Guinness Senior National C/ships Competitive Squash highlights opening night

By Sean Devers

WATCHED by a fair - sized gathering at the Georgetown Club on Camp Street, competitive Squash highlighted the opening night of Guinness Senior National Championships on Tuesday with Brian Young and Brian Edwards matching racquets in the longest game of an entertaining evening

With the not so young Brian Young jumping out to an 11-3, 11-7 lead, the third game tested the stamina of the over-50 veterans as both players refused to lose Edwards took an early lead in the third set but Young got back into the contest with some excellent squash to level the scores at 10-10

But everytime Edwards was on game point Young would win the next point until an exhausted Edwards finally managed to take the game 19-17

However , that was the only game Edwards won as Young took the fourth stanza 11-2 to win the match 3-1.

Rob Edwards beat Dennis Dias in an- other energy-sapping match-up between the pair as Dias looked to turn back the clock before Edwards eventually took the over-50 match 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 12-10 while Narendra Singh defeated Lloyd Fung-a-Fat 11-7, 11-7, 11-13, in the other over-50 contest

In the Women ’ s National draw , Kirsten Gomes beat Malia Maikoo 11-1, 11-1, 11, while Larissa Wiltshire got past Safirah Summer 11-2.11-2, 11-6 in the other Women’s match of the Evening.

In the Men’s draw, Ben Mekdeci beat Josh Verwey 11-1, 11-4, 11-4, Jason Van Dijk beat Chad De Abreu 11-7, 11-3, 11-

4, Steven Xavier got the better of Andrew Peroune 11-4, 11-4, 11-5, Peter de Groot beat Richard Rodrigues 11-3,11-1, 11-3, Samuel Ince - Carvalhal defeated Justin Ten-Pow 11-3, 11-4, 11-5, Jerazeno Bell beat Lee Fung - a - Fat 11-2 , 11-6 , 11-1 , Jonathan Antczak defeated Dane Pereira 11-2, 11-8, 11-7 and Michael Alphonso beat Miguel Wong 11-0, 11-2, 11-6 points) all ahead of him

The action was scheduled to continue last evening.

The task, however, is not daunting

“Last event, I had two second place finishes and one Did Not Finish (DNF) and that DNF cost me But there is nothing I can do about it now I just need to put my head down and drive to recover those points.”

“I think the car is good enough to do the job and the Darthan team have again done a massive job of preparing the car as we head into round two,” Muir added

Jiwanram Sees Promising Signs From The Swift

Meanwhile, the Suzuki Swift of Paul Jiwanram showed promise in round one despite him exiting the first race early due to a damaged back hub

He, however, returned in the second and the third race, finishing fifth both times to cap off the weekend

“Round one started well for us, the car was showing promise in the street tuner until we had an unfortunate in- cident with another competitor That ended our first race.”

We were able to back out in races two and three and I think we did decent considering the damage the car had sustained in race one This round we are aiming for podiums.”

“But these [incidents] are some of the things I think the officials need to look at and rope in; there are a lot of new drivers on track not observing the rules and etiquette of driving It is something I hope the stewards and race officials look at come Sunday for round two.”

Jiwaram’s Suzuki is sponsored also by Leading Technology , Ad Nation Guyana , Helix Signs , Emagination , Ricks and Sari, and Elite Imports.

All the cars are built and maintained by Arshaad Hassan of A’s Automotive with the team’s manager being Davin Pandy

Sunday ’ s second round of the GMRSC Circuit Racing Championship commences at 10:00hrs.