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January 2009

BC Masters Teams make PAR 5 in Calgary
by Garett Hennigan

The late Friday night healing circle in the bar at the Bow Valley Club spread as far as the eye could see with the 14 members of the two despondent BC teams. "Hi my name is Garett and I lost 3-0 in 14 minutes and 30 seconds. I feel bad and I am real sorry... and I don't like this new PAR to 11 scoring... and I don't like the super bouncy ball at 3,300 feet and .....and I don't like...". I was cut off with my teammates’ encouraging words of, "Thanks for sharing that", "You're with friends here", "We feel your pain", etc. As we went around the circle it turned out that we had somehow lost 19 of 21 matches in the space of just 7 hours (must be some type of Master's Team record). For all of us it was our first experience with the new scoring system and the harsh reality that when you fall behind early (as you tried to adjust to the bouncy ball and the hot courts) it isn't too long before you hear "game ball" and your opponent is serving with multiple game balls. After blaming all the usual suspects we did finally all come clean and admitted that we did not play well. The highlight match of the evening and best effort was Khoon losing to Danny Shannon 13-11 in 5 games.

The healing circle evaporated as the team headed back to Garett and Dave's luxurious suite at the Calgary International Suite Hotel (one of the event sponsors) for more food, discussion and drink. As the party finally winded down at 1 a.m. a little controversy developed when the last of the departing Alberta team members crossed paths with a good looking woman, who was not part of the tournament, entering Garett and Dave's suite. The misunderstanding was quickly cleared up the next morning before rumors began to fly when it was explained to the Alberta team members that the lady in question was actually Audra, Dave's wife.

Saturday morning’s matches came early and gave one last chance to the BC-A team to salvage the weekend if they could just beat Ontario and thus move to the final 4. With the Deidre, Brook and Laura all winning their matches it looked promising. All the men had to do was win one of four matches. It was not to be as all the guys lost with the ultimate determining match being my 70-minute drawn out affair (I now like PAR scoring – who knows how long it would have been) with Bill Lam only to lose 11-8 in the fifth. This set up a 5/6 playoff for Sunday morning between the two BC teams.

The Saturday dinner at the Bow Valley Club was not the typical buffet fare that squash players are used to. It was one of those fancy sit-down affairs with real white table cloth and all these extra forks and cutlery. The food was fantastic and the service great. Saturday after dinner entertainment turned out to be more on the social level of squash players with an introduction to the game of CRUD by Tom Brown of Manitoba. The one sentence description of the game is that it is played on a pool table with just the cue ball and the #8 black ball with each participant (10, 15 or more) each taking a turn to throw the cue ball to hit the #8 ball and keep it moving and if the 8 ball stops before you hit it you lose a life and three lives and you are out. We were playing the non-contact version which still seemed to have a lot of contact. Google "rules of CRUD" for full details.

This wild diversion kept most of us there until 1 am until there was no energy for any dancing or going out. Sunday morning came faster and fortunately with the hotel only 3 blocks from the club in downtown Calgary everyone could come at their own pace. Somehow Dave’s start times were at 12:30 pm on both days while mine were at 8:30 am. In the 5/6 playoff BC-A team defeated BC-B team in a replay of four years ago in Calgary. The top four teams were Alberta #1, Ontario, Alberta #2, and Manitoba (Note to Kevin: can you or someone else confirm 2,3, and 4 ???).

Many thanks to Ken Cross, the sponsors, the Bow Valley Club, Squash Alberta, Squash Canada and the team of volunteer referees for making the whole weekend another memorable event.

BC-A: Eng Khoon Chua, Dave Hall, Garett Hennigan, Murray Olsen, Deidre Smith, Laura Ramsay, Brook Macey. BC-B: Sasha Bkric, Mark Vance, Gerry Poulton, Tim Bale, Cindy Brown, Carol Richards, and Mechal Corbett

Garett Hennigan

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