Veteran local squasher Bob Tkachuk showed the young guns he hasn’t lost a step, winning the annual Boxing Day tournament here yet again with a 3-0 sweep over Benji Andrusco in the ‘A’ final.
Tkachuk breezed through the 16-player field without a loss Sunday, blanking Michael Whitehead, Toby Munro, and Jason Kabel by identical 3-0 scores to reach the final.
Andrusco, meanwhile, needed to come back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Dave McPherson (now living in Yellowknife) in the most exciting match of the day.
The ‘B’-final saw John Steele (Winnipeg) down Dr. Cam Moorhouse 3-1.
Steele, a former Fort Frances junior player, won three-straight matches to end the tournament after opening with a 3-2 loss to Munro.
He also beat Whitehead (3-0) and Ken Allan (3-1).
In other news, Fort Frances will host an inter-club junior squash camp and competition Jan. 4-5, with players from Winnipeg and Thunder Bay making the trip here.
The clinic also will serve as a tryout for the Northwest region junior squash team–comprised of four boys and four girls age 12 through 19–that will compete at the Ontario Winter Games in Sault Ste. Marie in March.
The Northwest team will be coached by Bob Shine of Thunder Bay and the manager will be Mary Beth Tkachuk of here.
Camp organizer Bob Tkachuk said Fort Frances has “one or two” players who have a shot at making this year’s regional team (no one from here has ever made the junior squad before).
“We haven’t really had a chance to develop the [junior] program,” he said yesterday, noting it’s still in its infancy. “It’s an instruction camp with play in between [but] it’s a fun tourney and not all tryouts.”
Tkachuk said the idea is to establish a competitive series between such places as Winnipeg and Thunder Bay for future tournaments.
“We want to get an inter-club competition for our players to play,” he noted.