Annual squash tournament uses unique scoring system

There was no lack of noise or excitement at the Better Bodies Cross Training Centre, which hosted the annual Reservoir Dogs squash tournament on Friday and Saturday.

With a team format and a unique scoring system, this is easily one of the most popular tournaments held at the fitness club.

This year’s tournament continued its tradition of filling up fast, which included the maximum 36 players that were each divided up onto six teams.

“This one is so easy to fill because it’s so much fun and people get enthused about it,” said Marie Desmarais, the squash pro at Better Bodies. “What’s really nice too is that a lot of the times the teams will end up watching their respected team players play, so you get all of the different levels sort of hanging around and cheering each other on and it’s really nice that way.”

To help level the playing field, participants were ranked from A to F and competed in a round robin format.

Each individual match was 25 minutes without break. Points were awarded on each rally and additionally there were eight targets placed in different areas of the court, which if a player managed to hit properly, he or she was given an additional six points.

After all six players have finished a match, their totals are added up and added to the team’s overall score.

The entry fee for this tournament was $15, plus two bottles of wine per person. Each player on the winning team was given 12 bottles of wine and the top targets hit in each skill category was also given another bottle of wine.

With 2,045 points and four players winning the top targets hit award, the Mr. White team finished in the top spot.

The team benefited from the outstanding play of all six members, including A level player Jeff Seaman, who hit the most targets with 23 in total.

Seaman, who has participated in the Reservoir Dogs tournament on multiple occasions, said he enjoys the team format it uses.

“I like the camaraderie of it, it’s similar to the league play because you are on a team and I like that aspect of it,” he said. “Then you have someone to cheer for and you usually have teammates cheering for you as well.”

Seaman was modest about hitting the most targets in all of the categories.

“I just kind of play and I got lucky really to hit that many targets,” he said. “It’s not like you can aim all of time, a lot of time you can, but a lot of them just happen as you play the game.”

Seaman said he doesn’t really have any plans for all of the wine that he won this past weekend.

“We put it in the liquor cabinet and take a bottle out once and a while and enjoy it and take it to friends houses when we go for a visit,” he said. “I enjoy it whether I win it or not, but it’s nice to bring home some wine for the Christmas season.”

Seaman was the only player to hit eight targets in a 25-minute game for this year’s tournament.

Other winners in the targets hit Michel Gelinas, Lori Muir, Chris Ziegler, Paula Pawlovich and Katrina Russell.

Besides Seaman, the Mr. White team included Chris Cullingham, Mark Beese, Ziegler and Russell.

With 1,854 points, the Mr. Black team locked down second place and the Mr. Green team finished in a close third with 1,835 points.

Fourth place went to the Mr. Red team with 1,799 points, while the Mr. Blue team came in fifth with 1,781 and the Mr. Purple team finished six with 1,741 points.