The Manx Telecom Dave Karran Memorial Squash Tournament for 2022 was played from Tuesday 4 October until Friday 7 October. This year the Tournament organisers decided to play the competition as a Graded Tournament in an attempt to boost entrants. This was successful as 21 players entered the tournament, and these players were allocated to pools of players depending on playing ability.
A Grade Tournament
The 5 players entered into the A grade tournament are all top 10 ranked players on the island. They consisted of Ashley Sandyford- Sykes, Thom Whiteway, Pat Fitzpatrick, Hamish Thornton and Jason Crease. The matches for this group of players were played using a round robin format where each player played each other player over the 4 nights of competition to produce a final league table.
On Tuesday, the first night of competition all the matches went to 4 or 5 games, testament to how evenly matched this group of players are. Of the 5 players Whiteway, Fitzpatrick and Thornton each had to play 2 matches on the night. Whiteway and Fitzpatrick both managed 3-2 wins, Whiteway beating Crease and Fitzpatrick defeating Thornton. Thornton’s second match was a 3-1 loss to the number 1 seen Sandyford-Sykes. To finish the night Fitzpatrick got the better of Whiteway coming back from 1-0 down to win the next 3 games and secure a 3-1 victory.
On Thursday night Sandyford-Sykes had 2 matches beating Crease 3-0 and only just overcoming Fitzpatrick 11-6 in the final game of a 5-match thriller. Whiteway beat Thornton 3-0 in the other match of the night.
This left 3 matches to be played on the final night of competition. Fitzpatrick beat Crease 3-1 whist Whiteway achieved the same score line against Sandyford-Sykes. Crease also managed a 3-2 win over Thornton coming back from 2-0 down.
So after the final nights play Whiteway, Fitzpatrick and Sandyford-Sykes had all won 3 matches. So to determine the order of the final league table games then points had to be taken into account. When this was done Fitzpatrick claimed the top spot, Whiteway was second and Sandyford-Sykes third with Crease and Thornton completing the table.
So Pat Fitzpatrick won the Grade A tournament and became the very worthy winner of the Dave Karran Memorial Tournament.
B Grade Tournament
The B grade tournament was played between Ben Peach, Dafydd Lewis, James Ramsey and Chris Walton. These players all exceeded 2000 points on the Squash Levels ranking system that was used to determine which graded tournament the players were entered into. This too was played using a round robin format with the player topping the league table at the end deemed the tournament winner.
With only 4 players in the Grade B competition each player only had to play 1 match on each competition night. On the first night Peach beat Chris Walton, a player new to IOM squash. Ramsey defeated the higher seeded Lewis. Both these matches had score lines of 3-0 and showed how dominant these 2 players would be in this Grade B competition.
The second night of competition brought together the 2 winners and the 2 losers from the previous night. Lewis beat new boy Walton 3-1. The match between Peach and Ramsey turned out to be the highlight of the night. This match was a real see-saw event, Ramsey won the first game then Peach equalised. Ramsey made it 2-1 then Peach fought back to make it 2-2. In the fifth and deciding game they took it in turns to lead but it was still undecided at 10-10. Peach eventually took the final game 13-11 and claimed the match 3-2.
On the final night of competition Ramsey beat Walton 3-0 and Peach won his final match 3-0 too.
So after the final nights play Peach topped the table followed by Ramsey, Lewis and finally Walton.
Peach’s top spot meant that he had successfully won the Grade B tournament.
C Grade Tournament
The next 8 players according to the Isle of Man Rankings were entered into the C grade tournament. This top seed in this group of players was Lance Wyllie, going down the rankings he was followed by Harvey Douglas, David Freer, Richard Haley, Michael Fernandes, Richard Cretney, Peter Ferguson and Phil Butler. These players used a Monrad system to compete against each other, using this system the players end up ranked from 1 to 8 dependent on the results from their tournament matches.
The first night of competition saw the 2 top seeds Wyllie and Douglas progress with 3-0 score lines. Number 3 seed Freer had a great contest with Cretney overcoming him in 5 games. The fourth seed was the experienced Haley, he went down 3-0 to the younger fifth seed Fernandes for the only upset of the round.
Wyllie and Douglas both won their semi-final matches, though Douglas dropped a game to the energetic Freer on his way to a win. In the lower half of the draw, the first-round losers, the higher seeds took the wins so Haley and Cretney progress to the fifth/sixth play-off match.
The final night of competition decided the fishing places. Butler defeated Ferguson 3-1 to claim the seventh spot. Cretney had yet another 5-game match and eventually bettered Haley, coming back from 2-1 down, to get the fifth spot. Freer versus Fernandes resulted in a 3-0 win to Freer so he claimed the third spot.
The final between Wyllie and Douglas was a very close and exciting match, these 2 players are closely matched and the final scores of 11-8, 11-13, 11-9 and 14-12 reflected this. It was a real nip and tuck match between 2 constantly improving players with Wyllie getting the better on this occasion to become the Grade C winner.
D Grade Tournament
The D grade tournament was for players with Squash Levels ranking points of 600 and less. This tournament was played using a Monrad system, the same as the C grade tournament. The players in this tournament had played squash for a good number of years or were relatively new to competitive Squash. Les Callow the number 1 seed fell into the first category above, as did Phil Shaw, Brian Cowley, Stephen Pitts and Andy McLarney. Whereas Adam Jones, Mark Goodall, and junior player Harrison Callow fell into the second category.
Top seed’s Les Callow, Pitts and McLarney all won their first round matches though top seeds Callow and Pitts both dropped games on their way to victories. Island Exhaust Vets players Cowley and Shaw provided the fourth first round winner and on this occasion Shaw’s tenacity and fitness brought him the 3-1 result as Cowley tired as the match progressed.
In the second round of matches in the bottom half of the draw, between the first-round losers, Jones and Harrison Callow gained victories over Cowley and Goodall. In the 2 semi-final matches Les Callow played his regular sparring partner Phil Shaw and took the victory in straight games. Pitts against McLarney was a close contest with McLarney despite being 2-0 down taking the third 12-10, however Pitts clinched the match and a place in the final with a 11-4 victory in the fourth game.
The final round go matches brought Cowley’s first victory to come seventh overall. Harrison Callow beat Jones 3-0 to wrestle the fifth spot of him. McLarney came back from 2-0 down to seal a 3-2 victory and third spot from Shaw.
The final between experienced C league players Les Callow and Pitts went to 5 games with Pitts eventually claiming the D grade competition 11-9 in the fifth game.
Summary
The tournament prizes were presented by Bill Karran, the brother of the late Dave Karran who was a very active squash player, well like and remembered by older squash players. He worked for Manx Telecom which is why the Karran family and Manx Telecom continue to support this tournament, the IOMSRA are very grateful for their ongoing and faithful support.
Congratulations go to champions Pat Fitzpatrick (Grade A), Ben Peach (Grade B), Lance Wyllie (Grade C) and Stephen Pitts (Grade D).