one or two more, but the crowd adored every second.

The women’s final was played the previous evening between the 2013 winner, Pakistani Maria Toorpakay (ranked 51) and Brit Millie Tomlinson (ranked 55). The best women’s final to date, the 2 lasses went at each other for 68 brutal minutes. Each game was won by a 3 point margin or less. Exciting all the way to the end, Millie, I feel, could have been more successful if she used the front 2 corners more regularly. Many times she was set-up to take the ball short but constantly chose to pound the ball to length instead. Maria was happy not to have to cover the front more, and ended up pinching the 5th game 11-9. Maria is now the first player (men or woman) to win the Nash Cup more than once.

The amateur draws were not as populated as previous years. The largest draw actually happened to be mine in the Open, and all my opponents were less than half my age (again!). But, score one for the veterans, I held off the youthful challenges to win the event. I played David Mill in the final. He did very well to get there, taking out his Windsor counterpart Stefan Houbtchev 3-1 in the semi. Even though I won 3-0, David is clearly improving and now that he resides in Toronto and is training at Jon Power’s center, that improvement will come on even quicker.

Me, Geoff Hunt and Josh Slominski.

Josh Slominski made the trip as well and played in the Men’s C. It was not a triumphant weekend for him, and he was understandably disgruntled with his results. Luck played a little part here as well (or un-luck), as Josh lost most of his games 11-9, or in the tie-break. With a little fortune, he could have easily have won a couple of matches. It’s important to see the silver lining and this event was a valuable learning experience. Josh will be tougher for it.

As is customary, the London Club social life was in full swing, the beer pong competition was another grueling battle, and we all bonded well into the wee hours of the morning. On a side note, it was a thrill for me meet up with an old coach of mine. Geoff Hunt is one of the greatest squash players of all time. He won 4 World Opens and 8 British Opens back in the 70’s and 80’s and he was my mentor way, way back in 1988-89. Geoff coaches Abdullah Al Tamimi and often travels from Australia to help him on the tour. The Qatari is in good hands. Josh and I naturally took the photo opportunity!

Final shout-out goes to the London Squash crew, the carpet you guys roll out gets redder every year. And, as I always repeat in every London article... I don’t understand why more members don’t play this tournament. It’s only for your benefit!

CHARACTERS OF LONDON

Nash Cup – September 18-20

The last few years, it has been a struggle to get our DAC members to join me on this tournament weekend road trip. Even though every time I rave about the event, the squash, the professionals, the social life. I realize it can be a frightening prospect to venture into unfamiliar territory, a foreign club with unknown opponents, most of whom converse in an alien form of the perfect English language we speak here in Michigan (eh?), but I guarantee you that the uneasy feeling dissipates rapidly as soon as you enter the quaint little building known as the London Squash Racquets Club.

In order to help you acclimatize even quicker, I have listed below a few of their more ‘prominent’ members so you can be welcomed by a recognizable friendly face on your arrival – quite possibly with an outstretched arm holding a cool, amber liquid…

 

Jay Nash. He is the reason this tournament runs. Hence the name “Nash Cup”. He does virtually everything and anything, as does it all with a smile on his face. If he isn’t promoting, he’s emceeing, if he isn’t emceeing, he’s marketing, if he isn’t marketing, he’s socializing, if he isn’t socializing, he’s playing squash, if he isn’t playing squash, he’s kissing babies. The list goes on and on. I’m not sure he sleeps.

Brad Hanebury. Also known in some circles as the “Squash-Bot”. Brad has played the DAC Classic for many years running now and has actually won the 5.5 category 3 times. Many of you already know him, so make sure you spend some time over the weekend and share a beer or two... or three… or four… or five… or shicks… or sheven… hic!

Rob Doherty. Rob also honors us with his presence every year at the DAC Classic, and is one of the most mild-mannered people you will meet. (Except when we played in the Doubles Nationals a couple of years ago and, provoked, morphed into a killer!) If you stick around long enough on the Saturday night, there is a good chance Rob will demonstrate his other ‘not-so-hidden’ skill of transforming into Michael Jackson and breaking out the moon-walk!

Lindsay Smith. Lindsay has been playing squash longer than it has been invented. He’s a doubles expert, but will no doubt be hanging out during the weekend mixing it in with the lads downing some brewskis, spilling a few yarns of yester year, and sharing some invaluable advice to any padawan that will listen. The force is strong with this one.

Srini Krishnamtd..something-or-other. I’m not sure Srini will be able to make the event this year since he moved to New Orleans, but the Nash Cup wouldn’t be the same without him. He’s the easiest to recognize, he’s the one who cannot frown. Hopefully he can make the trip, he’s always good for an upbeat conversation – but word or warning: too much Srini exposure and he can “friendly” you to death.

So, now that have ‘met’ some of their members, it’s time for you to make the leap and enter the tournament. Categories are as follows, be prepared for tough matches! There is no doubles.

1. Open. If you can compete with me, enter this one.
2. Men’s A. If you can compete with Jed (our club champ), enter this one.
3. Men’s B. If you are a 4.5 – 5.0+, enter here,
4. Men’s C. If you are a 3.5 – 4.4, this is your domain.
5. Men’s D. If you are 3.4 or below, you belong here.
6. Women’s A. 4.5 +
7. Women’s B. 3.5 – 4.5
8. Women’s C. 3.0 – 3.4
9. Women’s D. 2.9 and below

All entries are allowed to watch the men’s and women’s professionals play on the Friday and Saturday nights. It’s definitely worth your efforts to do so. If nothing changes with their pro draw, you may get a chance to see the current world junior champion in action – Diego Elias from Peru. He is currently ranked 37 in the world and rising. On top of that, you will certainly meet and befriend many more characters of London over the weekend! All this for $70 Canadian dollars!

For registration and accommodation information, check out the link: http://www.nashcup.com/amateur-draw/ . The deadline to enter is September 11.