The four top seeds advanced to last night quarter-finals of the Barbados Olympic Association’s 38th annual National Squash Championships at the Barbados Squash courts without dropping a game against their unseeded opponents.
Defending champion and top seed Bryant Cumberbatch defeated Andrew Nunes 11-2, 11-1, 11-1, while the other Cumberbatch siblings also won comfortably.
No. 3 seed Gavin Cumberbatch whipped Jasper Seymour in straight games 11-4, 11-3, 11-4, but Rhett Cumberbatch, the No. 4 seed, had to work a bit harder against promising junior Zaki Williams before winning 11-8, 11-5, 11-6.
In a competitive match between two of the tallest players in the island, No. 2 seed Shawn Simpson won in straight games 11-7, 11-3, 11-8 against Under-19 champion Matthew Mackenzie, who played well and retrieved many of Simpson’s powerful shots to the astonishment of the spectators.
In another match of the main draw, eight-time national champion Mark Sealy, efficiently dispatched Randy Clarke, who seemed hampered by a leg injury 11-1, 11-4, 11-3.
But veteran Nigel “The Dragon” Griffith had to work very hard to quell the challenge of Tony Mackenzie who, after dropping the first two games, fought back gamely to take the next two and take the match into a deciding fifth game before losing 12-10, 11-7, 7-11, 8-11, 11-6.
Jonathan O’Dowd also had to fight to stave off unseeded Cliff Nolan before winning in four games, 11-7, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7. After getting to match ball, Don Benn defaulted against the lucky national veteran’s representative Leon Truss 8-11, 7-11, 3-10 (retired). (EZS/PR)
