Middlesex Bowl/Wheeler Cup Open, PSA Challenger Nov 5-7 1999

Concord Acton Squash Club, Concord MA USA

A Weekend on the PSA Challenger Tour by Ron Beck

Sixteen strong PSA Challenger players gathered in rural Concord, Massachusetts for a weekend of strong competition and camaraderie. Tim Long and Josh McDonald made the long drive down from Toronto. Tim, fresh off a summer spent with the USA National Men's team, has been training in Toronto with Mike Way's group of top pros. Making the short drive out from Cambridge, Mass, Dylan Patterson and Peter Karlen, freshman and sophomore members, respectively, of the Harvard College team, eagerly looked forward to the opportunity to test their games against the pros.

Alex Pavulans, Swedish pro, has recently arrived at the Appawamis Club in Rye NY to do coaching and play on the tour in the USA. He made the trip up. A pair of roving English pros, Joe Russell and Mark Heather strengthened the field, in their quest to make their way up the PSA rankings ladder. Steve Polli from Burlington VT, Brian Mattias from New York, Angus Kirkland from the Harvard Club, Boston MA, Mike Riley from Newport RI, and the host pro Paul Ansdell, rounded out the local-pro field. The highest ranking player in the draw, Pakistani pro Kumail Mehmood, is temporarily based in New York as he tries to play his way back into form after a back injury, and made the trip for some competition to hone his game.

Both Karlen and Patterson lost in the first round, though Dylan Patterson may have surprised Tim Long somewhat, in stretching him to a well-contested four games. Russell, Lewis, Pavulans, and Polli each advanced easily, in front of a lively local crowd.

In the the quarters, Mehmood dispatched Russel in four, and had to use his wonderful reach fully to contain Russel. His back was visibly bothering him in the latter stages. Pavulans was dissapointed with his loss to Heather, and Long and Kirkland advanced easily.

In the semis, Mehmood showed he was not yet at his best form, with Long taking a four game match, and Kirkland played steadily to prevail over Heather.

On a crisp, late-fall Sunday morning, both Tim Long and Angus Kirkland came to play for the finals. Kirkland went out to a big 10-4 lead in the first game, as a number of long rallies ended in errors by the offensive-minded Long. Long was playing imaginatively and crisply, and made some creative strategies pay off in bringing himself back in range, but Angus closed out the first game at 10. Angus was just executing too well and too steady, forcing Tim Long's offensive forays to be just too risky and error prone.

Tim came out in the second game even sharper and attacking more aggressively. Some devastating drops and strong volleying put additional pressure on Angus, forcing him into some uncharacteristic errors. Point were traded the entire game, with neither player going ahead by more than one point. At 9-8, Angus made an unforced error under the pressure of Tim's relentless volleying, drops, and drives in which he took the ball early. Angus looked to be tiring, but Tim gave back the next point in turn on another unforced error, to make it 10-9. This was the story of the match, as Time continually was the more creative player, playing wonderful drops, crisp cross-volley drops, and accurate drives, but unable to put together a string of points. At 13-12 in Angus's favor, Tim made a breathtaking cross drop nick to close out a bang-bang rally, and it looked like he might be gaining the momentum, but two successive errors gave Angus the second game, 15-13, and the momentum had shifted permanently.

Tim came out strongly again, though, in the third, matching Angus point for point up to 5-all. Then, though, Angus's experience and continual steady play forced Tim into a string of errors as Long tried to force his attacking game against a very steady length game by Angus. Angus closed out the match and the tournament, 15-8.

Kumail Mehmood (ranked #79 in the world) showing great sportsmanship, was good-naturedly on hand on Sunday to watch not only the pro finals, but some of the amateur divisional contests as well. Steve Polli, a quarter-final loser, refereed countless matches in the 5.5 and 4.5 divisions during the weekend. Their presence and participation punctuated the whole spirit of the PSA Challenger series -- a competitive venue for the pros to display their games, improve their positions, and be ambassadors for the game to juniors and up-and-coming players.

Results. Reported by Paul Ansdell

Final
Kirkland def Long 10, 13, 8

Semi Finals
Long def Mehmood 8, (12), 13,12
Kirkland def Heather 17-14, 10, 13

Quarter Finals
K Mehmood (Pakistan) def Russel 8, (12), 13, 12
Long def Lewis 6, 11, 10
Mark Heather def Alexander Pavulans 13, 2, 1
Angus Kirkland (Boston USA) def Polli 6, 7, 6

1st Round:

Joe Russell (England) def Josh McDonald (Canada) 10, 10, 7
Mark Lewis (Boston) def Paul Ansdell (Concord) 5, 3, 6
Tim Long (USA) def Dylan Patterson (Harvard) 6, (5), 9, 9
Mark Heather (England) def Peter Karlen (Harvard) 10, 11, 7
Alexander Pavulans (Sweden) def Mike Riley (Newport USA) 5, 6, 5
Steve Polli (Vermont USA) def Brian Matthias (NYC) 3, 8, 4