Creek Club: Waite & Mudge Again
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2006; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Apr 10 , 2006     

Chris Walker Slowed by Freak Bowling Mishap
A tournament that began with three consecutive five-game first-round matches ended anticlimactically yesterday afternoon after a fluky but severely constraining Saturday-evening finger injury to Chris Walker while he and his partner Viktor Berg were bowling kept them from challenging two-time defending champions Gary Waite and Damien Mudge in what became a walkthrough final whose 15-5, 6 and 8 tally accurately portrays the degree to which a frequently wincing Walker was limited in his ability to properly grip his racquet or to exert anything approaching his usual pace and control.

Mudge, who entered the event still nursing a back injury incurred in last week's St. Louis final (which he and Waite barely won in a close five after leading 2-0 over Jamie Bentley and Paul Price) had been on the other end of a substantial final-round injury on the same Creek Club court three years ago when he incurred a concussion after slamming into Blair Horler in the second game which forced him and his partner Preston Quick to default to Horler and Clive Leach.

The quiet course of yesterday's final was in marked contrast to Friday afternoon/evening, which saw first Leach and Scott Butcher overcome four consecutive fourth-game match-balls against them and rally to victory over second seeds Quick and Ben Gould; then qualifiers Matt Jensen and Jeff Mulligan (who themselves had overcome a two-game deficit in their qualifying match against Joe Pentland and Jonny Smith) take fourth seeds Willie Hosey and Michael Pirnak to a fifth game; and finally Price and Bentley do the same to third seeds Walker and Berg.

Waite and Mudge, who finished off Friday's otherwise torrid action with a straightforward three-game win over qualifiers Whitten Morris and Michael Sabatine, then defeated Hosey and Pirnak in four games in the semi, as did Walker and Berg to Leach and Butcher, who had beaten them one week earlier in St.
Louis. Walker and Berg had defeated Waite and Mudge the last time these two teams met in a Cleveland semifinal two months ago, saving a match-ball-against in the fourth game before a one-sided 15-4 fifth that marked the first time in more than five years that The Champs had been eliminated short of the final.

The rematch was highly anticipated, especially in view of the several exciting prior matches between these duos, including a Big Apple Open semi in which Walker/Berg had led two games to love before being overtaken and an extremely high-quality North American Open final in January. The hope is that Walker will be fully recovered by the time the Kellner Cup begins in 11 days when all the top teams will be bidding for that coveted title.

Tournament Recap

Quarters: Gary
Waite/Damien Mudge d Michael Sabatine/Whitten Morris, 3-0;
Michael Pirnak/Willie Hosey d Matt Jensen/Jeff Mulligan, 3-2;
Chris Walker/Viktor Berg d Paul Price/Jamie Bentley, 3-2;
Scott Butcher/Clive Leach d Preston Quick/Ben Gould, 3-2.

Semis:
Waite/Mudge def Pirnak/Hosey
Walker/Berg def Butcher/Leach

Finals:
Waite/Mudge def Walker/Berg

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