Nyron Joseph and Michael Alphonso withstood the pressures of some stiff challenges to secure championship honours in the Open and Category ‘A’ respectively when the Bounty Farm Limited Handicap Squash tournament concluded on Sunday at the Georgetown Club Courts.
The respective category winners and runners-up with Guyana Squash Association Vice President David Fernandes
Joseph had to pull on all his years of experience to tame young star Alex Cheeks for the Open title while Alphonso used great skill and precision to defeat Abosaide Cadogan.
With a -22 handicap, Joseph had to score a total of 37 points to win one set while opponent Cheeks with -3 needed 18 points and the close-knit battle produced all the fireworks to appease the sizeable audience present.
Albeit with a niggling hand injury Joseph won the first set easily 15-2 but Cheeks rebounded to secure a -5-15 win in the next. Down to the third set, fatigue certainly began telling on both players and they were going point for point until Joseph pulled ahead to win 15-9.
In the third-place play-off, Nicholas Narine took care of Adam Alves having to overcome a -12 to Adam’s +5 handicap. Nicholas could not climb fast enough in the first game but buckled down in the second and third to win 6-15, 15-11, 15-7.
The plate final for the category saw Roberto Natiello (10) defeating Samuel Ince-Carvalhal (5) 15-14, 11-15 and 15-9
Over in Category ‘A’, Alphonso was on true form against Cadogan who put up a good fight but was unable to overcome his genius deception as he came back from -6 to win 15-6 and 15-11 while in the third place showdown Kirsten Gomes withstood the promising signs shown by young James Meckdeci to win 15-6 and 15-11.
Their plate finals saw Nicholas Verwey (5) edge ahead of Kamir Khan (7) 15-9, 14-15 and 15-9 while Zachary Persuad (0) sauntered to an easy victory over Osmand Mack (3) 15-6 and 15-8.
The five-day event saw 50 players compete vigorously in the two categories from which respective winners were rewarded trophies. (Akeem Greene)
