Focus on Bermuda

Focus on Bermuda: Issue #3

The Three Referee System - a basic flaw

The advantage of the three referee system, as we all know by now, is that by having three independent views and decisions on an incident, the chances of a 'rogue' call are greatly reduced, and the opportunity for players to show dissent is much diminished.

There are some slight variations on the system, different positions for the refs, different signals, the 'player-blind' option and so on.

Whichever variation is used though,
they all rely on the one basic rule ...

14b: "All three refs must actually be awake."

Big enough
for you ?

You go to some tournaments and the draws are posted up on an A4 piece of paper and there's a queue to see what's happened and what's happening.

Not here though in Bermuda though, the public draw board is perfectly in proportion to the size of the event ...

We should point out that Mike, Wes and John weren't actually refereeing when this shot was taken

Making a noise

They used them to great effect in Hong Kong, and they're a real hit here too - blow-up "Thunderstix" that you can use to give your favourites some well-deserved support.

It couldn't be simpler, just inflate and follow the instructions ...

Focus on Bermuda: Issue #2

Just another Day ... What a difference a day makes ... Yesterday I took a photo looking out to sea from just outside the glass court, and it didn't look pretty - distinctly dull and grim-looking ... This morning though, the day play commences on the glass court, as you can see from this shot taken from close proximity to the first, it was a slightly different scene ... Welcome to Bermuda ...	DUCK! Now, Saurav Ghosal's not exactly the tallest player on the circuit is he. But he's still WAY too tall to fit into the BSRA's court one without some serious ducking!
	Omar take three Here's our favourite photogenic Egyptian again. After his qualifying final last night Omar Abdel Aziz wasn't very happy ... no translation required ...

Focus on Bermuda: Issue #1

That's my name!

As the event's official String sponsor, Tecnifibre's Guillaume Ducruet had prepared a special gift for each of the players in the qualifying and main draws – their own personal set of Tecnifibre string with their name not just on a sticker on the pack, but actually printed onto the string itself !

School's out

You often see schoolkids in attendance at major squash events, and the first day's play in this World Open was no different. It's not that often you get a whole school though, and today we had all 50 pupils from the Learning Express Secondary School, as well as a delegation from the Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy, all getting their first taste of world class squash.

It's also rumoured that a few kids took an unauthorised afternoon off to see their favourite, Patrick Foster, in action, but of course we couldn't possibly comment on that ...

Special Delivery What do you need to round off a long day at the courts ... of no interest to the players of course, but a few heads turned this afternoon when a special delivery arrived at the club, followed by a mad dash to the bar ...	Mister Flexible Omar Abdel Aziz seems to like getting himself into extreme positions - the 'Flying Leap' photo taken in Hong Kong showed he can get up, and today he proved he can get down too ...
Nervous Energy Some of those Foster Fans were on the edge of their seat throughout the former Irish International's match with Julian Illingworth, with one young lady in particular (on the left in these photos) seeming particularly engrossed in it all. All was explained when Patrick saw the photos ... "that's my fiance!" he explained ...


The whole range of emotions for Eve, Kim and Laura ...

2006

2005