Scott Arnold And Steph Hewitt Capture Canadian Mixed Doubles Crown by Rob Dinerman photos courtesy Lolly Gillen
Dateline April 30th
--- Trailing 12-10 in what had clearly become a pivotal third game, top
seeds Scott Arnold and Steph Hewitt conjured up a five-point run that
keyed their eventual 15-13, 11-15, 15-12, 15-8 victory Saturday evening
over 2014 champions Robin Clarke and Nikki Todd in the final round of
the 2016 Hennessy & Hinchcliffe Canadian Mixed Doubles Squash
Championships before a packed and appreciative gallery at the Toronto
Cricket, Skating & Curling Club. The outcome represented the fifth
win with as many different partners in the past six years for Hewitt,
who previously had successfully had teamed up in this event with her
husband James Hewitt in 2011, with Scott Dulmage in 2012, with Scott
Stoneburgh in 2013 and with Will Mariani a year ago. It also marked the
first time that SDA partners Arnold and Clarke, who have won the
Canadian National Doubles each of the past three years while ascending
into the top tier of the North American pro doubles circuit (including
winning an SDA tour stop at the Cricket Club earlier this month), had
ever opposed each other in tournament play, and their extraordinary
pace and athleticism, combined with an undulating and extremely
high-quality battle along the right wall between Todd and Hewitt, made
for a fascinating and entertaining hour-long battle of skills and will.
Each pairing had won its semifinal match in this four-team draw in
convincing fashion --- with Clarke/Todd out-playing the husband/wife
team of Graham Ryding and Marnie Baizley and Arnold/Hewitt prevailing
in four over Seanna Keating and Brian Hong --- and the final
ultimately swung on the ability of the eventual winners to come up with
short but decisive game-ending runs at the end-stage of both the first
game (where they went from 12-13 to 15-13, with Hewitt burying a
shallow forehand rail at game-ball) and the third, in which Arnold
scored on screaming drives down to perfect length down the right wall
and Todd, who did an admirable job throughout the match of handling
Arnold's intimidating heat, volleyed an overhead into the tin on the
final point. Buoyed by the fact and fashion with which they had rescued
that game, Hewitt and Arnold were able to break open the fourth in
mid-game and sprint exuberantly across the finish line.
By that juncture, Hewitt had found the range on her sharply-angled
forehand reverse-corner, four of which she nailed for winners during
that game, Arnold’s ferocious attack had his opponents on their heels
(opening the front-court), and the cumulative effect of the pressure
they constantly exerted took a toll in the form of tins and (on
match-ball) a stroke call when an off-balance Todd hit a ball back at
herself with Hewitt poised right behind her. Both Arnold and Hewitt had
committed several tins late in the second game (during which Todd had
scored on a variety of front-court winners and Clarke had played his
best squash of the night) but they were immaculate in their 20-8
match-closing run and emerged as richly deserving champions.
During the trophy presentation, the first annual Jay Gillespie Award,
in honor of the Canadian squash doubles icon who succumbed after a
three-year battle with pancreatic cancer this past winter, was
presented to his son Sean, after which a reception was held to bid a
fond farewell to Clarke, who after five productive years at the Cricket
Club will be moving on in June to assume the head pro position at a new
club, Ten-X, which will open at Exhibition Place in down-town Toronto
this autumn.
