By Morissa Lindsay
Barbadian duo Shawn Simpson and Khamal Cumberbatch earned a hard-fought silver medal against Guyana at the 2022 WATA XXVII Senior Caribbean Individual and Doubles Squash Championships played today at the Liguanea Club in Kingston, Jamaica.
Fresh from playing in the plate final at this year’s Commonwealth Games, Barbados’ top two men seeds fought incredibly hard but lost 11-10 and 11-10 in the two best of three sets showdown against the Guyanese pair of Jason Ray Khalil and Nyron Joseph.
During a phone interview with Barbados TODAY, Simpson spoke on behalf of himself and Cumberbatch and said they knew the
matchup against Guyana would have been a challenging one.
“The matchup against Guyana was going to be a tough one. We had played Guyana before in 2019 and we had narrowly lost to them in three games, so we knew this match was going to be a evenly contested match.
“We had a couple hard calls going against us in the final by the referee today but that is how the game goes sometimes but we still feel proud to be able to make the final and do our best for Barbados,” Simpson explained.
He also pointed out that they fought hard as a unit to reach this far. “Coming into this tournament we had the number seeding and we ran into Cayman Islands in the semifinal. Cayman came planned and coordinated in the first game against us which they won and then we had to make a tactical change at the end of that first game to ensure that we were going to win. We were successful in doing so but we had to be patient with what we were going to do against them as they had two experienced players playing on their team,” he said.
Simpson stated that his and Cumberbatch’s style of play complement each other which makes the world of difference when they team up to represent Barbados on the court.
In the keenly contested men’s doubles final which lasted for over an hour, Simpson and Cumberbatch played well against the right handers Khalil and Joseph who were seeded at number one for the senior competition.
Simpson, an 11-time national champion occupied the left of the court which came as no surprise given that he is left-handed, while the young talented Cumberbatch was stationed to the right.
The match which commenced just after 10 a.m. was extremely intense from the inception as the players rallied strong in search of points and at 5-5 in the opening set it was Khalil and Joseph who broke the deadlock.
In a long exchange of returns to keep the ball alive, both teams were careful not to give away points but after a while Cumberbatch hit a return on the tin and that gave their rivals a 6-5 advantage.
Most of the attacking plays were contested from the backcourt as both teams demonstrated power and aggression especially Simpson who mostly favoured the back half of the court while Cumberbatch also with a good reach responded from the front.
At times the plays were physical with lots of pushing as the players went in pursuit of the returns. While Simpson and Cumberbatch seemed destined to claim the first game with a 10-8 advantage, it was Khalil and Joseph that took the lead after a few unforced errors from the Bajan duo.
The Guyanese duo, while tactical in their approach, were matched by Simpson and Cumberbatch who were equal to the task in the second set.
The Barbadian team seeded at position number two battled hard and showed lots of fight but they also needed to eliminate the unforced errors.
Simpson and Cumberbatch trailed by just one point at 8-9 and equalized 9-9 and at this stage of the game pressure mounted on both sides to take the lead.
Joseph responded with a smash on the tin and that was exactly what Barbados required to take the lead 10-9 in search of game point. Unfortunately, an error on the part of Simpson allowed Guyana to tie the scores 10-10 and then steal the victory. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
