Thursday's first rounds found the top eight seeds, Damian Walker, Preston Quick, Jamie Crombie, Julian Illingworth, Richard Chin, Tim Wyant, Beau River and Dylan Patterson coming through over challengers Jared Sandler, Paul Brogna, Ryan Donegan, Nick Guethe, (LAAC) Joshua Schwartz, Jim Masland, (LAAC) Jason Jewell and LAAC member, Jamie Fishkin.

It was at Friday's important second round quarterfinals, where the real battles began. Were the top four players of Walker, Quick, Crombie and Illingworth going to continue their dominance? For Walker, Crombie and Quick, it would be so. Not so lucky was fourth seed Illingworth, the 19 year-old U.S. Junior Champion and last year's EBG finalist. Chin, teaching professional at the Harvard Club of New York, ended the youngster's bid in three straight games, 9/2, 10/9 and 9/7, sending him to the consolation rounds.

Saturday's semi-finals found first seed Walker pitted against Chin and third seed Crombie, taking on second seed, Quick. Would they hold their positions going into Sunday's final? Following his impressive win over Illingworth, Chin was expected to give the “robotic-like”Walker a battle. Not so! Walker took the match with relative ease in three straight games, 9/3, 10/8 and 9/4. The other semi was quite a different matter! Quick came out strong, winning the first two games, 9/6 and 9/3. But the 37 year old Crombie of Cincinnati, who, although an American citizen, played most of his career competing for Canada, was not going to fade easily. He came back to win the next two games, 9/5 and 9/2, bringing the match even for a fifth game show- down. The game was even until four all, when Crombie's consistency and errorless play began to wear Quick down. Final tally… 9/5 for the third seed and on to meet Walker.

The Sunday afternoon final was played in front of a packed gallery behind show court #6. The game started normally with both players hitting with good length and width, making it possible to retain excellent court position. Then, out of nowhere, very uncharacteristically, Walker's normally accurate front-court game began to evade him…over and over again. In fact, he hit the tin eight times in one game. There is an old saying… “Squash games (and matches) are lost, not won!” If ever were the case, this was it. Crombie was playing safely and consistently. Walker was “losing” the rallies! The first two games went to Crombie, 9/4 and 9/3. Walker made a come- back bid in the third, winning convincingly, 9/3 over what appeared to be a lack of concentration on Crombie's part. But it was Jamie's evident high level of fitness that enabled him to retain his first two game proficiency, winning The Championship in the fourth and final game, 9/5.

The ¾ playoff was won by Chin, over Quick in four games, 6/9, 9/7, 9/5 and 9/7. The double feed-in consolations was dominated by Tim Wyant with his all-court game, defeating Donegan and River, each in three games… and over Illingworth in four, 7/9, 9/1, 9/3 and 9/4.

The Locals

Most appropriately, a late Sunday afternoon marathon match capped off the exciting weekend. Number one seed, New Zealander Al Preston, Cal. Tech. PhD engineering candidate, who received a bye in the first round, took out current USSRA President, Kevin Jernigan, earning himself a place in the 6.0 final.

The other half of the draw saw the young 19 year-old former Colombian Junior Champion, L.A. City College cinema major and LAAC member, Juan Castilla winning both his first and second rounds convincingly over Sam Maasarani and Jamal Deaifi.

This Preston-Castilla match-up was destined to be the amateur match of the day… and the first two games, lasting over 40-minutes, bared that fruit. Game one went to Preston in extra points, 10/8. The second game went to Castilla in like fashion, 10/8. With both players now showing signs of fatigue, which of the two would have the heart to grind out the remainder of the match? In the third game, it appeared that Castilla's talented shot making would dominate, with the result 9/4 in his favor. Was this the end for Preston? Not likely, coming back…big time, winning the fourth 9/0! So here it was, the fifth game of the last match of the tournament with two talented but tired combatants fighting it out for top amateur flight bragging rights. In the end, it was Preston's maturity and grit prevailing over Castilla's youth and talent…winning the game and match, 9/3.

In the next division, once again it was the top two seeds making it to the final. They were LAAC members, Dylan Neal defeating David Hirsch and Asish Law, and Asif Mahmood taking his two matches over Vijay Prasad and Sally Norgate. As it turned out, although the match had some exciting and long points, Neal dominated, winning in three straight games.

This division repeated itself with top seed Ramesh Haridas of San Francisco winning his first two rounds over LAAC members Richard Irving and Ahmed Adil. Second seed, Sally Norgate, teaching professional at San Diego's Pacific Athletic Club, received a default in her first round and won her second over Joe Mersola. Haridas, who first thought he may have been placed in the wrong (lower) division, quickly realized that was not so, losing to the former outstanding Canadian junior ladies player in three straight games.

The next flight was not quite the same, but similar. The #3 and #4 seeds, Mike Lewis and Ron Bujarski, made their way to the final by defeating Quinn Fair, Mike Lewis, Kristof Kunzmann and Ken Stillman respectively. Bujarski was victorious over Lewis.

Robert Mosier was the eventual winner in a final over Geoff Thompson in three games of their division. They had wins over Alan Fox, Aleatsae Scibuola, Terry Dunn and Jim Towery.

The final division saw LAAC member and first time tournament player, Brian Andrews fight it out successfully, after getting by Mark Churchill and Kevin Dowling, over teammate Dan Karnowsky.

Refereeing Seminar

Nearly 50 professional and amateur players attended a special Saturday luncheon featuring a Rules seminar by Rod Symington, PhD and member of the World Squash Federation Rules & Referees Committee. The WSF has recently appointed Rod to re- write and format the Rules of Squash…in four languages! Dr. Symington's subject matter included: “Do you see what I see,” “Are we on the same page,” and “What to do about it.” The one-hour presentation brought-forth many questions regarding the “interference” rule, which were all meticulously answered by this extremely capable and knowledgeable guest lecturer.

Saturday Evening Social

Following a lovely sit-down surf & turf dinner with wine, it was once again Rod Symington delivering a very poignant speech to over 50 squash players and guests, titled, “Squash as the Drug of Choice.” The audience was settled in their seats, vigorously applauding statements such as “Squash players will drive to the ends of the earth to play squash, and if they travel to the ends of the earth for another purpose, they will take their squash racquet with them, just in case there might be a squash court at the South Pole or on top of Mount Everest.” And, “I recently met a man who drives two hours every Friday evening to play in a league – nothing too surprising about that – but he is 67 years of age. Isn't it time he grew up and stayed home to watch television with his wife? Of course not, he's a squash player: he'll never grow up.”