Cadogan, Carpenter, Persaud win big on 1st night

Bounty Farm Ltd Handicap Squash

The squash fraternity opened their 2019 season in the most exciting way possible with a handicap tournament, which began on Tuesday evening at squash’s home – the Georgetown Club.
The Bounty Farm Ltd Handicap Squash Tournament, like any other tournament of this nature, seeks to give players handicaps, playing on any weakness and thus levelling the playing field for all players. No doubt, this format makes for a riveting competition.
On opening night, the Georgetown Club courts were flooded with players of varying seeds who were drawn in Category A. However, there were no surprises in Tuesday evening’s encounters, with Kirsten Gomes and Abosaide Cadogan not dropping a single point in their opening matches. Wins from Mohyran Baksh, Dhiren Persaud, Gianni Carpenter, Demetrius DeAbreu and Nicholas Verwey also secured their place in the next round of this first tournament for 2019.
There was a restrained sense of excitement as is customary in these handicap tournaments where one mistake can mean the game when high positive scores match up with low ones. Carpenter (-6) had his close call against Abhinav Singh (14). Carpenter soared through his negative handicap in the first game for a clean slate of 21 points to the win. On his second climb, he was cut short at 4-15 by a killer drop from Singh. A focused Carpenter was careful to come through in the third game with another clean sweep to win 15-14, 4-15, 15-14.
The only other match of the night that went to three games was between evenly scored Persaud (11) and Teija Edwards (11). The two players were even after a 14-15 win for each in games one and two. Despite a valiant effort from Edwards, who came from 14-7 down in the second game to level at 14-14 on match point, she couldn’t hold on and succumbed 14-15. A determined Persaud made up his mind to push through with a more calculated third game to take the match 14-15, 15-14, 15-7.
In other notable encounters, Cadogan (-4) had a regular day at the office with a straight win over Arvin Seelall (12) 15-13, 15-13. Kirsten Gomes (-4) also made the most of her handicap with a victory over Louis Da Silva (7) 15-13, 15-13.
With Grant Fernandes (13) holding on to the advantage, Nicholas Verwey (-8) overcame his adversary with a 15-13, 15-14 win. Meanwhile, Baksh (-3) also ignored his opponent’s advantage and took an opening night win when he met with Kayden Pynaendy (13) in a 15-14, 15-13 match.
Demetrius DeAbreu (-4) also joined the victors on opening night after defeating Aishanti Persaud (11) 15-12, 15-11.