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WAITE TIES RECORD IN CAMBRIDGE CLUB DOUBLES
TEAMS WITH MARK CHALONER TO DOWN POWER AND BROWN IN STRAIGHT GAMES

By Rob Dinerman, Nov 28 2001

GARY WAITE"S VERSATILITY
Mixed-doubles teammate, rising ISDA superstar, unknown amateur, even never-played-doubles softball specialist---it really doesn't seem to matter who Gary Waite's doubles partner in "special"(i.e. non-ranking)doubles tournaments is, in the last nine months he has escorted all of them to the trophy presentation.(He's also won every RANKING event he has played in since late January, but that's a story for a different article.)

Gary Waite - Doubles Standout (ISDA Photo by B Collier)

In late March he and Jessie Chai ended the seven-year skein of Keen Butcher and Demer Holleran in the final of the USSRA Mixed Doubles Championship. This was followed in early May by a successful journey to Bangkok with the dynamo Viktor Berg, with whom Waite had won four midseason ISDA ranking doubles events while Waite's usual partner, Damien Mudge, was sidelined with a severe wrist injury. Waite and Berg emulated their ISDA accomplishments by sweeping to victory in the Chiengmai Cup, which was hosted by the Royal Bangkok Sports Club and played with an international-ball on a regulation doubles court, a decidedly unusual environment that this pair effortlessly adapted to, in part by employing an innovative player alignment somewhat akin to an I Formation, with Berg way up in the court and Waite covering the rear. Then, just last month in St. Louis, Waite won the Khan Brothers Open with an amateur partner, Tom Beattie, with whom he had never ventured onto a court before their first-round match.

CAMBRIDGE CLUB CROWN
And finally, and most significantly, in the 28th edition of the prestigious Cambridge Club Doubles, held in downtown Toronto in its traditional time slot on the last weekend in November, Waite culminated an undefeated autumn 2001 by winning his record-tying fifth Cambridge Club title, losing but a single game in the process and combining with English softball star Mark Chaloner to overpower '99 British Open Champion(and defending Cambridge Club titlist)Jonathon Power and host club head pro Dean Brown 15-10, 8 and 11 in a thoroughly convincing final.

CAMBRIDGE CLUB EXPERIMENT

Mark Chaloner - learning fast (Photo by R Beck © 2001)

Last year, in a dramatic change of format, the host club decided to have each of the six teams comprised of a top ISDA doubles player and a top PSA softball player, and this novel approach proved so successful that, by popular acclaim, it was replicated this year with even better results.

The top softball players seemed especially enthusiastic and committed due to a confluence of factors. First, their own tour has been suffering of late, with several cancellations this autumn, including even the World Individual Championships when the sponsor tried to significantly lower the purse practically on the eve of the event, and the opportunity to compete for the $25,000 purse spread among only six team entries was therefore very alluring.

In addition, the word of the success of last year's event had quickly made the rounds, especially the experience of Brett Martin, a former top-three performer whose learning curve had progressed so substantially during the course of the 2000 event that shortly thereafter he joined fellow Aussie Scott Butcher to form what has quickly become one of the better teams on the ISDA tour, with both members listed in the top 15 of the most recently published version of the ISDA rankings. And finally, the world's best were by happy coincidence already in Toronto to compete in the YMG Championships, whose final was played on the same day that the Cambridge Club event began!

TOP PSA PLAYERS ENGAGED
As a result of the foregoing set of circumstances, only one top-five PSA player(Peter Nicol of Scotland)declined his invitation to participate in the Cambridge Club event and all five of the PSA invitees besides wild card Graham Ryding --- reigning British Open Champion and current No. 1 David Palmer,the aforementioned Canadian superstar Power, current No. 4 Martin Heath of Scotland the recent-past top-five rankees Chaloner and Paul Price---either presently are or recently were ranked in the world top-five in the international game.

J Power & D Brown - losing finalist team (Photos by D Tessier(l) , ISDA (r) © 2001)

The feeling was among squash aficionados who were present for both events that this year's crop of softball stars were better softball players, better doubles players and more enthused about playing in this competitive doubles forum than last year's group had been and that, with the precedents not only of Martin but also of other successful softball-playing converts to the growing ISDA tour like Chris Walker and Clive Leach, both of whom are now in the ISDA top eight in their first full year on the tour, some of these PSA players were quietly regarding this as a possible trial run if not for a career change at least for a career complement.

