Guyana’s men’s and women’s squash team suffered two heartbreaking losses in the team finals of the 20th Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA)championships on Saturday in Trinidad and Tobago losing out in their bids for the team championships.
Guyana lost the women’s final to defending champions Barbados 1-4 while the men’s team was edged 3-2 by hosts Trinidad and Tobago.
The women’s team was without number two player Ashley Khalil who was unavailable because of a previous commitment. She was replaced by Tiffany Solomon who was flown in for the tie.
Guyana started brightly when Caribbean women’s champion and world ranked number 73 player, Nicolette Fernandes, made light work of her old nemesis Karen Meakins 11/1, 11/4, 11/7.
However it was all downhill from there on.
Mary Fung-a-Fat played spectacularly to extend Caribbean number four Cheri-Ann Parris to five games in her tie.
Fung-a-Fat played the match of her life but lost 7/11, 11/9, 7/11, 14/12, 5/11.
Young Victoria Arjoon then lost to Nadia McCarthy in another hard-fought, five-setter 11/9, 9/11, 11/9, 11/13, 5/11.
It was up to Ashley DeGroot to bring Guyana level and set up a deciding set but she lost to seasoned campaigner Alex Jordan 11/9, 5/11, 7/11, 5/11. In the dead rubber Solomon was beaten by Gylla MacKenzie in another five setter. Solomon lost 11/9, 4/11, 15/13, 10/12, 5/11. In the men’s final Trinidad went one up when Deje’ Dias was beaten by Mandela Patrick 3-0 before Julian Chin defeated Ryan Abraham 3-1.
In the pivotal third match, Guyana’s number one Richard Chin conjured up a 3-2 win over the Trinidad national champion Josh Pinard.
Chin survived four match balls in the fifth game and won six consecutive points to win the game and take the match 3-2.
However, Jamal Callender was beaten by Kale Wilson who plays for Western University in Canada in a grueling five setter.
After both players won two games each Wilson established a 10/6 lead in the fifth and final game. Callender faced four match balls and played exceptional squash to stave off three of them before an error ended his fight at 9/11. The last match of the night saw Alex Arjoon up against professional Colin Ramasra. Arjoon played well but was not good enough on the night as Ramasra won 3-0.
Guyana’s depleted Veteran’s team also lost 2-3 to Jamaica. Alwyn Callender got a walk over as Jamaica did not have a 50+ player and Dennis Dias beat Douglas Beckford 6/9, 11/9, 11/4, 6/11, 11/4. But Brian Yong lost to Lowell Lawrence in the 40+ category 6/11, 4/11, 5/11 and Jamaica got two walk overs as Guyana did not field players in the ladies 40 and over and 50 and over categories. Guyana, who placed third overall, will host the 2013 championships.
