The national men’s and veterans’ squash teams began the team championships of the National Lotteries Authority Caribbean Squash Championships in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Wednesday on a losing note going under to Barbados and the Cayman Islands respectively.
Against Barbados, one of the top teams in the event, the Guyanese went down 2/3 with Julian Chin losing the decisive rubber match to Barbados’ number two Bryant Cumberbatch 0-3. Playing with only four players, young Alex Arjoon got Guyana off to a winning start with an upset victory over 2007 Caribbean champ Gavin Cumberbatch 3/2.
But Robert Mac David, despite playing the match of his life lost a close five setter 2/3 to the consistent Mark Sealy.
Recently crowned Caribbean men’s champ, Richard Chin was up next and lived up to expectation by dispatching five-time Barbados national champ Shawn Simpson in straight games to tie the match 2-2.
However, although Julian Chin played good squash and was competitive in all the games, in the end he came up short.
The veterans’ team started two matches down due to not fielding a 50-plus female and a 60-plus male.
Faced with the tough task of winning all three matches against the defending champions they were only able to muster one win with Brendon Mounter winning 3/2 over Ken Moore.
Alwyn Callender lost to former touring pro John McCrury in a well contested match while Patricia Mounter, making her debut in competitive squash, represented herself well but lost to the seasoned campaigner Janet Sairsingh.
