JAMAICAN RACEHORSE TRAINER Andrew Nunes lost a five-game thriller to Dean Straker in the men's open division as the Barbados National Squash Championship continued on Tuesday night.

Nunes, currently the joint leading trainer with Liz Deane in wins (15) in the Barbados Turf Club's 2007 horse-racing season, won the first game but Straker rallied well and emerged winner of a fluctuating 50-minute tussle at the Barbados Squash Club, Marine Gardens venue, Christ Church.

In the opening game, Nunes used good length drives and crisp straight volleys to win, but Straker – playing some of the best squash of his career – countered well and stopped Nunes at eight in the second game.

Straker then swept imperiously through the third game before Nunes squared things by winning a hard-fought fourth game for the loss of six points.

The final stanza was the most exciting. Straker was poised for victory at 8-4, match ball, but Nunes grimly rallied back to 8-8 in a single hand.

Another surge took Straker to his third match ball which he duly converted when Nunes hit his final shot, a powerful overhead forehand smash, into the top of the tin to the relief of the victorious Straker, who completed a 6-9, 10-8, 9-2, 6-9, 10-8 victory.

Men's top seed Gavin Cumberbatch and No.2 and defending champion Shawn Simpson are yet to make an appearance at the tournament and the leading women begin competition today.

Karen Meakins, who took Guyana's world-rated Nicolette Fernandes to five games at the Southern Caribbean Championship final here last year, is aiming for her seventh consecutive women's national title. (CMC)