Lemmons And Parks Headline Strong U. S. Father & Son Doubles Championship Draw
by Rob Dinerman, for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline April 20th, 2012 --- Reigning champions Geordie Lemmon and his son B. G. and three-time winners Greg Park and his father Steve are seeded to meet Sunday afternoon in the final round of the eighth annual U. S. National Father & Son Doubles Championships, which kick off later today in New York City. In addition to the strong 18-team field in the Open division, there are also four other competitive flights, namely the 13-and-under, 15-and-under, 17-and-under, and Century (with the two players’ ages being at least 100 years old), 37 team entries in all, and most of the 2011 tournament winners are returning, either to defend last year’s title or to move up to the next age-level category.
The Parks captured this championship from 2007-09, but missed the last two holdings of this event since in both 2010 and 2011 it was held on the same weekend as the Players Championship, one of the major stops on the ISDA professional doubles tour, on which Greg Park is currently ranked in the top ten. With the Players Championship not being held this season, the Parks are making what could well turn out to be a triumphant return, especially since Greg Park is less than three weeks removed from having teamed with Preston Quick to win the U. S. National Doubles title in Rye, and is therefore positioned to possibly become the only player ever to win both of these national doubles tournaments in the same season. They are seeded second behind a pair of fellow Philadelphians, the aforementioned Lemmons, who earned this title last year by defeating Simon and Dillon Aldrich (2005 17-and-Under champions) in the semis and Will and Bill Simonton in a well-played four-game final.
Other contending teams in the Open division include the Simontons, who won this event in 2006, were finalists in 2007, 2008 and, as noted, 2011, and are the only team to have competed in the Open flight in every year of this tournament’s existence; Chris Spahr, the longtime head pro at the University Club of Boston, who partnered Doug Lifford to the U. S. National Doubles 45-and-over crown earlier this month, and his precocious son Carson, who won the 17-and-under Father & Son event last year even though Carson won’t turn 15 for several weeks; and the Ciprianos, Peter and his father Guy, semifinalists in 2010, when the tournament was won by 2005 Yale captain Josh Schwartz and his father Sandy, who had to withdraw from this year’s competition when Josh Schwartz injured his knee during National Doubles weekend.
If the seeding holds up in the Century, the final will be a rematch of the great final a year ago, when 2010 winners Jack Wyant and his son Jack Jr, the head squash coach at Penn, held two fourth-game match-points against many-times U. S. National Doubles runner-up Tom Poor and his son Morgan, before the Poors managed to rally to a five-game victory. The three junior age-group categories appear wide open, as several contending teams are entering for the first time and hoping to make their mark on what has already become a highly popular championship.
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