July is normally a sleepy time for squash, but thanks to a wedding that Salma Hany was attending for fellow squash pro Olivia Blatchford, she happened to be on this side of the pond and dropped in for her second visit this year. Lucky for us, Danielle Letourneau, fresh off her recent National Title, was also available to come for a couple of days of squash fun.
We started off day one with a Friday drop-in and a quick trip to the blood clinic. Heather Looy, Ena Nicholson & Cecilia Hay along with Anne head to the Blood Clinic to be pricked by needles for a good cause, an hour later they were back at the club a few mL of blood lighter and ready to enjoy the exhibition.
Sandra toughed it out in some rain to run the BBQ with all the fixings provided by Trusted Freshness a vertical farming enterprise located in Leduc and connected to the ESC through our very own Doug Kirillo and Pro Ibrahim Elserafy.
The exhibition started out with Ibrahim Elserafy and Danielle, with Danielle claiming a 2-1 victory.
Ibrahim’s first match with Danielle was hard fought battle on Ibrahim’s part. He lost 2-1 and the score was very close in the third with Danielle winning 11-9. “Danielle’s fast and very fit, she to volleyed more to put pressure on me, one of the main reasons I lost was that I’m not in good shape because Danielle is a grinder.”- Ibrahim.
Against Salma, Ibrahim lost 2-0, 11-6 in the first and 11-9 in the second. Salma is a very skilled player and had Ibrahim guessing where the ball was going to go through out the match. “She’s so unpredictable, so I had to be on my toes the entire the match.”-Ibrahim
Next up with Jeff Williams who managed the first point to race out to an early lead, but could not find his groove, falling in two straight.
The nightcap was a quick doubles match on the singles court.
Saturday the lineup switched with Ibrahim playing Salma and Jeff taking on Danielle. Eager to get on to the main event, Salma and Danielle won both matches in two straight games.
Finally the weekend wrapped up with Salma vs Danielle. With some great shot making and good pressure, Salma claimed the title with a 2-0 final scoreline.
Thank you to Anthony Looy for providing the BBQ, Joe Mann for taking the action photos as usual, Stephen Atkins for referring, Paul Gutteridge for being our MC for the weekend & our Pros Jeff and Ibrahim for representing our club so superbly.
