April 7, 2013
Dear Softball Doubles Enthusiasts,
A big congratulations to all our finalists and runners up who provided our spectators with some inspirational doubles squash yesterday. Also, a big thank you to all of you who entered this tournament, and who were so patient in arranging and scheduling your matches around the other state tournaments, and all of our busy lives.
Yesterday was a great day of squash, and a great turnout of spectators. That said, our audience numbers were dramatically boosted by the Bardaro clan, who descended on the club in true Italian family fashion.
In the 3.5 draw, Doug O’Brien and Bill Vigne, fresh off a win from the Steinberg Father/Daughter team, took on Rohit Mathur and Vivek Varadarajan. Doug and Bill won 15/13, 15/13, and 15/8. These scores do not reflect accurately how evenly matched these four players were, and it was unfortunately, untimely errors, and a string of errors in the last game by Rohit and Vivek, that spoilt the party, but a deserved win by Bill and Doug, who swears he only plays the odd tennis, no squash, and no hardball….hhhhhmmmm, me thinks we have a fibber in our midst.
Next up in the 4.5 draw was Ben Daly and Bryan Ciborowski, who played Rich Schafer and Doug Steinberg. Doug and Rich won in four 17/15, 5/15, 17/16, and 17/15. Rich and Doug had a total lapse of concentration in game two, but otherwise, this was a very evenly contested final, with long long rallies, and this final could have gone either way. Bryan and Ben totally took advantage of the no dress code. I haven’t seen colors like that since my hallucinatory days of experimentation!!!!
Uniquely, our finalists of the 5.5 draw were Rich and Doug again. This time against, a very formidable Chris Smith and Anthony Bardaro. Even after their earlier match, Doug and Rich were still able to up their game, and put on a fine challenge. This match was very exciting, and very close. Chris and Anthony, after losing the first 16/17, began to chip away, and won the next three 15/8, 15/12, and 15/8.
Thank you to MA Squash for providing some great snacks and wonderful beer for us all to enjoy.
See you next year!
Dave Heather
2013 MA State Softball Doubles Tourney Chair
Open 5.5 Finalists/Winners are shown below. This and other nice photos can be seen in our MA State Softball Doubles Finals photo gallery
