Men's Hyder Trophy Semis:
[draw/results]
June 6, 2004, By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004

Lights Out Performance For Sharplin in Hyder Semis

Dan Sharplin withstood a lights-out to beat Damian Walker in Five; photo: © 2004 Debra Tessier

The beginning of last night's first semi-final match in the
2004 Quentin Hyder Invitational was delayed about 15 minutes in order to allow everyone who congregated at the host Sports Club/LA to watch the Belmont Stakes, where Smarty Jones saw his bid for Triple Crown horse-racing history stymied in the final few hundred yards. The ending of last night's second semi-final was similarly delayed 15 minutes when, at least as improbably, the lights went completely out at 12-all in the fourth game.

Other than that, the two semi-finals had little in common. Top seed Mark Heather, leading 10-8 in the first game against fourth seed Clive Leach, ran out the last seven points and never looked back en route to his decisive 15-8,
6 and 8, while in the bottom-half semi-final Damian Walker and Daniel Sharplin engaged in a pulsating battle between 2002 national champions of their respective countries (the U. S. and New Zealand respectively) from which the latter emerged with an exhausting and exciting 11-15 15-10 15-11 13-15 15-12 decision in a match that lasted more than twice as long and was more than twice as good as its predecessor.

Heather and third seed Sharplin will now face each other at 3:45 this afternoon to determine the winner of the oldest continually running softball tournament in the United States, which was pretty much the ONLY softball event in this country when it made its debut on the undersized New York Athletic Club courts in the spring of 1969.
Leach had played extremely well Saturday morning in his three-game win over Richard Chin, the only quarter of the day that did not require a fourth game. In that match, as at times even in his desultory sequel with Heather, Leach displayed the savvy, creativity and delightful touch that has made him such a star right-wall player on the ISDA professional doubles circuit during the past few years. But that very change of competitive focus from singles (where he at one point had a PSA ranking as high as No. 26) to doubles likely cost him dearly against Heather, whom Leach had defeated in five games in their only previous meeting four and a half years ago but who has been grinding his way up the PSA ladder throughout the intervening years.

Mark Heather kept his advantage in defeating Clive Leach in three; photo: © 2004 Debra Tessier

A slew of tins in the second half of the opening game gave Heather an advantage he never relinquished and provided the springboard to a swift 5-0 lead in the second. By this stage Leach, who sometimes evinces moodiness in doubles as well, was becoming progressively deflated and disengaged, a situation symbolized by the lob serve he hit out of court at 2-7 that nullified the brilliantly feathered forehand cross-court drop shot that had won him the prior point.

By the end of the second game, which concluded on a pair of unforced Leach tins, he seemed to pull up lame as well with a possible case of right-leg shin splints that clearly hampered his mobility during the anti-climatic third and final stanza.
Heather, who had dropped a 15-13 opening game in his morning win over recent Trinity College stand-out Jonny Smith, had his lapses as well, especially in tinning a number of open drop shots, but his close-out to the first game and substantial early leads in the second and third kept him from ever getting into any real trouble as his 35-minute victory unfolded.

SHOOTING THE LIGHTS OUT
By contrast, it was clear from the outset of the balancing Walker-Sharplin semi that any tinning spells or misplaced concentration would get their perpetrator in major trouble, so evenly matched and competitively keen were the two protagonists (each of whom had defeated an Odeh cousin in a four-game quarter) in their pursuit of a spot in the final round of this $ 4,000 event. The drama was augmented both by the closeness of the scores throughout nearly every game and difference in styles between the two, with Walker the racquet artist, especially with his straight and cross court drop shots, and Sharplin the dogged retriever with a straightforward but very effective blue-collar game.

Damian Walker didn't give an inch in the point-for-point fourth game; photo: © 2004 Debra Tessier

Their match began well after the scheduled 8 o'clock start time due to the presentation between semi-finals by the host Metropolitan Squash Racquets Association of its half-dozen annual awards for improvement, sportsmanship and excellence in play. As the match moved along, play was interrupted every 15 minutes by announcements over the club's loudspeaker system of the time remaining before the scheduled 9 o'clock closing. Although there was a minor degree of irritation among everyone present at the play stoppages that occurred while the announcements were being completed, nobody could have expected the intrusive relevance these developments would emphatically wind up exerting at a crucial stage of the match itself.

After holding off a late Sharplin rally and winning the first game, Walker had lost the second and third but managed in the point-for-point fourth (in which there was never more than a two-point spread) to go ahead 12-ll when Sharplin tinned a back-hand working boast. Walker then hit a forehand working boast off the back wall, a shot that began in full light but caught the tin in total darkness, the court lights having been automatically extinguished in the brief interim.

By the time a series of cell-phone calls, electrician's appearances and mad dashes to the front desk had enabled play to resume, 15 minutes had passed and the crowd, which had already been slightly dwindling away after each game due to the growing lateness of the hour, had shrunk even further. Only a small band of true die-hards remained to witness Walker's gritty rescue of the end-game in the fourth and an almost conspiratorially evenly-matched and draining fifth game in which Sharplin eventually and exhaustingly prevailed with a HARD-earned 15-12 ticket to the final.

Saturday Recap

Quarters:
Mark Heather d Jonny Smith, 13-15 15-12 15-8 15-9;
Clive Leach a Richard Chin, 15-12, 15-11 15-8;
Damian Walker d Jude Odeh 12-15 15-13 15-14 15-7;
Daniel Sharplin d Francis Odeh, 15-10 15-5 11-15 15-5.

Semis:
Heather d Leach, 15-8, 15-6, 15-8;
Sharplin d Walker, 11-15 15-10 15-11 13-15 15-12.

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