Corrections To The (Numerous) Errors In Squash Magazine’s February 2016 Cover Article About Ben Gould’s Retirement by Rob Dinerman
Dateline February 19th ---
The feature article, “The Gould Standard: Ben Gould Retires”, which
runs from Pages 22-29 in the current edition of Squash Magazine (whose
front cover has a full-page photo of Gould and his long-time doubles
partner Damien Mudge), has a large enough number of factual errors and
inaccuracies for DSR to feel a need to clear them up in an effort to
set the historical record straight.
The list begins on the left-hand
column of the very first page of copy, Page 23, which notes that
Mudge/Gould lost in the final of the 2011 Briggs Cup to Manek Mathur
and Yvain Badan. In reality, Mathur/Badan rallied from love-two to beat
Mudge/Gould in the SEMIS of that tournament before then defeating Clive
Leach and Matt Jenson in the final.
Then on Page 24, there
is a photo of Gould and Paul Price (clad in black) playing against
Mudge and Viktor Berg (wearing whites) whose caption identifies the
match as having occurred in the 2010 Kellner Cup --- but the match in
question was actually the final of the Kellner Cup two years earlier,
in 2008, since in 2010 Mudge/Berg lost to Jenson/Leach in the semis and
therefore never played Price/Gould, who beat Jenson/Leach in that 2010
Kellner Cup final.
Two pages later (i.e. on Page 26),
there is a photo with the caption, “Gould hoists the 2013 World Doubles
trophy, and Mudge the 2013 Kellner Cup,” implying that the pair won two
separate tournaments, whereas in fact the two titles were conflated
into one tournament that year.
And on the page directly after that,
Page 27, the writer states, “From October 2007 through the end of the
2009-10 season, Price and Gould and Waite and Mudge captured every one
of the 34 full-ranking pro events, with each team winning 17, and Price
and Gould having a 9-8 advantage head-to-head in their 17 finals.” But
Waite retired after the 2006-07 season, and it was Mudge and BERG who
battled Price/Gould during that three-year rivalry, not Mudge and
Waite, since the latter didn’t play in a single pro doubles tournament
with Mudge or anyone else during that entire span.
