Eight-year-old wins in U-13s while big guns’ fire

By Sean Devers
MOST eight-year-olds would usually be in bed watching cartoons but not little Zion Hickerson, who, on Thursday night at Georgetown Club, beat Kaiden Alli, almost five years older than him, on night four of the Woodpecker Junior Squash tournament in a pulsating match which ended 3-2.

On a night with a handful of spectators watching, the big Guns, Louis De Silva and Canada-born Chand DeAbreu, fired on all cylinders in the U-19 and U-17 respectively, with De Silva winning twice.

With Ethan Bulkan already assured of the U-11, Hickerson, a talented student of St Gabriel’s Primary, who also loves tennis, took on Alli in the U-13 division and lost the first game 7-11.
Hickerson, playing excellent squash for his age, engaged Alli in some fairly long rallies as the second game ebbed and flowed with Hickerson eventually winning 13-11.

The third game was just as competitive with Hickerson winning 14-12 before Alli, showing a ‘never say die’ attitude won 7-11 and, at 2-2, a deciding fifth was needed to produce a winner.
Hickerson won 11-7 and his dad, who was among the small gathering, must have been a proud man as the self-confidence and calm demeanour demonstrated by pint-sized Hickerson, made some jokingly declare ‘this looks like a big man in little boy’s body’.

In the U-19 division, De Silva played excellent squash to beat Shiloh Asregado 11-3, 11-2, 11 before beating Demitri Lowe in the U-19 division,11-1, 11-4-11-2 for his second win of the night.
Chad De Abreu, watched by his mom, beat Jeremy Ten Pow 3-1 in the most entertaining match of the night.

This encounter had almost all the shots in squash as both boys had long rallies and accurately placed drop-shots.

De Abreu raced to a 11-7 win in the first game before winning 12-10 in a keenly fought second game.

Ten Pow, with nice use of the Court and crisp back hand drives, played the better Squash in the third stanza as the long rallies continued as Ten Pow took the game 9-11. But De Abreu won the fourth game 11-5 to close off the match.

On a night in which the drive way and most of the parking lot at the Georgetown Club was under water, like many of the streets in the city, four matches were contested in the Boys U-15 division.

Blake Edwards beat Nickolas Sawh 11-4, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, Richard Rodrigues beat Justin Goberdhan 11-7, 11-9, 11-3 and Brenno Da Silva beat Avian Wade 11-8, 9-11, 11-4,11-9.
In the lone Girls match played for the night, Emily Fung-a-Fat beat Tiana Gomes 11-7, 11-1, 11-2
The action was scheduled to continue yesterday and conclude today.