Squash decider goes down to the wire

by Bruce Bowering
Thursday night saw the culmination of a successful Baw Baw Squash Club winter competition followed by an enthralling finals series.
The two preliminary finals resulted in all four teams finishing with two matches and eight games, so the winners were determined by points with Blasters beating Sixers by 22 points and Hurricanes just scraping home against Heat by five points.
Thus, the grand final was between Hurricanes and Blasters, who had met in the qualifying final. That match, too, was determined in favour of Hurricanes by just five points, which meant that all players had to perform at their best under great pressure.
This proved to be the case and rewarded the gallery with nervousness, drama, anticipation and, of course, great squash.
Up first were Terry Milsome for the Hurricanes and Brendon Van Eyk for the Blasters. Both players were, effectively, beginners this season and have made great strides in their development.
Terry has had to learn to play left-handed and it has been Brendon's first full competition season. Each time they have met Brendon has been the winner, but Terry is closing the gap.
Brendon won in three sets the first time they met, then in four sets in the qualifying final. The grand final see-sawed.
Terry won the first game 15/11 and Brendon fought back in the second 15/11. Terry then dominated the third set 15/5 and an upset looked on the cards, but Brendon regrouped and took the last two sets 15/10, 15/10.
After demonstrating a mélange of unpredictable shots, great drives straight down the wall, complete misses and outright winners, the final score was 61 points each, which illustrated how even these two players are and what a great contest they had.
The contest at level three had Wayne Hewitt matched against Matt Jehnsen.
It was expected to be one-sided as Matt moved up from a four and Wayne, who won every match throughout the season, had come down from a two.
In the qualifying final Matt was quite nervous and made many unforced errors, rushing his shots.
On this occasion he played a much steadier match but Wayne still dominated the first game 15/5 with better placement of his shots.
To his credit, Matt came out firing in the second, getting out to a handy lead through aggressive serving and greater power in his groundstrokes which forced Wayne back and away from his controlling front-court game.
Matt maintained that lead for most of the game until 13/12, but couldn't quite close out the game as Wayne took the last three points 15/13. Matt's valiant effort was not enough to unsettle Wayne, who took out the match 15/9 in the third to give the Blasters a 2-0 lead.
The following match favoured the Hurricanes with Paul Hunt graded several spots above Jono Davenport. If Jono won, the Blasters would win the night; if he got two games it would go down to the wire between the two captains.
He got one game in the qualifying final. Jono is a unique player who mesmerises his opponent and fatigues the spectators by chasing all over the court and returning almost everything, even playing shots behind his back for winners.
He got off to a flying start, winning the first game 15/12. Pressure was starting to build on Paul but, with much greater control and deft drop shots he dominated the second game 15/5.
There was no stopping Jono, however, and he got to game point in the third before Paul levelled and went on to take the game 17/14.
Jono quickly recovered and was left wondering what might have been when he won the fourth game 15/12 to level the match.
It was anyone's match and both gave their all. Again, it was Paul's steadiness that came to the rescue for the Hurricanes as he ultimately won a thrilling match 15/13.
Once more, the title came down to the final match of the night. If YD Singh won just one game the title would go to the Blasters, but he was up against the club's best player, Mike Griffith.
Off a handicap of -5 Mike had to win all three games and restrict YD to an average of no more than 11 points per game. This he did with ruthless efficiency.
His power hitting to a length, reflex drop shots that take all the pace off the ball, incredible anticipation, nimble court coverage, and absence of unforced errors make him a formidable opponent.
Despite YD's best efforts he was no match for Mike who is a class above all other number ones. Final result was 15/6, 15/4, 15/2 to Mike.
Again, two matches, eight games, and the night determined by points: Hurricanes 2/8/204 to Blasters 2/8/180, with all matches being played in great spirit.
At the conclusion of the matches individual awards were presented. The Most Consistent Award went to Wayne Hewitt who completed the season undefeated, losing just four games in the process.
Jeremy Van Kaathoven increased his ranking by three places to win the Most Improved Award.
Brendon Van Eyk also increased his ranking by three places. He narrowly missed Jeremy's award by just three per cent in the calculations. For his effort and being new to the sport, Brendon received an Encouragement Award.
The Player of the Finals Series Award was presented to Mike Griffith for having to win all his matches in three games in order for his team to succeed. The Player of the Grand Final was awarded to Paul Hunt. He had to dig deep to save the match and his team's chances when Jono had the momentum going into the final game. Paul also won the handicap tournament for the second consecutive time, the first player to do so.
Twelve months ago the club instituted a Meritorious Contribution Award for members who make exceptional, and often enduring services to the club for its smooth operation or public profile.
A special presentation of this award was made to club stalwart, Tim Hurst, who, though no longer playing, regularly attends meetings to umpire matches and tally up results.
He has been doing this for more than a decade and often umpires several matches a night. He will also step in to help reorganise matches if a player unexpectedly fails to turn up. For his dedication to the club and what it represents, the members congratulate and thank him for his dedicated involvement.
The summer competition begins in a fortnight. Those interested in playing should attend grading night on Thursday or notify Dave on 0408 577 398 if unable to do so.