Thirty-five year-old former national champion Regan Pollard was pure class Friday night in the semi-finals of the 2014 Bounty Farm Mash Handicap Tournament organised by the Guyana Squash Association (GSA) in collaboration with its number one corporate sponsor Digicel Guyana.
Pollard (-16) overcame last year’s runner up Nicholas Narain (-8) in the first semifinal to advance to Saturday’s final. In the final, Pollard is set to meet another former Caribbean junior champion Jason Ray Khalil, who is also the reigning champion of this tournament.
Pollard’s plethora of shots took the life out of Narain during the two-game encounter. Instead of getting into a fast paced, power hitting duel with Narain, Pollard slowed the pace and controlled the tempo of the match. Pollard’s strategically placed shots and the slower game play was just what he needed to conserve on his energy to go the distance and sink the fitter, faster, younger more agile Narain. Two-time, defending champion Khalil, who is playing with a -22 handicap, is one match away from his third tournament victory in four years. Khalil made light work of Lloyd Fung-A-Fat (7) in straight games 15/13, 15/13. Fung-A-Fat had won his quarterfinal encounter against Ryan Rahaman (9) just a few hours earlier and was attempting to double his fortune on Friday night.
Realising that he could not match the fitness, retrieval and shot placement skills of Khalil, Fung-A-Fat tried to kill the ball off Khalil’s serves but found the tin or tin line most times.
Makeda Harding (2) stormed into the Category A final where she is expected to play Jonathan Edwards. Harding defeated Madison Fernandes (11) 15/12, 15/13, while Edwards (6) defeated Savannah Mendes (0) 15/13, 15/8. After being knocked out of the main draw on opening night, national hockey player Ashley deGroot (2) rebounded to advance to the Open plate final where she will take on fellow multidiscipline athlete Alex Cheeks (11).
