Page Suffers Injury at Morris
Dec 15, 2004, by Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

O Connell & Bradt Win Top Flight

Two Points From Victory ...
Leading 13-8 in the fifth game of the 16th annual Morris Invitational, a hugely popular member-guest handicap doubles tournament at the Apawamis Club in Rye, NY, former USSRA CEO Palmer Page ruptured his right Achilles tendon this past Monday night and underwent an operation to re-attach the tendon at the Hospital For Special Surgery in New York the following evening. Page, 54, who had played some of his best squash of the season throughout his and partner Gary Yeager's four-match march to their final against Cynthia Kempner and Tim Wyant, now faces an arduous rehabilitation and a hoped-for return to the courts by next fall. Page and Yeager had held a fourth-game match- and championship-point before dropping that game 15-14 and they seemed to have the fifth game well in hand prior to the injury, which ended what had been a wonderfully exciting final on a distinctly down note.

Wyant and Kempner, who had also been two points from defeat in their Sunday evening semi-final tilt with Rob Dinerman and Brunswick High senior stand-out Cameron Henry before their three-point tally from 12-13 to 15-13 in the fifth game, thus were reluctant recipients of the winner's trophy for the 28-team flight they conquered. Dinerman and Henry had trailed John Edwards and George Whipple early in the fifth game of their round of 32 Friday night and would have faced a two games to one deficit in their Sunday morning quarter-final with Ola Jangbecker (who had partnered Mark Barber to last year's Morris title) and Athletics Chairman Lucien Burnett had they not eked out a third-game tiebreaker prior to Jangbecker's forced default due to a shoulder injury early in the fourth game.

In fact, the entire weekend was replete with five-game marathons, a tribute to both the intensity of the play and Tournament Chairman (and Apawamis Head Pro) Peter Briggs's handicapping expertise. This was especially true of the 18-team top flight (a record 46 teams in all!), where three-time finalists Morris Clothier and Jamie Kempner lost in the first round to Mac MacAndrew and Peter Burke, who then similarly won in five over Steve Mandel and Dave Barrett on Saturday and over 2000 Morris champions John Burke (Peter's brother) and John MacAtee when the latter tinned away a 14-all fourth-game match-point prior to a 15-13 close-out Sunday morning.
Spent by their trio of 3-2 wins, Peter Burke and MacAndrew then dropped their semi-final in four to Peer Pedersen (a Morris champion in 1990 with baseball Hall Of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver) and Alan Breed, who themselves only got through their own quarter by rallying from way back to a 15-13 fifth-game tiebreaker win over Barber and his legendary partner Sharif Khan, now in his 60's but still wielding a potent racquet.

Meanwhile, with all this hectic play swirling around them, Ryan O'Connell and Rick Bradt were moving quietly and relatively serenely through their portion of the draw, eliminating John Gross and Ted Bruenner in their semis after the latter had won in five over Bill Ullman and Kip Gould. After shaking off the sober atmosphere that pervaded the beginning of the final in the wake of Page's mishap, the O'Connell/Bradt and Breed/Pedersen alignments then battled to a fifth game of their own, but O'Connell and Bradt were able to assume control from fairly early on and move confidently to the winner's circle. This tournament, named in honor of longtime Apawamis member Edward (Ned) Morris, has become one of the most enjoyable stops of the season, and always features a Saturday night party hosted by Morris's widow Angel, who lives just a few hundred yards down the road from the clubhouse.

Tournament Recap
Qtrs:
Ryan O'Connell/Rick Bradt d Bill Mangan/Jessie Sammis, 3-1;
Ted Bruenner/John Gross d Bill Ullman/Kip Gould, 3-2;
Alan Breed/Peer Pedersen d Sharif Khan/Mark Barber, 3-2;
Peter Burke/Mac MacAndrew d John MacAtee/John Burke, 3-2.

Semis:
O'Connell/Bradt d Bruenner/Gross, 3-1;
Breed/Pedersen d P. Burke/MacAndrew, 3-1.
Final: O'Connell/Bradt d Breed/Pedersen, 3-1.

Qtrs:
Tim Wyant/Cynthia Kempner d Brian Walsh/Tim Bovaird, 3-1;
Rob Dinerman/Cameron Henry d Lucien Burnett. Ola Jangbecker, 2-1, 5-2 retired; Palmer Page/Gary Yeager d Simon Aldrich/Dillon Aldrich, 3-2;
Richard Burke/Matt Sharnoff d Rob Berner/Nat Barnum, 3-1.
Semis:
Wyant/Kempner d Dinerman/Henry, 3-2;
Page/Yeager d Burke/Sharnoff, 3-1.
Final: Wyant/Kempner d Page/Yeager, 2-2, 9-13 retired.

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