tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86127389690987780062026-04-02T05:22:50.192-04:00Get addicted to squash!Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comBlogger733125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-38066247092502477762025-08-04T19:30:00.034-04:002025-08-05T19:08:48.244-04:00

Horsham Masters Tournament July 25-27, 2025 Stupidity? Senility? A very late mid-life crisis? It’s been just over a week since I decided to venture back out into the tournament scene, my first attempt in… testing my memory here… must be August of 2019. Back then, I thought spending a week in a half in Miami during the hottest part of the summer where the humidity was so horrific one needed scuba

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-54729289272907433612024-09-05T12:38:00.002-04:002024-09-05T12:38:09.170-04:00

2024 Summer League Breakdown  Like every year, we all look at each other and declare that we can’t believe the summer has gone by so quickly. It felt like last week when I had to pull out the lawnmower for the first time, a chore I don’t mind doing, especially compared to shoveling snow which is a something I despise as much as that dude who plays on the local tennis courts without his

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-64991244663180480422023-09-01T09:13:00.004-04:002023-09-01T09:13:47.590-04:00

 2023 Summer Leagues Breakdown Summer Leagues can be broken down into two distinct categories: Pre-Independence Day and Post-Independence Day. The Pre category is the “oh-my-God-I-can’t-get-enough-of-this-squash-thing” as players climb all over themselves to get on court not quite registering that the summer has started and they should be spending most of that time outside pretending they

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-9299318084644582772022-09-06T11:07:00.006-04:002022-09-06T11:15:47.363-04:00

2022 Summer Leagues Breakdown “Big Summer Blow-Out?” You may think I’m talking about the Detroit Tigers? You know, our baseball team that gets blown out every other game? The one that – at the time I am writing this – are 33 games below .500… A team clearly trying to grab the mantle of “worst franchise in Detroit” from the Lions… the team with a stadium that seats 45,000 more people than needed…

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-16072238351222923672022-05-09T09:47:00.002-04:002022-05-23T15:06:20.917-04:00

2022 DAC Club Championships Officially, it’s the end of the season. Awards Dividend night doesn’t just celebrate the winners of the club championships, but in reality rejoices the past 8 months of leagues and tournaments we have all endured and enjoyed, experienced both wins and losses, made new friends and strengthened current relationships, guzzled a few beers, and hopefully have felt like the

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-24242900167597174902022-05-05T09:34:00.005-04:002022-05-05T09:39:54.094-04:00

2022 DAC Club Championships It’s like we are back to the good ol’ days. Covid is becoming just a fleeting distant memory and it won’t be long until we’ll be having the conversations and reminiscing… “remember – on pain of death - when we used to have to wear a mask, dress in a hazmat suit and keep a kangaroo’s leap away from any other human to go outside? That was awesome…”  It also brings

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-67791274722024881752022-04-27T11:39:00.008-04:002022-04-27T13:58:30.454-04:00

McQueenie Cup – Apr 22-23This was the 10th running of the McQueenie Cup. We have never won it. We have come close a couple of times, but we are – in reality – our own worst enemy. It has nothing to do with lack of effort, as you will read about below, but it is a numbers game, and it seems every year we just cannot field a full eight-man team. I encourage everyone to chat to any of our

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-46289074109219821402022-03-30T09:15:00.006-04:002022-03-30T09:15:59.356-04:00

Blitz Tournament - March 25, 2022  A rally here, a point there... a mis-hit… a lucky framer… an easy unforced error… a fortunate bounce… an unfortunate bounce… a beer too many… a beer too few…? Just a handful of many factors that could / would change the outlook of a Blitz Tournament. An event where - by design - matches very often come done to the last couple of rallies, the desired

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-75674859498111204402022-03-28T10:14:00.000-04:002022-03-28T10:14:27.989-04:00

 Boasters League finals~~  Can you believe it? It’s the end of the league season! 21 weeks of battling it out, and it all comes down to one evening in March. Well, actually, that ‘one’ evening turned into an entire week as most of the matches were rearranged, spread out over 7 days. Only 6 of the 16 matches were played on the scheduled day which was somewhat disappointing since it does

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-20632706013112284722022-03-18T09:46:00.003-04:002022-03-18T09:46:22.902-04:00

 Boasters League semifinals~~ The business end of the season. All the work during the season comes down to just a couple of matches in March. Of course, there is the added pressure – whether the players realize it or not – of my foretelling which tends to spray undetectable pixie dust randomly into the atmosphere and seems to demonstrate week after week that I’m utterly dysfunctional at it.

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-82357868140472747892022-03-11T10:01:00.001-05:002022-03-11T10:01:50.313-05:00

Boasters League quarter finals~~ Activity a plenty! The buzz of league finals makes it one of the more enjoyable evenings of the season. It never ceases to amaze me how everyone (most!) players are suddenly available to play on Wednesday, whereas during the regular season, it’s feels like pulling teeth to arrange the matches. I guess it is something to discuss with the captains over the summer:

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-12917811040566431342022-03-04T10:35:00.000-05:002022-03-04T10:35:01.298-05:00

Boasters League final round~~ During the entire second half of the season, for some reason it appeared to be a struggle to get the boosters matches played. And I found that strange because overall court usage has been particularly healthy. So people are playing… but just not their league matches? In either case, the last couple of weeks were an improvement on the first 7, however as you will see

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-64805611668604853242022-02-21T10:09:00.003-05:002022-02-21T10:09:48.823-05:00

DAC Squash Classic Feb 10-13, 2022 Two years removed. Covid killed just about all squash tournaments in 2021, and as we were preparing to run this year, we were somewhat worried that Covid would claim us a second time as the Omicron variant was spreading and Ontario was once again in lockdown. Fortunately, the world was starting to open up as the start day approached and although we did not

