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Heights Casino Final: Waite & Mudge Dominate
By Rob Dinerman, Feb 25, 2007    
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2007 SquashTalk LLC

In a determined and dazzling display of the skills and wills that had characterized their prolonged dominance of the ISDA pro tour for nearly a decade before being displaced from the No. 1 ranking this season by their final-round opponents Paul Price and Ben Gould, Gary Waite and Damien Mudge completely controlled their Heights Casino final-round clash this afternoon against their season-long tormentors en route to a 15-9, 10 and 10 victory.

In so doing, Waite and Mudge garnered this prestigious championship for the record-breaking sixth consecutive time, finally got on the scoreboard against Price and Gould, who had posted a 4-0 mark against them this season prior to today, won their third ISDA tourney of the season (preceded by Vancouver in November and Wilmington in December) and emphatically announced their unwillingness to cede the top ranking that they have held so proudly for so long.

Unlike their quartet of prior 2006-07 meetings (in the semis in Baltimore and the finals in New York, Greenwich and Rye), in most of which either Waite or Mudge or both had been hampered by ailments of one sort or another, this time both were in top form physically, while Gould was playing through a sore foot, Price’s back was bothering him, and both of them were showing the effects of the pair of five-game matches (against first Scott Butcher/Clive Leach and then John Russell/Preston Quick, who fell just short 15-13 in that final frame) that they had struggled through on Saturday. (Price’s day was further extended by a performance his band gave that night at the Lion’s Den on Manhattan’s west side.)

Also unlike those four pre-Heights Casino losses, in which Waite and Mudge several times won the opening portion of the match only to falter later on, this time they left nothing to chance, racing off to a 5-0 lead in the third game and never allowing their increasingly direction-less and tin-prone opponents an opportunity to work their way back into the match.

Whether this outcome is a one-shot interruption in an otherwise dominant season-long performance from Price and Gould or a harbinger of a Waite/Mudge return to the top remains to be seen; in any event, with only four ISDA ranking tournaments (Denver, Philadelphia, Long Island and San Francisco) left on the schedule, nothing short of a clean Waite/Mudge sweep (and maybe not even that) would seem to be enough to deny Price/Gould the No. 1 season-end ranking.

But this afternoon’s rout does show that the proud pair of victorious warriors (who thereby won their milestone 75th ISDA ranking title as partners, more than 10 times the total of any other pairing) are very much back in the hunt and that, when they are “right” and on their game, they are fully capable to winning any crown they set their sights on.

Tournament Recap

Rd of 16:
Paul Price/Ben Gould bye;
Scott Butcher/Clive Leach d Stefan Castelyn/Whitten Morris, 3-1;
Willie Hosey/Mark Chaloner d Joe Pentland/Steve Scharff, 3-1;
John Russell/Preston Quick bye;
Chris Walker/Viktor Berg bye;
Michael Pirnak/Tyler Millard d Alan Grant/Taylor Fawcett, 3-1;
Matt Jensen/Jeff Mulligan d Doug Lifford/Ayman Karim, 3-2;
Gary Waite/Damien Mudge bye.

Qtrs:
Price/Gould d Butcher/Leach, 3-2;
Russell/Quick d Hosey/Chaloner, 3-2;
Walker/Berg d Pirnak/Millard, 3-0;
Waite/Mudge d Jensen/Mulligan, 3-0.

Semis:
Price/Gould d Russell/Quick, 3-2;
Waite/Mudge d Walker/Berg, 3-0.

Final:
Waite/Mudge d Price/Gould, 3-0.

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