Western
Canadian Team Masters Regina Saskatchewan Jan 9 - 11, 2004
By Nick B. McLob III, PSA Tour
reporter for
International Squash Magazine, Longford, Middleton, UK
After travelling half way around the world to cover the exciting
PSA world Open in Pakistan in December, I was hoping I would get
a month off from living out of a suitcase and spend time covering
the local circuit in England. Unfortunately, this was not to be.
On January 4th, I was summoned into the chief editor's office
and informed that I was to go to Regina, Canada (Regina? where's
that?) to report on the Western Canadian Team Masters Tournament.
I was also instructed to take a low profile in this
assignment. Many times when I cover tournaments and introduce
myself as being from "International Squash Magazine"
people put a spin on their comments and interviews and so the
real story doesn't come out. So as something new I decided to
cover the tournament as a "fly on the wall" so I
could really get behind the scenes. This is probably why most
of you who will read this article will not have seen me or known
I was actually there listening and observing. Some members from
the BC #2 (Vancouver Island) team will no doubt speculate this
article was actually written by a member of the BC #1 team but
I can assure you this was definitely not the case.
There were a total of eight participating teams: two from BC,
Alberta and Saskatchewan, and one each from Ontario and Manitoba.
The tournament was extended to include Ontario because the Yukon
group could not make it. The Ontario group was very enthusiastic
about the format of the weekend, and
is already talking about putting together a similar tournament
for the eastern provinces. Each team consisted of seven players:
4 men in the following age categories: 40+, 45+, 50+, 55+; and
3 women in 35+, 40+, 45+.
The BC #1 Team (Mainland) was made up of: David Langevin, Garett
Hennigan, Steve Jacobs, Gavin Cooper, Tessa Breukels, Laura Ramsay,
and Sue Rittinger. The BC #2 Team (Vancouver Island) was made
up of: Scott MacInnis, James McKenzie, Kevin Kydd (on loan from
the Mainland), Gerry Poulton, Lorrie Baildham, Dawn Calder, and
Cathy Cockwill.
Everyone arrived Friday afternoon. Immediately there was controversy
as some of the members of the Vancouver Island group quite vocally
resented that they were the BC #2 team and not the BC #1 team.
When the BC #1 Mainland Team members explained to them that the
BC #2 name could be
changed to: BC Last Minute Team, BC-Very Late Team, or BCJust
Under the Wire Team, it seemed to quiet them down considerably.
The eight teams were split into two pools with a round robin in
each pool. On Saturday, BC #1 failed to advance to the Sunday
finals (against Alberta #1) when they lost two critical matches
to Ontario by a total of 3 points. David Langevin lost 10-9 in
the fifth to Fernando Pesano and then Garett Hennigan lost 10-8
in the fifth to Mike Bertin. Garett Hennigan was later harshly
demoted from Team Captain to merely Team Photographer for the
remainder of the weekend.
The result of Saturday's matches was that Ontario and Alberta
#1 would play for 1 / 2 on Sunday and BC#1 would play BC #2 for
3 / 4. Saturday night was capped off with a fabulous dinner, party,
and dancing for some. The night was marred by some comments from
the BC Vancouver Island team that the BC
Mainland team members were "Prima-Donnas". The BC Mainland
team took this in stride and refused to be pulled down and goaded
into an argument.
Before Sunday's matches, the BC Mainland Team attempted to negotiate,
in a very friendly way, a small adjustment to the play order to
avoid having David Langevin having to use his "hypothetical"
blistered and damaged feet. I couldn't believe my very small eyes
and ears (remember I am fly) when the BC Vancouver Island team
extorted from the Mainland the right to edit the article that
Garett Hennigan would be writing about the tournament in exchange
for the change in play order. The Mainland team had no choice
but
to comply with these demands. Fortunately, I was there to write
the article which then made it unnecessary for Hennigan to write
anything and perhaps have it tampered with by the Vancouver Island
Team.
Sunday produced a dramatic final between Alberta #1 and Ontario.
With the match score tied at 3-3, Danny Shannon and Mike Bertin
went 5 games with Danny pulling out a thrilling 9-7 in the fifth
giving Alberta #1 first place. The battle between the BC teams
came down to the last two matches where BC Mainland defeated BC
Vancouver Island 5-2. This finally settled the on-going weekend
debate of who was the #1 team. One thing I did note was that the
BC Mainland team had a guarded stock of special cookies
prepared by one of the wives of the team members. These cookies
were used as special reward and **only** given in a special ceremony
to Mainland Team members after each match. I was very surprised
that the Vancouver Island team did not launch some type of official
protest to have the cookies and/or the eaters tested for performance
enhancing substances.
After the awards ceremony the departing teams were whisked to
the airport for the return flights. A freak 3-hour fog storm cancelled
one of the flights and left half the BC players to spend one more
night in Regina and one Vancouver Island player stranded in Vancouver.
To test whether members of the
two BC teams were paying attention during the weekend, I have
a little self-evaluated quiz. Match up the items in List #1 with
the correct item in List #2:
List #1
