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Pierce And Clothier Win US Century Doubles Open Title
By Rob Dinerman, Mar 3, 2008    
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2008 SquashTalk LLC

Three Other Competitive Flights As Well

Forced to fifth games three times in their four matches, second seeds Michael Pierce and Morris Clothier rose to the occasion each time, holding their opponents to single digits in each fifth game and culminating their arduous but productive path to the trophy presentation of the U. S. Century Doubles Championships (for players with a combined age of at least 100) with an 18-13 10-15 15-13 10-15 15-8 final-round victory Sunday afternoon over top seeds Ned Edwards and Gordy Anderson before a packed gallery at the tournament-headquarters University Club Of New York.

In truth, neither finalist, their pre-tournament seeding notwithstanding, had an easy road to the championship match. Pierce and Clothier dropped the opening game of all three of their pre-final matches, namely Friday night against Californians Kevin Jernigan and Frank Schmidt (who also eked out a 15-13 fourth game before being over-run in the 15-9 fifth), Saturday afternoon vs. John Conway and James Marver and Sunday morning in their tilt with Philadelphians Andrew Nehrbas and Tom Harrity, who seemed to have momentum after handily winning the match-equalizing fourth game, only to fall progressively behind as the 15-8 fifth game moved along.

Meanwhile Anderson (who partnered Todd Binns to the title in the inaugural version of this tournament a year ago) and Edwards (whose ‘03 induction into the U. S. Squash Hall Of Fame was partly due to the three consecutive North American Open crowns that he and Alan Grant earned from 1989-91) received a bye to the quarters of this 15-team event due to their No. 1 seeding, but they were forced to repulse the consecutive challenges thrown their way first by Stew Grodman and Rob Dinerman (first-round winners over Palmer Page and Rick Wahlstedt), who led 1-1, 12-10 before an Edwards-fueled 5-0 run preceding a 15-12 close-out fourth, and then by the Boldt brothers, Tom and John, who followed up their straight-game quarterfinal over Sandy Tierney and Andrew Slater by then proceeding to a two games to one advantage over Edwards and Anderson before the latter pair prevailed decisively in the last two games, especially with a 10-0 fifth-game spurt that wiped out a 0-3 early deficit and clinched the eventual 15-9 tally.

In light of this fairly evenly divided pair of weekend-long travails, the final devolved into a battle of attrition, particularly for Pierce and Anderson, both of whom are now well into their late 50’s and many-times age-group U. S. champions as partners during the past decade who in fact will be again teaming up in Philadelphia at the ’08 National Doubles later this month. Pierce was clearly laboring as the final moved along, especially while reacting to the combination of lobs and front-court shots that his left-wall opponent Edwards alternated with telling effect. But Anderson, who has been sidelined in recent weeks with a case of Achilles tendonitis that noticeably worsened during the weekend, and particularly during the final, was even more affected than was Pierce; indeed, the defining aspect of this final was the degree to which Anderson, the oldest player on the court and, as noted, the most injured even before the tourney began, broke down physically during what consequently became an anticlimactic fifth game.

He and Edwards (whose coverage, shot selection and execution and sharp-shooting prowess were on marvelous display throughout the final, as were Clothier’s) rallied to force a best-of-nine first-game tiebreaker, but their midcourt racquet collision (resulting in a ball hit way out of court) in the stanza’s opening point foretold the 0-5 shut-out that ensued. They then conjured up an 8-0 run from 3-7 to 11-7 to ensure the second game and rallied from 12-6 down in the third all the way to 13-14 before Clothier pounced upon a loose Anderson three-wall and guided a backhand cross-court drop shot winner to conclude that game. Another long Edwards/Anderson burst in the fourth, this one from 0-3 to 10-4, reminiscent of what had happened in the second game, effectively accounted for that game.

But in a match characterized by substantial runs, the deciding one was claimed by Pierce and Clothier, an 8-0 surge at the very outset, virtually all of which came at a by this time exhausted and grimacing-in-pain Anderson, whose three consecutive tins after a first-point Pierce mis-hit front-right winner gave Pierce/Clothier a quick 4-0 lead, which swiftly doubled on three consecutive winners to the front-right (on a Pierce forehand reverse-three wall, one of a half-dozen he hit during the match, a Clothier straight-drop from the back wall and a shallow Clothier rail winner) and a tinned Edwards backhand reverse-corner. Edwards then finally got his team on the scoreboard with a drop shot off the back wall that Pierce never saw, but by then the hole his team was in, which grew progressively to 14-4, had become far too big to overcome, and a final Clothier backhand cross-court drop put a quiet official seal on the match.

In the other three draws, former Amherst star Rob Gibraltar and Roland Lafontant defeated Schuyler Winter and Tom Farrell 3-0 in the final round of the 23-team A Division; Jim and Jamie McLain took a straight-game Legends final over Rob Warden and Doug Bannan; and Gould recovered from the opening-round loss that he and partner Gregg Finn suffered at the hands of the Boldt brothers in the Open to partner Susan Dale to a four-game Mixed final-round win over Alladin Mitha and Karen Levine. Sixty-four teams participated overall, a sizable increase over the 40 team entrants in ’07, which is a tribute both to the considerable popularity of Tournament Chairman Kit Tatum and to the seemingly unstoppable growth that doubles squash has been experiencing throughout the 2000’s.

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