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BUTCHER-BUFORD TRIUMPH IN SILVER RACQUET DOUBLES INVITATIONAL

By Rob Dinerman, Nov 5 2001

On a lovely first weekend of November, the top-seeded pairing of Scott Butcher and Beau Buford confidently strode through a twelve-team field to win the Squash Doubles portion of the 2001 Silver Racquets Invitational. This is an annual four-racquet-sport extravaganza at the Racquet & Tennis Club in midtown Manhattan, with hard racquets and court tennis doubles and singles tourneys along with the squash doubles, which had a definite home-club character to it-only one of the dozen team entries did not contain at least one R&T member or professional, and only the presence of Rick Wahlstedt prevented a semi-final line-up comprised exclusively of denizens of the host club! Notwithstanding the intramural flavor that therefore understandably permeated the event, the matches were well-played and competitive, but, as often happens, even in doubles, when one player is the class of the field, the aforementioned Butcher dominated the weekend.

Recently named to succeed Neal Vohr as head squash professional when the latter concludes

Scott Butcher, new R&T pro (ISDA photo)

his nearly two decades at R&T for a management position at Turner Hill in suburban Boston in a few months, Scott has dramatically improved his doubles game over the past year on the ISDA Pro Doubles Tour, where he currently holds a mid-teens ranking and has formed a solid team with fellow Aussie and former world top-three softball star Brett Martin.

Butcher played the left wall in winning this event last season with Morris Clothier(who opted for the court tennis tournament this weekend, where he won the singles), and demonstrated his versatility by winning from the right wall this time.

His retrieving skills and pace far out-distanced those of anyone else in the draw, and his accurate three-wall and unvolleyable lobs frequently created opportunities for Buford's shotmaking, especially his sharp backhand reverse-corner, which often bounced in front of an opponent whom Butcher had forced all the way to the back wall with one of his salvos.

This parlay led to pair of relatively comfortable straight-set victories in the quarters over the "all-Mac" duo of Carbonell and McAndrew(surprising first-round comeback victors over former mid-1990's Harvard teammates Sam Halpert and Ted Bruenner)and in the semis over R&T members John Burke and James McLain.

The bottom-half semi became somewhat disorderly, which was a shame given the two exciting five-game quarters that had produced what should have been a great Sunday morning match-up.

First Aashish Kamat and John Conway rebounded from a bad beginning to defeat Round Hill head pro Steve Scharff and Peter Burke, the second seeds; then three-time softball club champion Soli Mehta and Rick Wahlstedt rallied from 1-2 down to overcome Ryan O'Connell(whose deadly reverse-corner was a constant threat)and Jim Ardrey, with Mehta's three-wall nick-finding capabilities, especially as the fifth game wore on, being all the more noteworthy for coming from very deep in the court.

But the anticipated resultant semi-final match was thrown askew somewhat when Kamat had to leave town, causing a midstream line-up adjustment, with Burke subbing for the departing Kamat and joining Conway, the lone remaining member of the team that had defeated him the day before! As often happens when this kind of extemporaneity is required right in the middle of a tournament, this new alignment was unable to fully mesh, and Mehta and Wahlstedt were able to triumph in three. After dropping the opening game of the final at 9, Mehta and Wahlstedt then directed most of the play away from Butcher throughout the second game, with Wahlstedt angling his crosscourts where Buford had difficulty volleying them and the left-handed Mehta expertly mixing lobbed rails with his sharp forehand reverse-corner. This strategy paid off with a 17-14 win in the second game and a match whose outsome was suddenly thrown into question.

It was at this point, however, with the momentum starting to swing in their direction, that two important changes occurred, both of which swung the remaining two games to the eventual winners. First, Soli and Rick were unable to maintain the discipline required to keep the pressure on Buford, and second, Butcher began to extend his territory, often darting to the front left corner to balls directed there and handling most of the deep-court balls that he had previously left to his partner. He was especially effective in that latter role, and his excellent drop shots even from off the back wall led to mid-game runs in both the third and fourth, which ended convincingly and quietly at 11 and 8.

A deserving victory for the tournament winners, who dropped but a single game, and that in overtime, in their trio of matches, but a fine performance as well for the finalists, who improved on their semi-final finish in last year's Silver Racquets and picked up early-season momentum going into the important invitational events that lie ahead.

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This page will be covering and analyzing the ISDA Doubles tour, with results, updated rankings, photos, highlights and analysis throughout what should be a very exciting 2001-2002 season.