National ladies’ champion Nicollette Fernandes will be looking to successfully defend her individual title at the Southern Caribbean Squash Championship which begin today at Georgetown Club. Following the Manager’s Meeting last night at the same venue, Fernandes, who recently won the St. Lucia Open, was seeded number one in the ladies’ draw.
Barbadian Karen Meakins, who had upset Fernandes in the early rounds of that tournament, was seeded number two.
Runner-up in the girls’ under-19 category of the Bank of Bermuda Caribbean Squash Area (CASA) Junior Caribbean tournament Cherie-Ann Parris and her compatriot Lilianna White are ranked numbers three and four.
Defending champion in the male individual category, Gavin Cumberbatch, is ranked number one while Colin Ramasra of Trinidad and Tobago is ranked number two.
They are followed by Barbadian Shawn Simpson and Trinidadian Josh Pinard seeded at numbers three and four.
According to a release last night from the Guyana Squash Association (GSA), one of the surprise decisions of the meeting was the placement of Guyana national Men’s singles champion and recent winner of the St. Lucia Open Kristian Jeffrey among the 5/8 seeds. GSA president Ronald Burch-Smith said that although the seedings were decided by a vote, he felt that Jeffrey should have been seeded above Pinard since he defeated Pinard in the St. Lucia Open. Burch-Smith added that since Jeffrey had been sidelined by injury, the result of their last encounter should have prevailed.
The other 5-8 seeds are Venezuelan Francisco Alberto Valecillo, who is the Pan American Federation number 17th ranked player along with James Bentick of St. Vincent playing for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) team and Bryant Cumberbatch of Barbados.
Guyanese Regan Pollard and Robert McDavid are seeded amongst the 9-16 players. GSA’ s top juniors Raphael deGroot, Alexander Arjoon and Oliver Kear-Downes are not seeded.
Arjoon and deGroot are among the first to get into action this morning at the Georgetown Club. The team event of the championship is scheduled to start on Thursday and conclude on Saturday.
According to one of the local coordinators, Robert Fernandes, “Guyana’s men’s team features a well balanced mix of youth and experience with former national champions Regan Pollard and Robert Fernandes lending support to the current national champion Jeffrey. Overseas-based Robert McDavid will add an international flavor to the team and the young brigade that led Guyana to the Caribbean boy’s team title, Arjoon, deGroot and Downes will add some depth in the lower categories. Apart from Fernandes and Tiffany Solomon, Guyana’s ladies’ team will feature four debutants in Mary Fung-A-Fat, Alysa Xavier and the Jeffrey twins Keisha and Kayla who are all 15 years old or younger.”
