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Sep 02 | Oct
02| Nov 02 | Dec
02 | Jan 03
| Feb 03 | Apr
03 | “Every Point Counts” How many times have you heard the saying that “Every point counts?” For the 14 members of the two BC teams that attended the 2010 Canadian Masters Team Championships in Saskatoon on January 15 to 17, this cliché has a whole new meaning. Like most stories there are two versions. There is the “Coles
Notes” version where BC #1 team had its come from behind critical
victory over Ontario on Friday night, Saturday's nerve racking tie
breaker calculations with its highs and lows and single point victory
236 to 235, and thhange="openURL()">
This is the “full version” where it all began in early
December when we finalized the two teams (4 men and 3 women of 40,
45, 50, 55 per team – see end of article for full list). There
were few last minute changes and we had to do a little arm twisting
(conveniently keeping the current -35 C temperature information
away from everyone until they had booked their tickets). Kevin Kydd
and I felt we had two pretty competitive teams this year and we
even managed a couple of team training sessions through Christmas.
We arrived bright and early for our Friday am flight. At first
we thought the 50 passenger micro Air Canada regional jet would
be real cozy with 14 of us on it. The reality of it as I crouched
my towering 5 foot 8 inch frame to get through the door and touched
my head on the ceiling was not as glamorous. I breathed deeply to
push away the claustrophobic feelings for the quick 90 minute flight.
It reminded me again why we fly Westjet. We were greeted by sunshine and temperatures above freezing. It
was such a boost to finally see blue sky after the weeks of raining
dreary weather of Vancouver. It was also refreshing on the 10 minute
drive to downtown to see open spaces and every house not built to
6 inches of the property line. We actually saw a go-kart track on
a small lot just a quarter mile from the downtown core, not something
you see in the crazy real estate prices of Vancouver. After checking in at the Hilton we had just a 200 yard walk to
the YMCA for a little warm-up on the courts. It took Bruce and me
about 45 minutes of drills and a couple of games on the bouncy courts
(1,500 foot elevation) to finally feel comfortable. There were 8 teams: Seeding Grouped into two pools. BC #1 was in a tough pool with AB #1, Ontario
and Saskatchewan #2. Friday night had us playing Ontario. After a key opening upset
wins by Mark over Scott Dormer (45+ national Champion in 2005) and
Rashid over Bob Ryan but with losses by Laura and Lorrie we were
all tied up at 2-2 in matches. I lost to David Sly so we were now
down 2-3. Deidre pulled through to tie the match score at 3-3 which
left the dramatics to Dave Hall as he played Frank Billinger. Dave
was fortunately on fire with his A+ game but it still ended up at
2 games apiece. It was now 11 p.m. and we were all nervous wrecks
from watching 6 matches to now have it end up in a final deciding
game. After several miraculous points Dave pulled it out 11-7 giving
BC #1 the key opening victory. In other action BC #2 lost 5-2 to
Alberta #2 in pool B on Friday night with good wins by Tessa over
Julie Multamaki and Bruce over Ron Anderson. We were starved since
no one had eaten dinner so we headed back to the hotel for some
order-in pizza and fresh chocolate chip cookies baked by wife, Carllie.
Saturday morning saw us have the easier match against SK #2 which
BC #1 won while Ontario beat AB #1 4-3. This set the stage for our
match with Alberta in the afternoon. If we won we would be #1 in
our pool. If we lost 5-2 we would be 3rd and if we lost 4-3 there
would be a three way tie, we could either be 1st, 2nd or 3rd depending
on how the involved rules resolved the tie breaker as BC, AB, and
Ontario would all have 2-1 records with identical match scores.
We were soon down 3-1 in matches with Alberta after Lorrie lost
a close 3-2 match to Claire Fern. We now had to win the last 3 matches
to control our destiny. I unfortunately then lost 1-3 to David Safton.
This meant that we had to win the last two matches to at least get
it to the tie-breaker. Deidre played well and won over Leslie Jewitt.
It now came down to Dave again to save the day. He was still on
fire and beat Todd Christiansen so that we lost 4-3. At least we
were all tied up. Daryl suggested that we go through the score sheets and make sure
the games scores were transferred correctly onto the match sheets.
As we carefully reviewed the sheets we found out that one match
that Alberta had won 3-1 on the score sheet against Ontario had
been transferred as 3-0 to the match sheet. This meant that Ontario
actually had 27 so now we were tied again! What a let down. This
meant that we now had to count all the points between the two remaining
tied (Ontario and BC). We again went through the score sheets making
two long columns of numbers. In the playing area there was no calculator
so we carefully checked each other as we added it up. BC –
235 points, Ontario – 236 points. Oh no! I was to say the
least devastated, it was like I had been punched in the stomach.
I felt sick. Laura Ramsay was still there and I passed on the bad
news and so she went to the dinner to relay the change of events.
I had done the counting with Daryl and Al and so I was sure of the
numbers. Daryl suggested we still go down to the front desk and borrow a
calculator to make a final double check. We slowly walked down the
two flights of stairs to the lobby. I was numb with disappointment.