All of the top five-ranked ISDA players---Waite, Mudge, Berg, four-time Cambridge Club champ Jamie Bentley and defending co-champion Willie Hosey---of course accepted their invitations, and they were joined by wild card Dean Brown. There were two three-team round-robin pools, with the winners of each pool matching up in the final and the two second-place finishers playing in a 3rd/4th play-off. Waite and Chaloner actually lost their first and only game of the tournament to Ryding and Berg in Friday's opening session, following which Waite instructed his partner to simply camp out a few feet in front of the red line, cut off everything he could, rifle crosscourts with as much pace as possible and let Waite handle the retrieving of anything hit over or beyond Chaloner's reach.

CHALONER'S SKILL
The latter followed this directive so expertly that no other team had a chance, certainly not Friday's opponent, which succumbed 15-4, 7 and 8 after winning that initial game. Berg along with his new partner this season Hosey has reached two finals of the three ISDA ranking events so far in 2001-2002, while Ryding is an experienced and proficient doubles player who in fact teamed with Martin to win the first game and force a second-game overtime with Waite/Mudge in last spring's Kellner Cup. Especially as Chaloner's prepossessing doubles talent became increasingly clear as Friday's romp progressed, the ominous question began to arise: if Ryding/Berg couldn't avoid being overwhelmed by Waite/Chaloner, was there any reason to think any other team could?

In the other Friday match, Mudge, winner in '99 with Waite and finalist last year with Anthony Hill, combined with Price to defeat Heath and Bentley in three, with the last game going to a tiebreaker. When these Friday winners then lost in Saturday's morning's session, 15-13 in the fourth to Power and Brown(who anticipated a rare Mudge drop shot from up front, raced up and ripped a forehand rail winner on the match's final point), it set up an interesting scenario coming into the final match that afternoon. If Heath and Bentley could defeat Power and Brown in three games, they would win the pool and go on to the final, due to a tiebreaker format in which games lost and, if need be, points lost, would determine the winner if all three pool teams went 1-1 in their matches. However, if Heath/Bentley lost even one game, they would then be in the third-place play-off while Mudge and Price would go to the final. And if Power and Brown were able to win the match, THEY would play Waite and Chaloner(who by then had routed Hosey and Palmer, yielding double-figures in only one of the three games)in the final, and Mudge and Price would be in the 3rd/4th match Sunday morning.

POWER PULLS PATENTED COMEBACK
That is what wound up happening, but not before Heath and Bentley assumed a comfortable-looking 2-0, 5-1 lead, just 10 points from a coveted spot in the final. At that juncture Power---universally accepted as by far the best doubles player among the softballers(at least before Chaloner shocked everybody all weekend with his pace and volleying prowess)and in fact considered fully capable of a top-five ISDA ranking should he decide to direct his considerable skill and energy to the pro doubles tour---stopped tinning and started to impose his formidable game. Brown snapped into form as well, and they completely reversed the match's trend, rallying through the last trio of games at 8, 11 and 9 and thereby ushering themselves into the final, Mudge and Price into the consolation play-off and a deflated Bentley and Heath to the Sunday sidelines.

Berg and Ryding concluded their weekend with a pair of five-game wins first in their last pool match against Hosey and Palmer and then in the 3rd/4th play-off against Mudge and Price. Berg had displayed a hot shooting hand throughout the North American Open in Greenwich, CT the previous weekend, when he and Hosey had pushed Waite/Mudge to a fifth game in the final, and this admirable feature of his game rose to the fore as well in the winning fifth games of both of these matches in Toronto.

As noted, and as unfortunately sometimes happens even in top-flight tournaments like this one, this play-off contained all the suspense of Sunday's action, as Waite and Chaloner were in complete control of the ensuing final. They seemed to always be in front of Brown and Power, both positionally on the court and statistically on the scoreboard, with an increasingly confident Chaloner's ability to produce winners an unexpected storyline. That the latter's crosscourts(generated with a surprisingly small wind-up, especially in view of the pace and highly effective angles it kept creating)forced errors and loose balls from left-wall opponents the caliber of, sequentially, Ryding, Hosey and Power, is a tribute to Chaloner's athleticism and adaptability.

That Waite, whose Cambridge Club Doubles wins this year and with Mudge two years ago were preceded by titles with Bentley in '95 and '96 and with Scott Dulmage in '93, has now equalled the recently-deceased Tom Page(who won in '81 and '82 with Mike Pierce and in '87, '88 and '90 with Todd Binns), is yet another hallmark of his ongoing greatness. And that the entire event came off so beautifully, with the spacious gallery packed for every session, is another heartening example of the giant strides the ISDA professional tour continues to make with every successful event that occurs under its aegis.

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To reach Rob Dinerman write to robd@squashtalk.com

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