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	DOUBLES PAGES Doubles Home 02-03 Preview 02 Season Review 01-02 Statistics Doubles Calendar Origin of Doubles Doubles Archives COLLEGE USA Schedules Team previews DEPARTMENTS Latest news Tournament Calendar Bronstein Global Gallery Player of the month Videos History Pakistan Squash School Squash Camp Index Features Index Player Profiles Worldwide Clubs Worldwide Links Rankings Jobs More Good stuff: About Squash Just starting Books Juniors Squash Women's Squash Regional Reports		POWER DOUBLES UP IN TORONTO *Cambridge Doubles 2000* By E. Miles The list of champions at the Cambridge Club Doubles Squash Championship, world's richest professional doubles tournament, is illustrious. Since it was started at the Cambridge Club in Toronto in 1973, every great doubles player has found his way onto the silver plaque below the Jim Bentley Cup: Mike Pierce, Maurice Heckscher, Peter Briggs, Ralph Howe, Clive Caldwell, Tom Page, Todd Binns, Ned Edwards, Alan Grant, Mark Talbott, Larry Heath, Khans Gul, Mo and Aziz, Kenton Jernigan, Jamie Bentley and Gary Waite. POWER ADDS HIS NAME Now they will be adding a new name: Jonathon Power. Returning to his hometown of Toronto, Power had a remarkable eight day stretch. He took the Jim Bentley Cup and pocketed an estimated $11,000 and then went down Bay Street to the YMG Classic, a new softball singles event, and filched another $9,000. Who said squash wasn't lucrative? The Cambridge Doubles, of the two tournaments, was probably more in doubt. Power played in the event last year and came in third. This year all six of the teams in the tournament were mixed---one player from the doubles tour and one player from the singles tour. So no one knew who among the singles pros would turn out to be good at the strange game of hardball doubles. POWER"S FRIEND HILL TAKES IT SERIOUSLY Anthony Hill played in the tournament at the last moment last year and was terrible. Vowing to do better, he showed up a week early and trained seriously. The work paid off and he got to the finals. Graham Ryding on the other hand also showed up a week early and trained seriously, and so, paired with Cambridge Club pro Dean Brown, were seeded second. They split their matches and never got through the round robin. Simon Parke came the night before his first match and looked like a fish out of water. Brett Martin, now based at the Hartford Golf Club, looked comfortable only when he and partner Jamie Bentley switched sides late in their second match and allowed Martin to play the (easier) right wall. The seedings meant nothing. In part, that was because there were six relatively newcomers to the sport and in part because the seedings, so to speak, were done informally by the Cambridge Club members who bid on the teams in a Calcutta auction the night before the tournament started. Power & Willie Hosey went for $55,000 (Canadian) and the total for all six teams was $172,000 Canadian or about $115,000 in U.S. dollars. All this money was on top of appearance fees for the softball players and the $25,000 Canadian official prize money. None of the matches went to five games, but all but one went to four---which showed that although one softball player might start to get the hang of doubles, that wouldn't be enough to swing a victory. POWER'S HARDBALL INFANCY Power demonstrated the oft-said dictum that in doubles experience counts. He grew up playing hardball singles, unlike the other softballers (and his partner Hosey), and had played enough doubles over the years to know where to go and where to hit the ball. The finals provided the most excitement, as it pitted on the right wall Power against slugger Damien Mudge. Power at times wilted under the barrage of big hitting from Mudgie, but on match ball in the fourth he got his revenge. With an open ball hanging in the front, Power did his usual hold. It looked like a dropshot and Mudge went hurtling around Power's left side towards the front wall. With a flick of his wrist, Power then cranked a rail that dead-nicked on the back wall. A LOT OF ENERGY The capacity crowd roared with approval. And so did the numerous softball players who came by the club to watch the matches and play in the qualifying rounds of the YMG which were held at the club. More than one ooohed and aaahed over the brilliance of true hardball doubles and over $375,000 total prize money on the 2000-2001 pro doubles tour. There is a good chance that we might look back on the 2000 Cambridge Club Doubles as the start of a renaissance in North American professional squash.