Gordon Straight-Sets Illingworth to Capture First Hyder Trophy from Court Media May 4, 2014
- First, a few words about the Hyder Trophy and the Spirit of the
Hyder. Dr. Hyder began this softball tournament in 1969. This being the
46th year he and his wife are still to be found in the center seats for
the final. The tournament is unique as it draws top PSA stars but under
no sanctioning body. As a result of no ranking points, no pressure, a
fairly decent payout for a couple days, etc., it tends to be a lot of
fun - if the player plays in the "spirit of the Hyder." Running
alongside the Hyder professional level is an amateur draw that fills
the gallery with parents, teens, weekend-warriors and fans. It's a
happy tournament -- the spirit of the Hyder.
I can't say enough
good things about Chris Gordon. In any match-play, at all, Gordon
brings it - always. I've never seen him play less than 100% as he
leaves everything he has on the court. And this match would be no
different; Chris played hard for the crowd. But, maybe more
importantly, he plays hard for himself. His integrity. His honor. Chris
has class. So, let's get to the match. Game 1 starts pleasant enough.
It's friendly, quiet, business-like, with only 4 routine decisions with
no complaint. We get the gambit of routine shots, beautiful play by
pros at this level, and all seems to be progressing into a wonderful
match and lovely Sunday afternoon. Gordon eventually moves on to win
11-8. And, the first one's in the books. Out of nowhere, the 2nd
begins with a tight-dropapalooza. Tight drop followed by tight drop
followed by crushing cross-court, retrieved, re-drop, tight drop. Edge
of your seat stuff. Eventually, the drop-fest ends with a Ramy-like
backhand cross-court nick for Gordon to go up 3-1 and from there he's
never really threatened in this game. He's never really threatened as
there's clearly something going on with Illingworth. While it is
possible he could be a bit tired from ending a 5-gamer the previous
night around 9:00 pm, and we're playing at 1:00 the following day, but
it really looks like what's happening is indifference. Mr. Illingworth
appears to want to be anywhere else but here. Gordon playing steady,
consistent, passion-fueled quality squash, in the spirit of the Hyder,
he eventually takes the second comfortably 11-6. The third begins and
almost immediately the complaints start to mount up. Complaints over
absolutely nothing. Basic, routine lets. No one at fault, just basic.
Gordon up to this point has yet to say a word. He's all business.
Illingworth is fluctuating between caring and not caring, playing and
not playing, effort and no effort. Most effort is toward complaining.
The 3-referee system is working very well and only one call went
against him after a let on a ball Gordon was out of position to have
reached. But, his mood is lackluster, mixed with spurts of real quality
of play we know Julian can produce. Ironically, this is Illingworth's
best game as despite his grumbling he's brought the game to 8-all. A
routine stroke for failure to clear and he's checked out. Given up.
Little fight left. Manages one last point but is mentally already in
the showers. Soon after, Gordon takes the third 11-9 and Illingworth
now does exactly that, walks out the door and heads straight to the
showers. Congratulations to Chris Gordon; you're all
class.
