Chamber Exiles Squash Club recently social held their annual Handicap Tournament.
This social tournament, which has been part of the club for about 32 years, is held over four weeks and is intended to shake off the festive season cobwebs.
Chairperson of the club, John Shannon, said it has been so popular that one year, they had 95 entries. This year the tournament had 64 entries who were mainly from the club as well as other clubs such as Northcliff Country and Pirates.
Shannon explained the tournament is a mixed event for men and ladies which caters for all standards of play and ages. “The youngest player this year was 16 years old and the oldest 72. Each player is given a handicap which attempts to level the playing field,” he said. There is also a time limit of 30, 35 or 40 minutes inside which the stronger player must keep to win the match. This is meant to put extreme pressure on the stronger player to play well. One match this year was one by the margin of one second and another by four seconds.
There are four plate events which guarantee players at least three matches. These are the Main Plate, Willy-Wonka Plate, Wally Plate and the Peacock Plonker Pineapple Plate.
This year’s results were as follows:
– Handicap winner – Ian Home
– Plate winner – Pieter Lotz
– Wally Plate winner – Roxy Fietze
– Peacock Plonker Pineapple Plate – Wesley Ngwenya
– Willy-Wonka Plate – Craig Smith.
Related article: Heading to the courts with Chamber Exiles Squash Club
