Top-notch?player?Anthony “Ears” Mitchell was the first casualty when the Republic Bank Racquets of Fire Road Tennis Tournament served off at the Belfield Courts on Wednesday night.
Contrary to earlier reports, Mitchell turned up but the fact that he was not campaigning on the inter-parish circuit showed, as he was clearly rusty.
Julian “Snake” Quimby outpaced him from early and rushed to an 18-12 lead which brought the crowd alive.
Mitchell then showed his class by locking the scores at 18 and took the lead through a controversial call.
Two more contentious calls saw Quimby taking the one set shot-gun encounter, 21-19.
There were no such concerns for No. 1 seed Junior “Michael Jackson” White, who is bidding for a tenth successive crown. He carved up Aaron Barker 21-7.
No. 2 seed Curtis Jones was in an unusually aggressive mood as he ended the night’s action by dismissing Edwin “Darkman” Ward 21-4.
Another one of the exciting battles of the night saw Morson Johnson surging from 5-12 to neutralize Mark “Venom” Griffith 21-16.
Shamon Weekes beat Winston Padmore 21-15; Michael Jean stopped Lloyd Burke 21-14, while the dangerous David Arrendell defeated Anderson “St George” Sealy 21-11.
The quarter-finals, semis and finals will be staged at Belfield tomorrow night.
The next round will see Johnson challenging White; Arrendell testing Jean; Quimby opposing Jones and Weekes battling Chesterfield Brewster. (KB)
