Igility Club Champs are under way…
Posted by Pat Foster on 06-Dec-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
The Igility Group BSRA Club Championships began today with the completion of the Mens Open 1st round. The seeds all came through therematches with no upsets so far…
For full results and match schedules for tomorrows (Sun 7th) games, including the Ladies Championships 1st round please check the Igility page.
PC Bikes and Game Time sponsor National Juniors…
Posted by Pat Foster on 04-Dec-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
PC Bikes Game Time National Junior Squash Championships 2008
December 22nd/23rd 2008
Igility Club Champs are here!! Draws released..
Posted by Pat Foster on 27-Nov-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
I know it seems like you have barely made it off court from the last tournament but the Igility Group BSRA Club Championships are right around the corner!
Click here to head to the Igility Tournament page and view the full draws and match schedules for the upcoming Igility Group BSRA Club Championships 2008
Last years winners at the presentation
Allstars edge out Igility Agiles in the AF Smith Finals
Posted by Pat Foster on 22-Nov-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
The AllStars, Mel Caines, Micah Franklin, Richard Arnold & David Gibbons are the 2008 AF Smith Corporate Team Champions!
They won the title by the narrowest of margins edging out the team of Bill Dickinson, Shawn Palmer & Aaron Smith from Igility.
Oil Management took the Division 2 title with Max Power and The Ummm-Onnns winning the consolation titles.
Check out the full draws on the AF Smith Home Page
The AllStars (Mel Caines, Micah Franklin, Richard Arnold. David Gibbons not pictured)
We are down to the finals!
Posted by Pat Foster on 21-Nov-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
109 players, 64 team matches, 192 matches and we are down to the finals…
Next up is the AF Smith Corporate Team Championships Finals night.. Matches start from 5pm and will be followed by the trophy presentations and tournament party.
Check out the results on the AF Smith Tournament page
Nail Biting!
Posted by Pat Foster on 21-Nov-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
is the only way I can describe last nights matches in the AF Smith Corporate Team Squash Championships here at the BSRA.
We had unbelievably tight matches, countless 14 all sudden death games, hotly contested refereeing decisions, serious jostling at the bar to get served!, Denise Sommers feeling the pain of 10 hours teaching a day and then.. playing a game of squash!, Colin Alexander & Chris Dawson going at it 110%, Denise Kyme & Edwin Wickham doing the same! All in all there was far too much for me to fit every detail of last night into this report but if you weren’t here to see it then make sure you come down to watch the semi finals tonight (21st Nov) and the final tomorrow night(22nd) from 5pm. Click here to go to the AF Smith Home Page and view the results. All team photos are available in the gallery. I couldn’t resist posting this one on the front page!….
AF Smith Team Mmmm-Onnn get first win ever!!
Posted by Pat Foster on 19-Nov-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
Mmmm-Onnnn, tournament sponsor AF Smiths official representative team in this years event have pulled off their first win ever!!
They beat the soapy Squashers in the Division 2 draw in a nail biting match with Nick Hirn and Marcus Flannery pulling off the big wins.
Check out the AF Smith page for the full results
The Sofa King Greats come through….
Posted by Pat Foster on 18-Nov-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
The AF Smith Corporate Team Championships 2008 is 2 days in…
Check out the full results at Af Smith Team Champs 2008
AF Smith results…
Posted by Pat Foster on 17-Nov-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
Division 2, first round matches of the AF Smith Corporate Team Championships 2008 are complete.
Click here to go to the AF Smith page and view the results
James Stout – World Racquets Champion…
Posted by Pat Foster on 17-Nov-2008Categories: News Comments: [comments closed]
The full story from Roger Sherratt…
Members of the Stout family have been a permanent fixture at the BSRA for most of the past 30 years, starting with John who has been playing since the late 1970’s, and has contributed countless hours and enormous effort to coaching juniors. It might also be said that he has singlehandedly (with some assistance from his wife Karen) tried to produce a “Stout National Squash Team”! John has represented Bermuda in Rosebowl competition and in Senior CASA, but he would be the first to admit that his achievements have been surpassed by most, if not all, of his four sons who have all been avid squash players.
In addition to numerous club championships and Junior CASA appearances by the Stout boys, Michael has competed in the Junior World Championships in Egypt (1996, and Italy (1998). Andrew played in the Pan Am Junior competition in Guatemala (2006) along with his youngest brother, Chris.
