Def Champ Blown Blows Away Boast Busters in KPMG Squash League

The KPMG League’s defending champion Blown, blew away Boast Busters in straight sets after comprehensively beating them 3-0 Tuesday night at the Liguanea Club in their quarter final match-up.

Blown’s Andrew Bicknell was the first one to take to the court against Anthony Ayoub to cop the team’s first quarter-final win when the match ended 3-1 with scores of 21-13, 21-20, 13-21 and 21-19.

Captain Jake Mahfood then took on Rajeev Venugopal who did put up a challenge but was eventually beaten 3-0 after posting scores of 21-16, 23-21 and 21-17.

It was then left to Anthony Mahfood to close the deal, which he did by a 3-1 score line against Bobby Vaughn with scores of 21-17, 20-21, 21-19, 21-17.

Blown entered the quarter final on a losing note after Swift Swingers gave them a proper three nil beating in their final preliminary round match last week Thursday.

Mahfood was happy to see the back of that loss. “So the loss was very tough. We fielded our best team which we thought we could win and unfortunately we didn’t. They were a tough team which I think we may end up playing in the semi-final or final so we’re just gonna do our best and hope to get there so we can meet them again and get our revenge.”

He said the match was “yeah it was very competitive. Andrew, he leads our team really by example. He was the first game and he just played phenomenal. Won 3-1, won the first two games, lost the third. We were kinda worried when he lost his fitness but he just bounced back like a champion and really, really drove the team to success. Anthony finished up a well payed match so we’re very happy with that and we’re looking forward to the semi-finals”

He expects the semi-final to be worth watching. “It’s gonna be exciting. It’s gonna be a lot of entertainment. I mean, Fraser he’s unfortunately away representing Jamaica but he’ll be back next week for the semi-final so we’re happy we’re able to bring him to the semi-finals for the KPMG League. We know we’ll do our best and I think we’re pretty confident that we’re gonna retain our title.”

Two other-quarter final matches were played.

JDF ended runner-up Fantastic Warriors’ run in the league by a three to two score line in some very competitive games. JDF’s Derrian Barrant clobbered Stephen Dear 3-1 (21-15, 21-16, 21-19). Fantastic Warriors’ Nabeel Jawad came back with a vengeance to blank Orville Bennett 3-0 (21-17, 21-20, 21-16). It then became the battle of the captains. JDF’s captain Jemel Sterling battled Fantastic Warriors’ captain Stewart Maxwell in a grueling five-setter which ended 3-2 in favour of JDF. The Warriors bagged the first two games 21-15, 21-15 but the man from South Camp Road fired back 21-11, 21-16 and another 21-16, to book their place in the semi-finals.

In the other quarter – final match, the Juniors+1 wiped out the Avengers 3-0. Sanjana Nallapati blanked Ethan Miller 3-0, Michael McIntosh did the same to Acqueme Johnson and Ryan Foreman won his match against Recardo Stewart by walk-over.