In the quiet lobby of the YMCA with calculator in hand, I called
out the numbers and Daryl punched them in. BC – 235, we checked
it twice. Then Ontario – 235! We were tied again! Can it be?
I can’t take this. We double checked it and yes we were in
fact tied. We now had to go to the final tie breaker rule when you
are tied on points and that is that you go on the head-to-head of
the remaining tied teams which we had won 4-3. We were now first
again! I walked by myself to the Saskatoon Club for the dinner. Only Daryl
and I new what the final result was. I arrived and had a team huddle
with everyone who had heard from Laura 15 minutes earlier that we
had lost on points and explained the latest turn of events that
we were actually first again. Wow what a relief. There was no representative
from Ontario when Daryl, Al and myself went through the numbers
so after dinner, Daryl sat down with David Sly and worked through
the numbers one more time. David actually found a game that had
been counted as 10-7 for BC where it should have been obviously
counted 11-7 so it actually turned out we had 236 to Ontario’s
235. After a great dinner and a lively game of “Crud” directed
by Tom Brown most people were bushed from the emotional swings of
the day let alone the squash and headed back to the hotel where
we consumed more cookies. What a great day, BC was in the final
and Canucks crushed Pittsburgh 6-2. Sunday was originally going to have a crossover of #1 in Pool 1
playing #2 of Pool B etc. but this would have required 2 sets of
matches (4 hours per series of 7 matches) which meant there was
no way we would be done by 3 pm to allow everyone to catch their
flights. We would have had to start at Sunday at 7 am (YMCA only
opened at 9 a.m.) so it was decided that #1 of Pool A would play
#1 of Pool B and that would be the final. We received our medals and then headed to Winston Pub for our traditional
after tournament dinner rehash before heading back to the airport
where we ate the remaining cookies to get ready for the trip home.
Each of these weekends is special and unique but this was the best.
Thank you to Daryl and Sue Foreman for running such a great tournament,
Squash Canada Frank Boyer and Bob Wyma, all the sponsors, and the
YMCA. The venue for next year has not been finalized yet. It maybe Burlington,
Ontario (boo) or Nanaimo (Yeah!). We will see. Wherever it will
be it will be another memorable weekend I am sure. Congratulations to all my fellow teammates. Take care you great
bunch of people and talk to you and see you soon! Sincerely, Garett Special Awards Team That “Exceeded Expectations” Dumbest Thing on the Whole Weekend Great Age Difference in a Victory Best Win Records Best Cookies at the Tournament Greatest Number of Carllie’s Chocolate Chip Cookies Eaten
Best Team Uniforms Deepest Voice Post Critical Rally Against Ontario Final Results: 1st BC #1 BC Team #1 |
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There
are detailed round robin tie-break rules that if you are tied in
matches (we beat ON 4-3, ON beat AB 4-3, and AB beat us 4-3) where
you go back to the score sheets to see total games won amongst the
tied teams. Daryl Foreman (Tournament Chairman), Al Tore (Tournament
Referee) and I sat down around the ping pong table with a gaggle
of various players to go through this whole mess of match sheets
to see if we could figure it out. It was to put it mildly a little
tense as we tried to interpret the wording of the rules with input
from everyone around the table. Finally we all agreed (sort of …)
that we had to determine the total games won by each of the “tied”
teams. We totaled it up from the match sheets that BC had 27, ON
had 26 and Alberta 22. Yes we were in! There was much cheering as
we were now going to be in the final. Most of the players left and
headed back to the hotel as we were past our dinner time. 
BC
#1 now faced Alberta #2 and BC #2 would play Alberta #1 for 5/6
place. Mark and Lorrie lost but Rashid and Laura won so we were
tied at 2-2 again. I had to play Ron Anderson and the consensus
was that I would have to win that match as we figured Diedre would
win her match and then it was a toss up with Dave playing Danny
Shannon. I played Ron Anderson but in the first couple rallies of
the first game I knew my legs were dead from my hard matches with
David Sly and David Safton. I did win somehow win the first two
games 11-9, 11-8 but then the wheels came off the wagon and faded
badly losing the third. The wagon completely blew up in the fourth
game as I went down 11-2. I was spent. We had a team huddle to try
to pick up any pieces of the wagon that we could still find that
were scattered all over the court. Rashid’s best advice was
to win the first rally of the 5th game. My teammates said Ron was
tired too. I did win that first rally and after a couple of few
more killer rallies we were at 3-3. It was all a blur after that
point. Usually I can remember what happens in these matches (to
the amazement of my wife) but not this time. There were a few lucky
bounces and a couple of tins by Ron and somehow I heard the ref
say “10-4 Match ball” and then it was over 11-5. We
won. Wow was I tired. We were now up 3-2 in matches and then Deidre
sealed the deal in 20 minutes for BC to finish first. Dave and Danny
decided not to play as it was getting late and we were up 4-2 and
so it was over.