2001 ICS
Top 32
by Jim Rutherford
Players from all the various Houston
squash venues met for this five-day round robin which generally decides
the best players in the city and gives every participant a final standing,
from 1 to 32. The format is simple: Andy Forster of International Computer
Services looks at the USSRA ratings list each year and invites the top
32 ranked players in the city to participate in the tournament. If someone
in the top can’t make it, he goes down the list until the draw contains
32 participants. This year the tournament could more properly have been
called “Old Pros and No Shows.”
Guy Cowan, returning after two years
of knee, shoulder and neck surgery, claimed the “Old Pro” and championship
title.Guy’s mastery of a wider variety of shots, including his exquisite
Queen Elizabeth lob, took him past a younger, fit-and-quick Chris Hakulin
3-0 in the finals.The right mixture of guile, experience and Irish beer
is a wonderful thing to behold!
Hakulin beat one of Houston’s perennial
top players and former winner of this event, Arthur Moure, on one side
of the semi-finals, while Cowan bested the new and improved version of
Rishad Alikhan on the other side.Alikhan later won the battle for third
place beating Moure 3-0.
The tournament was marred by the fact
that a couple of the top players in the city did not participate this year;
however, this did give a few of us an undeserved opportunity to run with
the big dogs—which is always fun. As is often the case, the matches in
the middle of the pack were the hardest fought.While there were many of
these, the one that bears specific mention was a five game marathon between
German Newall and John Leavy in which both players were injured, but fought
on until a nick by Leavy gave him a 15-14 victory.
The University Club hosted the event
and put on a good spread of food and drink. Cowan performed the difficult
hat trick of being tournament director, participant and winner.The professional
refereeing of Andy Forster and Kenny Rothstein was as entertaining as most
of the matches, with Rothstein finding it hard to resist making some hilarious
comments about the competitors while he refereed their matches. Good play
plus good food and drink equals great time!