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-54967686700044733332022-02-17T13:56:00.002-05:002022-02-17T13:56:29.514-05:00

Boasters League round 7  Not much going on this week. Of course, a major reason for this would be the DAC Squash Classic that took up 4 days of the week, so court availability was scarce at best. Winky-Dinks put in the best performance this round with 25 points and with that, they now have jumped into 6th position, currently holding on to the final play-off spot. It’s all pretty bunched up

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-72445792402505205422022-02-10T09:55:00.000-05:002022-02-10T09:55:01.207-05:00

Boasters League round 6  Matches did pick up this week. Not to the level that is needed but it is an upward trend and hopefully we continue to see the rise for the remainder of the season. Mongoose once again is leading by example. They have extended their lead over the pack to 23 points, helped enormously due to the fact they have the most bonus points. As always, the team that turns up

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-68380184169201119252022-01-27T12:28:00.001-05:002022-01-27T12:28:05.347-05:00

Boasters League round 4 It feels like moving through week old molasses while wearing one of those atmospheric deep diving suits (you know, the ones with the metal helmets?) and pushing a block of concrete… uphill. With one arm. And ankles tied together. Such is the speed of which these boaters league matches are being played. Okay, okay, I am being a tad over-dramatic, and we can use the

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-17457274331121967512022-01-20T14:43:00.002-05:002022-01-20T14:43:40.878-05:00

Boasters League round 3~~  From last to 4th. Vivo’s were wallowing in the depths of darkness after round 2, dead last and hardly disturbing the score keeper. Now, with a bunch of make up matches and a (so far) perfect win record in round 3 (6 matches, 6 wins), they flung themselves into 4th with a week’s best 38 points. That’s 5 points better than next best Mongoose, who still managed to

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-48702385575777407512022-01-17T11:23:00.005-05:002022-01-17T11:23:46.579-05:00

Farris Cup - January 15, 2022 Simply put: No. Chance. This wasn’t even close. Before the day started, I wasn’t exactly brimming with confidence, even on paper the matchups were not overly attractive for us. And as if the task ahead of us wasn’t almost insurmountable enough, we lost our number 1 player 24 hours before the start of the event due to Canadian Covid protocols. Not that it would have

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-48478406009353012652022-01-13T13:12:00.007-05:002022-01-13T13:12:51.495-05:00

Boasters League round 2~~ Definitely a step up from last week with attendance, but that wasn’t exactly a high bar to reach in the first place. Patrick Petz had the perfect motivation for his team to turn up with sponsored shirts to hand out. He had 12 players rock up for their bonus points and a very loud green “Caduiex Café” shirt… makes them look like leprechauns, but so far they haven’t been

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-30979798714774869442022-01-06T16:25:00.006-05:002022-01-06T16:25:58.371-05:00

Boasters League round 1~~Don’t you love this time of year? The Holidays are over, the weather is nasty cold, the sun sets in the middle of the afternoon if we see it all, I’m sure my driveway gets longer every snowfall when I have to shovel it, and the Lions surprise me every week since I can’t honestly believe they can get any worse but they continually prove me wrong. Oh, and if you haven’t

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-91020706892136882522021-12-22T10:27:00.005-05:002021-12-23T10:46:42.455-05:00

Boasters League – Round 9 It wasn’t record breaking, but I’m fairly content with the turn-out for the first half of the Boasters League. Of course, all things considered with the pandemic wreaking havoc with everybody’s life! Surprisingly, we didn’t fill up with the usual 153 players, we ended up 9 short of that. The Wednesday evenings were a little hit and miss with participation, but make-up

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-3215202927546545642021-10-24T10:19:00.005-04:002021-10-24T10:19:40.742-04:00

Day 5 October 23 Four days of astonishing squash led up to this moment. Our members could not be more privileged to have world number 2 on display showing everyone that this sport can be played at a level they can’t even imagine. Add on one of the most exciting ‘new-kids-on-the-block’ who has already picked up some first-rate scalps for her mantlepiece and will be a force to be reckoned with on

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-88570407989770378902021-10-23T09:46:00.005-04:002021-10-23T09:49:45.944-04:00

Day 4 October 22 Down to the final four and coming off a quarter final night of unforgettable matches, the packed DAC crowd was salivating for some more spectacular performances… [1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v [4] Olivia Clyne (USA) If history was any indication, Olivia was going to be in for an onerous time. The past 3 matches on the PSA tour, Olivia is not only 0-for-3, the game tally is 0-for-9.

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-42774855600643519782021-10-22T12:17:00.002-04:002021-10-22T12:17:16.148-04:00

 Day 3 October 21 What a crazy night of matches we just witnessed. Brilliant. We had it all. And more… [1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v [6] Nele Gilis (BEL) The final score line does not indicate the quality of the hitting between these two ladies. Nouran was doing what Nouran does: Hitting the ball like she’s trying to send it into next week. But it’s not that she’s just aimlessly belting it

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8612738969098778006.post-4280239240522510922021-10-21T11:45:00.006-04:002021-10-21T11:45:59.912-04:00

Day 2 October 20 The top 8 seeds took to the courts on day 2 of the DAC Pro Squash Classic in front of an enthusiastic crowd that all night couldn’t stop themselves from “oooh-ing” and “aaah-ing” and “oh-my-God-ing!” over their constantly filled beers. ‘Blown away’ would be an understatement. We were treated to an overload of astonishing squash: [1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v Melissa Alves (FRA) On

Mick Jointhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240168906251647283noreply@blogger.com