5th Annual George Armstrong Tournament Recap
November 18th, 2005 Mithun Mukherjee Posted in General, Tournaments | Comments »
The fifth edition of the George Armstrong Squash Tournament was enjoyed by nearly sixty players who competed in singles and doubles at the Genesee Valley Club on November 10th to the 13th. It drew most of the local top players in divisions 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 singles, leading to many exciting matches. The doubles matches typically drew a lot of spectators who were unfamiliar with the game and marveled at 4 players in a relatively small court, flying around and chasing a fast, hot hardball.
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The matches began Thursday evening and concluded Sunday early afternoon with the finalist playing their matches to the following results:
Singles 5.0: Dent Wilkens def Brendon Bascom 3-nil. It was expected that these two Princeton teammates would face each other in the finals. Both have wonderful court generalship, speed and power. The spectator’s saw a very high level of squash rarely seen in Rochester. Dent’s greater experience and patience gave him the edge in the end.
Singles 4.0: Ori Goldman def Jack Fitzpatrick 3-1. Ori, who plays in the 5th spot on the U of R squash team, used superior speed and pressure to effectively counter the more all-around, multi-shot game used by Jack.
Singles 3.0: Scott Fitzpatrick def Aitezaz Ahmad 3-0. Scott, visiting from Cleveland, used his rapidly improving overall skills to overcome Aitezaz’s better power, but somewhat less balanced game
Consolation Singles 4.0: Doug Bennett def Chris Thomas 3-2. In a turnaround Doug, who had lost to Chris after leading 2-0 in an earlier round, took advantage of a second opportunity and won a tight rematch, 3-2.
Consolation Singles 3.0: Peter Greaves-Tunnell def Chris Mooney 3-0. The all Cobblestone Capital final resulted in the Sr. Partner victorious over the Jr. Partner.
The doubles final was contested by the two top teams of each round robin bracket. Mike Bittner and Mark Mijangos def John Gabel and Kevin Burns 3-2 in an exciting close match. Mike’s power and “nick finding” skills are legendary and are complemented by teammate Mark’s power. John and Kevin’s teamwork skills are exceptional and they kept constant pressure on the winners. Everyone will eagerly anticipate a rematch. In the consolation match, Dent Wilkens and Kate Guyer def Ham Clark and Joe Wilson 3-2.
As “advertised”, a goal of the tournament is to emphasize the fun and collegiality of the sport. Many family members and friends of the players came by, including children, to watch a match or two. Between matches there was time to enjoy the delicious food and a drink or two with opponents and fellow players. Many thanks to the GVC for hosting the tournament and for the players who participated through the weekend. A special thanks to Kate Whitmore who, amazingly, kept all of the matches on schedule, and to Martin Heath and Matt Dankner of the University of Rochester Squash team for encouraging their team’s participation.
The next RSRA tournament is the Mid Town Skill Level event on December 11th. We hope to see many of you there.
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