2023 Haloween Cup Tournament

2023 Vancouver Island Open

Well Done!

The 2023 Vancouver Island Open is now complete and it is time for us to reminisce over our weekend of highs, lows, excitement, outstanding athleticism, and good old fashion competition. 81 players started the events Thursday evening and finished with the open finals at 2:30pm Sunday. We were proud to have players visiting from Nanaimo, and Vancouver for the event. Additionally 20 Volunteers helped to run the event this weekend devoting their time to updating draws, court control, registration desk and refereeing. Without their help the tournament would not run that smoothly.

With the return of the open draws to the VIO we must recognize the financial support that allowed us to raise $4,000.00 for the open players:

Thank you

We thank you, Dave Wheaton, Neil Henderson, Erik Zaremba, and Paul Holmes. Our biggest donor to the event is the Cedar Hill Squash Club. Without the support of the club (all the members) we would not have had the event we did. So every member of the cedar hill squash club you deserve a pat on the back. Support for the fantastic prizes this year came from Chateau Victoria, and Anniko Hunter Law Office, who upped the kitty for the winner of each draw! We were treated to some great squash this weekend but the Sunday Finals left us awed by what can be done on the squash court.

Women's Open Final

Ocean Ma Beat Grace Thomas 3-0. The top three players in this draw were separated by .08 of a rating…if we had to bet on the winner the odds were in the houses favour. Ocean and Grace traded points in the early stages of each game, but youthful determination of prevailed in the end game. Ocean is a world class Junior. Look for more from Ocean in the future.

Men's Open Final

Ryan Picken beat Guillermo Cortes-Ortiz (Memo) 3-2. This was a nail biter for those that watched. I’m sure Ryan had a moment when Memo reached match ball 10-6 in the 4 game! Mental determination? Or experience? They both have it but Ryan pushed through and after fighting off 4 match balls in the 4th game and prevailed in the 5th game to win the Men's Open.

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One More Thing:

This weekend we were able to continue our development of Squash in Victoria. Simon Bicknell (provincial referee assessor) was at the event and completed 6 referee assessments, including one new referee. We no longer have a referee assessor on the island and this goes a long way to improving an area that needs work. Congratulations to:

Benjamin Uliana

Tournament Director