And you thought squash was more of a sprint!!!!

Renan Lavigne, the #1 seed from France, edged Joey Barrington, the #2 seed from England, 3-2 in 110 minutes in the finals of the North Shore Credit Union/Comfort Inn Open played at the Evergreen Squash Club in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

Lavigne took the first game 11-5 in a relatively quick 12 minutes that gave no indication of how the rest of the match was to be played as none of the subsequent games took less than 20 minutes.

Lavigne took the second game 12-10(2) in 26 minutes as both players reached deep to try to discover weaknesses in the other. The game see-sawed back and forth so much that neither player was ahead by more than 1 point until Lavigne won the tiebreaker.

Barrington attempted to shift the momentum in the 20 minute 3rd game but could not gain more than a 1 point lead until the final 2 points to win 11-9. You can imagine how grueling the pace was for the players as they dueled primarily on the backhand, with length being the primary shot.

Finally, in the 4th, Barrington grabbed some momentum and won the 1st 2 points, followed by Lavigne winning the next 3 points, Barrington winning the next 5 points in a row followed by the next 4 of 7 point for the 11-6 win in 20 minutes. The packed gallery was exhausted, let alone the players.

The final game, which took 24 minutes, saw Barrington roaring out to a convincing 7-3 lead only to see the very gritty, focused Lavigne inch his way back to a 9-7 deficit and then winning the next 4 points for the victory.

The consensus seemed to be that we had witnessed squash at it's finest. Beautiful strokes, unfathomable fitness, momentum shifts and genuine sportsmanship evidenced throughout the match.

The PSA has every reason to be proud of these young men, not only Messrs Lavigne & Barrington, but all the PSA players who participated in this year's tournament - and our 2005 event as well. Their conduct was exemplary and it was a pleasure to have them participate in our squash community. We can hardly wait for next year.

Now, maybe the rest of us should get moving on that New Year's "fitness" resolution!!!!

Paul Marley
2006 North Shore Credit Union/Comfort Inn Open
Tournament Committee