Abigail Haynes repeated her feat as a Daryll Jordan schoolgirl about ten years ago to take road tennis queen Kim Holder to school by stunning her in straight sets in the women’s contest of the National Sports Council Inter-Parish finals at the Christ Church Foundation School Hall on Friday night.
The 25-year-old Haynes, who had been mauled in every clash with Holder since her victory at the Netball Stadium in 2007, denied the defending champion and St George their sixth successive crown as well as the $5 000 first prize.
Holder turned up with a large group of supporters, including former members of her Progressive volleyball team, which would have stirred some memories and discomfort for sponsor Alvin Jemmott as he would have battled many of those Progressive giants while turning out for 1988 Division 1 kings Royals.
Haynes looked regal in unfurling some impressive shots to take early leads of 15-8 and 19-10, as a sluggish Holder seemed to be playing in an ankle-deep pool of quick-drying cement.
Even so, the fans were still expecting a replay of the old movie where Holder would fight back and Haynes would meekly surrender.
After Haynes advanced to game point at 20-13, Holder recognised the danger and rallied the ball 24 times to creep to 14-20. Getting to 15-20 and holding the serve, Holder literally held the key to the first game. But, after exciting fans by winning the first point of her serve, Holder served away the next ball.
Holder then began to fight in the next game, taking leads of 9-4 and 13-9, with Haynes continuing to move freely and blunting or countering with tremendous confidence. Locking the scores at 15, 17, 18 and 19, Haynes put greater pressure on Holder, who began to show a face of despair and defeat.
Haynes moved to game and match point (20-19) before Holder deuced the game and led 21-20 and 22-21 before Haynes locked the scores at 22 and then took the contest with breathtaking rallies and precise drives.
The manner of victory suggested that it was a mental block which was previously thwarting her in battle with Holder.
All of the other games played according to the form book, with Christ Church going to the tiebreaker for their duo of Gary “Kojak” Thomas and the showman Jamar “Bob” Best to take the “B” Class crown over St Joseph.
The enigmatic Thomas held off Terry “Buh” Nurse 21-18, 21-17 before the entertaining Terry Duncan evened the contest in a tight win over Best (24-22, 24-22). In the tiebreaker, Best fought from 2-6 to lock the scores from 13 up to 17 and then used a bounced serve to unsettle and defeat Nurse.
The Under-13s set the template for keen competition on the night with eight-year-old Kezia Blunt capturing St Philip’s first parish crown by defeating Renesha Stewart of St George 21-19, 18-21, 21-11.
St Michael’s Shakeem Nurse also needed three games to deny Dominic Browne of Christ Church 21-13, 15-21, 21-16, with the youngsters playing shots that belied their tender ages. (KB)