James, the second oldest, has to be ranked as one of the finest ever squash players in both Bermuda and the Caribbean. As a youngster he won Junior CASA in every age group (Under 12, Under 14, Under 17, and Under 19,) and as if to prove a point he won the Under 17 title twice. He was a member of the most successful Bermuda Senior CASA Squad in the club’s history when, in 2003, they (Gary Plumstead, Nick Kyme, Tommy Sherratt, Sam Stevens, and James) comprehensively won the CASA title, winning all 25 of their matches while dropping just 4 games. James turned professional in 2005, training in Belgium along with World Squash Champion, David Palmer, and his greatest claim to fame in the squash world was being selected as Bermuda’s wild card entry in last years’ Endurance World Open Bermuda Squash Championship.
We all thought it couldn’t get much better than that for our gifted young Bermudian athlete – but we were wrong!
James took the position of Rackets and Real Tennis coach at the prestigious New York Tennis and Rackets Club, in September 2006, and this allowed him to resume playing a sport he had been introduced to whilst attending Cheltenham College in the U.K. At the age of 13, James developed a passion for the sport of Rackets, thanks in great part to the tremendous support and encouragement he received from Cheltenham’s Rackets coach, Mark Briars.
Rackets was first played in English Prisons during the 18th century, usually amongst gentleman who had been imprisoned as debtors. There was mention of Rackets at Fleet Prison in a poem written in 1749, and its popularity spread to other prisons and to public houses in London, and then to cities such as Bristol, Bath, Birmingham and Belfast. Charles Dickens mentions the game in Pickwick Papers, but in more recent times it has been played almost exclusively in some 36 courts in the U.K. and in North America. The courts are approximately 1 ½ times the width of, and 2 ½ times the length of a squash court. They are made of slate, and the games is played at a very fast pace with a white ball almost as hard as a golf ball which travels at up to 180 miles an hour.
James took an instant liking to the game, and has literally been unbeaten in competition since the age of 14. He gave it up for several years while playing professional squash in Belgium, but decided to get back into the game when he took up the position of rackets coach at the New York Racquets and Tennis Club.
James decided to take his rackets career seriously, practicing regularly and maintaining the high level of fitness he had developed as a squash pro. He remained unbeaten during the past 2 years, and in January 2008 he surprised the Rackets world by winning the coveted U.S. Open Rackets Championship in New York. One month later James pulled off a second superb victory when he won the British Open Rackets Championship. The then current world champion, Harry Foster of England, who had held the World Rackets Championship since 2005, was also competing but was beaten for the first time in 3 years in the semi-final by a player who James met and defeated in the final.
Challenging for the title of World Rackets Champion is peculiar to the sport because there is no annual World Championship Tournament as there is in squash, or most other sports. There are about 6 major rackets championships held each year, including the British and U.S. Championships, and in order to challenge the world champion, a player has to win at least 2 major tournaments and then apply for permission from both the Tennis and Rackets Association (T&RA) in the U.K., and the North American Racquets Association (NARA) to make a challenge. Armed with his two major wins in 2 months Stout earned the right to a challenge the world champion for his title.
The two players were scheduled to play two legs (matches) – one on James’ home court in New York, followed by the second leg at the Queen’s Club in England. Each leg consisted of the best of seven games, using the English scoring system in which a player can only win a point on his serve. Each game goes to 15 points. The champion would be the player who won the most games in both legs.
This was the first time in decades that two players contesting the World Championship had never previously played each other.
Watched by his parents, John and Karen Stout, James got off to a brilliant start in the first leg in New York, winning it by 4 games to one (15-10, 15-12, 12-15, 15-9, 15-12). This meant that in order to retain his title, Foster had to win the second leg in London by at least 4-1. In front of a packed crowd, including his parents and three brothers, Stout played at his brilliant best, taking the first two games 15-11, 15-6, to give him an unassailable 6-1 overall lead – and the coveted title. He became the youngest World Rackets Champion for 20 years. In accepting the trophy James paid tribute to both his coach at Cheltenham College, Mark Briars, and to Neil Smith, former world rackets champion, who coaches him at the New York Tennis and Rackets Club.
When asked about his victory Stout said, “I was ecstatic to win the world title. Most of the games were close, but I think my fitness made the difference, and at the end it was a comfortable win. I felt pretty confident going in. I’d prepared really well for the matches and playing professional squash certainly helped my fitness.”
When asked about his plans for retaining the title Stout commented, “I’d like to continue playing in all the major Rackets tournaments, and if I can continue to win them there won’t be a challenge for a while. As long as I keep on winning I keep the title.”
Not bad for a young man born in a country where most of us have never even seen a Rackets court!
