JASON RAY Khalil made a successful defence of his Bounty Farm Handicap open title when the curtain came down on the Guyana Squash Association’s (GSA)-organised tournament at the Georgetown Club last Sunday.Khalil with a handicap of -24 took more than one hour to get past Nyron Joseph (-16) by two games to one in the final of the open category, while in the category `A’ final Lucas Jonas -3 came up against his brother Ethan Jonas -1 and disposed of him 2-0.

According to reports on the Khalil versus Joseph match, because of the handicaps, the match started at -8 to zero and Khalil was quickly in his stride.
He easily overcame the handicap and evened the scores at five-all. The rallies were long and hard and Khalil seemed to relax because he had caught up with Joseph.
The game then became close as Khalil won a point then Joseph moved out to a 13-9 lead and seemed poised to win the first game, but this was not to be, as Khalil held his nerve and won the next six points to take the first game 15-13.
Winning the first game seemed to make Khalil complacent and he was never really into the second game at all, as Joseph reached to ten points before Khalil scored, with Joseph going on to easily win the second game 15-4.
The third game was brutal as both players were retrieving shots that seemed impossible for them to do and like in the first, Khalil was at zero with Joseph at five points and even though the latter won the next three points to go to eight, he seemed to be getting tired and started making errors.
Khalil realised this and kept up the pressure and won the next six points before Joseph went to nine and even though he (Joseph) won two other points, Khalil eventually won the game 15-11 and the match.
In the Category `A’ final between the Jonas siblings, in the first game Lucas won the first eight points before his brother secured his first point and Ethan could get no further than seven as Lucas won the first game 15-7.
The second game was no different from the first as again Lucas won the first eight points before Ethan secured his first point and even though Ethan got closer in this game he lost it 15-9.
There was no playoff for third place in the Open category as Raphael De Groot unfortunately had to leave town so he defaulted both his semifinals match against Joseph the previous evening and the third-place match against Nicholas Narain earlier on Sunday.
In the Category `A’ third place playoff Michael Alphonso -1 played Demetrius DeAbreu -1. Demetrius won a close first game 15-13 but Michael bounced back to take the second game 15-10 and then comfortably won the third game 15-6.
Alexander Cheeks +7 crowned off a good week of squash for him when he defeated Joe Mekdeci 0 15-11, 15-12 to win the Open category plate and Jason Gomes +4 beat Kamir Khan +7 15-11, 15-13 to win the Category `A’ equivalent.