EvenSquash: RESULTS: Saturday June 3

The Oracle said he was not the one

...but he won!

Paul M. (5.5) aka, Squash Neo

Wow! - I mean 16 players - WOW! We had a great turnout with a full tournament. AND of the 16 players, Paul M. (5.5) was the tourney's heavy... and just because he won, didn't mean it was easy or without pressure! Of Paul's 12 games, had to give weight to all his opponents and many of the matches went to the last point. Paul came out of the gate with a tough first match against the seasoned Chris M. (3.5) (some would say 4.0 or better). The match spread meant that Paul had to get 17 points before Chris made 4. It was close with Chris taking the first game 4-9, then Paul with 17-2, and finally Paul 17-3. And that was just warm up for Pauls' next big match against Justin D. (5.0), a highly skilled player, but Justin was just not able to keep up with Paul. Paul continued through the winner's bracket against other solid players like Paul D. (3.5) and Carl N. (3.0). Here's the kicker: Paul had to play Carl twice! Once in the winners bracket and then after beating Carl down in to the losers bracket, Carl fought back through the losers' bracket to play Paul in the finals!. All in all, it was exciting and a lot of great squash was played. Congratulations to Paul M. (5.5) for winning his first Squash SMASH Tourney and taking home 1st Place's prize of $160!

1. Paul M. (5.5) - $160

2. Carl N. (3.0) - $100

3. Chris M. (3.5) - $40

4. Sam F. (3.5) - $20

The final brackets

It wasn't all about Paul M. though... There were lots of great players with some spectacular matches. Here's one: Paul D. (3.5) up against the junior Joaquin F. (2.5) in the first round and Joaquin scared Paul with a closer match that he wanted by winning the first game. Paul D. came back but the final game went down to the last point. Sam F. (3.5), in from Woodstock and has played in a couple of the EvenSquash SMASH tourneys and finishing 3rd once went up against Luis P. (3.0) who has played in a lot of these tourneys (actually ranked #27 on the SMASH Winners' Circle). Luis P. pushed Sam down into the loser's bracket in the first round. Sam would play 11 more games to finally bow out to Chris M. (3.5) and take home 4th place.

The nice thing about the EvenSquash SMASH format is that anyone can play anyone and you just don't know who you'll match up with. In some cases, someone new, in some matches, you play someone you regularly play. And face-offs with familiar faces is exactly what happened to Jeff D. (3.0) vs. Alejo C. (3.5), Jim C. (3.5) vs. Jeff D. (3.0), Luis P. (3.0) vs. Chris M. (3.5), Cat G. (2.5) vs. Alejo C. (3.5), and Wayne J. (4.5) vs Chris M. (3.0). Does playing a familiar face make the match easier or harder? No telling, but one thing for sure - at the last point someone will advance closer to first place. Other players like Courtney W. (3.0), Cat G. (2.5), and Roland D. (3.0) got a good mix of new and old faces.

Speaking of new faces... this was a first time showing for Allan D. (3.0), Carl N. (3.0), Paul D. (3.0), Paul M. (5.5), Justin D. (5.0). Thanks for for coming out everyone and hope you'll be back!

All in all it was a blast! Special thanks to Andre 'Legend' Maur (∞.5) for allowing us access to the tourney beer and for reserving all the courts for us!

Below are some great pics n vids and more free commentary... free as in not worth one cent.

Check the side bar for the latest Squash SMASH Tourney's Winner's Circle and other info about the EvenSquash handicap system and tournaments.

Stay tuned - We'll probably run another squash SMASH tourney on Saturday, June 17th....

Wait... so squash is not just like racquet ball?
- Bob -