Scott Arnold And Robin Clarke Successfully Defend Canadian National Doubles Crown by Rob Dinerman
Open Champions Scott Arnold and Robin Clarke, Finalists Thomas Brinkman and Will Mariani
Dateline April 13th
--- Faced with an enormously important third-game
simultaneous-game-ball challenge in a match in which to that juncture
the teams found themselves completely deadlocked, statistically and in
every other way as well, second seeds and defending champions Scott
Arnold and Robin Clarke came up with the needed winner --- on an
inside-out backhand roll-corner that right-waller Arnold hit from the
middle of the court with so severe an angle that it died in the front
left --- and arm-fought their way through a close fourth game as
well to emerge with a hard-earned 15-7 13-15 15-14 15-13 victory Sunday
afternoon over No. 1 seeds Will Mariani and Thomas Brinkman in the
final round of the Men’s Open division of the 2015 Slaight Music and
Ridley Windows & Doors Canadian Doubles Championships,
headquartered at the Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club. In the
year that has passed since Arnold and Clarke first burst onto the
squash doubles scene with their triumph in the 2014 edition of this
championship, they have established themselves as a solid team on the
SDA pro doubles circuit, including winning a Challenger event in
Pittsburgh in early February, and in yesterday’s match, involving four
players all of whom have won this title in recent years (Mariani did so
with Ian Power and Brinkman with Gary Waite), they once again
demonstrated the athleticism and teamwork that have served them so well
all season. Both teams scored straight-set semifinal wins, with Mariani
and Brinkman out-playing Iain Crozier and Colin West, while Arnold and
Clarke rode a 15-14 first-game tally to their eventual win over last
year’s finalists Fred Reid Jr. and Michael Pirnak.
The Arnold/Clarke successful title defense(which was
clinched on an Arnold cross-court that nicked cleanly in front of
Mariani on match-ball), along with the peremptory manner in which Steph
Hewitt and Seanna Keating soared to a three-love victory over
three-time Women’s Open defending champions Dana Betts and Jess
DiMauro, were the highlights of the weekend, which began with
Thursday-evening ceremonies in which Jay Gillespie, Melanie Jans,
Barbara Cooper and the late Mark Sachvie were inducted into the Ontario
Squash Hall of Fame, and which also featured some
rivetingly-competitive age-group battles at all stages of the draw.
Perhaps most notably, in the Men’s 40 draw, which began with six teams
before three of them had to withdraw, resulting in a three-team
round-robin, first James Hewitt and Chris Deratnay ran off the last 10
points after trailing Willie Hosey and Ed Garno 10-5 in the fifth, with
Hewitt producing more than a half-dozen winners during that stretch;
then, just a few hours later, Jeff Mulligan and Scott Stoneburgh beat
Hosey and Garno, also in five; and in a Sunday summit that effectively
constituted a final, Mulligan and Stoneburgh prevailed, albeit barely,
in a close four.
Top seeds Dave Rosen and Nigel Thain proceeded through the
45’s draw without dropping a game, as did Paul Deratnay and Taylor
Fawcett in the 50’s, though the score of the second game of their final
against top seeds Bill Ullman and Bart Sambrook was 15-14. But in the
55’s, in which neither of the top-two seeds survived their opening
match, eventual champs and unseeded first-time partners Eben Hardie and
Rob Dinerman lived incredibly dangerously and were forced to play from
behind all weekend, especially in a Friday-evening quarterfinal in
which, after losing two of the first three games, they trailed David
Jarvis and Scott Van Kampen 10-7 in the fourth, and later 13-9 in the
fifth before winning the last six points. In the final against
Gillespie and Namsoo Oh, Hardie and Dinerman again fell behind two
games to one, but staged a late 9-2 spurt to close out the fourth and
sprinted to a 15-3 tally in the fifth game, their 18th out of a
possible 20 in their draining four-match run.
The five upper-level men’s age-group events were all won
by the top-seeded teams, with Sandy Tierney and Sean McDonough
defeating Malcolm Davidson and Steve Hisey in the 60’s final, John
Boynton and Tim Griffin doing the same to Brian Murray and Stephen
Mcintyre in the 65’s final and Molson Robertson and Tony Swift winning,
15-14 in the third, over Tom Poor and Peter Hall in the 70’s final. The
Men’s 75’s and 80’s were both three-team round-robins and were won by
Ritchie Bell and Don Mills (without losing a game) and Trevor Bishop
and Peter Holland respectively.
In the women’s age-group competition, top seeds Michele
Ramsey and Jody Warden eked out a closely-contested 15-11 fifth-game
40’s final over Annette White and Kirsteen Burton; Robbin Morrison and
Tammie Sangster similarly fulfilled their top-seeded standing with a
3-0 final in the 45’s over Cathy Brown and Ruth Castellino; Leslie
Freeman and Jann Taylor took a tight four-game 55’s final against Cathy
Tuckwell and Megan Hill, with 15-14 scores in both the third and fourth
games; and Lolly Gillen, back in action after missing much of the
season rehabbing after shoulder surgery in October, teamed up with
Susan Kaffka to take the 60’s flight. The tournament also offered a
Men’s B (won by Tony Lusiba and Aaron Zenner), a Women’s B (won by
Shivani Ruparell and Sybylle Witt) and a Men’s C, the largest draw of
all with 31 teams, from which Colin Chisom and Byron Goodwin emerged as
champions.
Overall, there were 142 teams, one of the largest turnouts in the
history of this event, and a tribute to the Tournament Committee, known
as "The Cricket Dream Team", which was composed of Co-Chairs Debie
O’Neill and Pat Richardson, along with the host club’s pros Pat Ryding
and Robin Clarke, with Bill Richards overseeing the draws, Tim Mallory
serving as the Tournament Referee, live streaming of many matches by
Josh Ginou and a host of volunteers at all levels of the operation.
Gary Slaight was responsible for the Slaight Music being a prime
sponsor, and Jon LeHeup and Don and Doug Bannan secured the sponsorship
of Ridley Windows & Doors. The three doubles clubs in the main
venue saw constant action throughout the three-day event, as did the
Granite Club, Mayfair and the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, and the
galleries at every locale were packed with enthusiastic supporters.
There is always an unmistakable buzz of happy energy permeating the
Canadian National Doubles that far exceeds its U. S. counterpart,
imbuing this tournament with a distinctive spark and excitement, and
this year fully lived up to that legacy. Many of the participants
exited the arena already looking forward to the 2016 Canadian National
Doubles, scheduled to be held for the first time out west in Calgary,
Alberta.
