No surprises on opening night of Bounty Farm Handicap Squash

The annual Bounty Farm Handicap Squash Tournament began Tuesday night at the usual venue, The Georgetown Club, with matches in Category A.

There were no surprises on the opening night with Kirsten Gomes and Abosaide Cadogan not dropping a single point in their opening matches. Wins from Mohyran Baksh, Dhiren Persaud, Gianni Carpenter, Demetrius DeAbreu and Nicholas Verwey also secured their place in the next round of this first tournament for 2019.

There was a restrained sense of excitement as is customary in these handicap tournaments where one mistake can cost the game when high positive scores match up with low ones. Gianni Carpenter (-6) had his close call against Abhinav Singh (14).

Carpenter soared through his negative handicap in the first game for a clean slate of 21 points to the win. On his second climb it was cut short at 4-15 by a killer drop from Singh. A focused Carpenter was careful to come through in the third game with another clean sweep to win 15-14, 4-15, 15-14.

The only other match of the night that went to three games was between evenly scored Dhiren Persaud (11) and Teija Edwards (11), The two players were even after a 14-15 win for each in games one and two.

Despite a valiant effort from Edwards, who came from 14-7 behind in the second to level at 14-14 on match point, she couldn’t hold on and succumbed 14-15. A determined Persaud made up his mind to push through with a more calculated third game to take the match 14-15, 15-14, 15-7.

The tournament continues this evening from 18:00h with the first Open category matches and the next bout of Category A games.

Category A

Mohryan Baksh (-3) beat Kayden Pynaendy (13)          15-14, 15-13

Kirsten Gomes (-4) beat Louis Da Silva (7)                      15-13, 15-13

Dhiren Persuad (11) beat Teija Edwards (11)                 14-15, 15-14, 15-7

Abosaide Cadogan (-4) beat Arvin Seelall (12)               15-13, 15-13

Gianni Carpenter (-6) beat Abhinav Singh (14)              15-14, 4-15, 15-14

Demetrius DeAbreu (-4) beat Aishanti Persuad (11)    15-12, 15-11

Nicholas Verwey (-8) beat Grant Fernandes (13)          15-13, 15-14