Wade, Yeager, Zug, Ford And Stokes Shine In Hardball Singles At Merion by Rob Dinerman Dateline January 12th
--- Still reeling from the recent news that the 2016 U. S. Hardball
Nationals will be the last one that US Squash will classify as an
official national championship, and stung as well by a follow-up
conference call this past Wednesday that had more than its share of
contentious moments, nearly three dozen hardball players responded to
these contingencies in the most productive possible way, namely by
playing their hearts out at the 54th annual William White Invitational,
hosted as always by the venerable Merion Cricket Club in suburban
Philadelphia. Adding poignancy to the occasion was the fact that
Merion’s three fabled hardball courts, on whose terrain the farewell
Nationals will be contested just seven weeks hence (on the weekend of
February 26-28), are themselves scheduled to be removed this coming
summer, and are therefore in their final run.
The courts, which are ringed with long lists of past winners and many
photos from trophy presentations of past years, are still in excellent
shape, and there seemed to be an element almost of defiance in how
keenly the players were competing throughout the weekend. From the
positioning, stroke production and precision of James Zug Sr. in his
70’s final-round win over Scott Ryan, to the brawny athleticism that
Gary Yeager evinced in capturing his 60’s final with Tefft Smith, to
the variety and consistency with which Peter Stokes took his 50’s final
against Tim Kent (with each of these players being a past winner of at
least one Hardball Nationals age-group title), all of the components of
classic hardball play were on full display. In the Open division, Rich
Wade defeated top seed Alex Stait in the semis and then prevailed
13-15, 15-10, 15-8, 15-12 over Chris Ehlinger in the final, and in the
40’s, the only flight of the five that was played as a round-robin
rather than a full draw, David Ford Jr. topped the four-player field.
Inevitably, some of the conversations around the courts and in the
gallery were tinged with sadness, but there was also considerable
resolve to make next month’s Hardball Nationals a truly special
occasion, both as a way of going out in style and, perhaps, as a signal
to the Association of what the future might hold. Notwithstanding the
dual punches to the solar plexus of the swiftly approaching doom of the
Merion courts and the US Squash decision to terminate the Hardball
Nationals after 2016, the hardball players showed with their passionate
play what a devoted and canny band they still are, and anyone who spent
this past weekend around them at Merion would have a difficult time
avoiding the sense that there may still be more chapters yet to be
written.
