Vincentian Squashers rise to the challenge

As the 2008 Cellink Southern Caribbean Squash Championships came to a close on August 23, in Guyana, the 8-player OECS team was all smiles after a commendable performance in the 5-nation event.{{more}}

After many withdrawals left the team shorthanded (unable to field either a women’s team or a full men’s team), seven Vincentians and one player from the British Virgin Islands eventually made the trip to take on the best from Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

In the individual event, 4 OECS players entered the Men’s competition (James Bentick, Shane Slater, Kevin Hannaway and Kevin Bailey), with Bentick and Slater seeded in the 5-8 and 9-16 brackets, respectively. Unfortunately, one of them had to be eliminated in the first round, as Slater defeated Hannaway 9/3, 9/2, 9/2, to join Bentick (a 9/2, 9/0, 9/1 victor over Trinidad’s Peter Pirtheesingh) in the Round of 16, while Bailey fell to Guyana’s Kristian Jeffrey 3/9, 2/9, 5/9. Slater was then halted by Trinidad’s Josh Pinard 4/9, 2/9, 0/9 to join Hannaway and Bailey in the Plate. Slater lived up to his top 16 seeding with a 9/5, 9/7, 10/8 win over Venezuela’s Alejandro Lopez before going down in an exhausting 2/9, 9/1, 9/10, 9/3, 3/9, battle with another Venezuelan Diego Becerra.

Hannaway and Bailey were also eliminated in straight games by Venezuelans Juan Pablo Sanchez and Becerra, respectively.

Meanwhile, Bentick followed up a win over Guyana’s Alex Arjoon 9/4, 9/2, 9/4 with a remarkable upset of the #1 seed Gavin Cumberbatch of Barbados in the quarterfinals.

After losing the first 2 games 2/9, 3/9, Bentick stormed back to triumph 2/9, 3/9, 9/1, 9/0, 10/8 over the reigning Caribbean and Southern Caribbean Champion. The Bajan contingent gained some measure of revenge as Bentick succumbed to Bajans Shawn Simpson (7/9, 1/9, 3/9) in the semi-finals and Gavin’s younger brother Bryant (6/9, 10/9, 8/9, 3/9) in the 3rd place play-off.

After fending off opponents as much as 24 years younger in the individual tournament, the 40-year old Bentick joined Keith Boyea, Sherian Slater, Vonnie Roudette and Jon Osman (the lone non-Vincentian) on the Veterans squad for the team event. Meanwhile, the young trio of Shane Slater, Kevin Hannaway and Kevin Bailey faced the uphill task of competing against full 5-person squads from the other men’s teams.

Led by Slater (who picked up 3-1 wins against individual finalist Colin Ramasra and Robert Fernandes against Trinidad and Guyana, respectively in the #1 position, the trio stepped up to the challenge as “southerns” debutantes Hannaway and Bailey pushed their higher-ranked opponents to 4 and 5-game matches. While the men’s team finished in 5th place, the strong OECS veterans team came within 2 points of clinching the veterans team title, as Jon Osman (Men’s 60+) squandered a 7-3 lead in the 5th game in a crucial match in the Guyana-OECS tie to lose 5/9, 9/4, 5/9, 9/7, 8/10 to Louis Narain. This meant a 2-3 loss to Guyana, who claimed the Veterans team title. Paced by eventual Men’s 40+ champion Bentick and runners-up Sherian Slater, Vonnie Roudette and Jon Osman in the Women’s 40+, 50+ and Men’s 60+ categories, OECS claimed 4-1 and 3-2 victories over Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to finish in 2nd place.

In the Overall Team Standings, OECS earned 12 points to edge Trinidad and Tobago by 1 point for 3rd place. In the final individual rankings, James Bentick finished as #7, while Shane Slater was ranked in the 13-16 bracket to claim his first Caribbean Senior Ranking.

Team OECS hopes for continued success in the next edition of the biennial tournament when St. Vincent hosts in 2010.