Galway Lawn Tennis Club will again be playing host to this year’s ‘Paddy Whack Walsh’ West of Ireland Open Squash Championships. The club is preparing for what promises to be a really exciting tournament with some of the best professional squash players coming to the west of Ireland to compete for the coveted west of Ireland trophy.
For the first time the event will be streamed live on IRISH SQUASH TV HERE: http://sportslive.aertv.ie/broadcasters/irishsquash/
The event is again sponsored by Garavan’s Bar. Our sole sponsor has supported the event for many years and is the only reason why the event can go ahead. It is one of only two events that sees professional squash players compete on these shores. GLTC is extremely grateful to Paul Garavan of Garavan’s Bar for his incredible support.
This year is going to be particularly exciting. As the event continues to grow we are seeing players with higher and higher rankings come to play the event which is a huge compliment to us at GLTC. This year’s number 1 seed is Ryan Cuskelly from Australia who has a world ranking of 36! He is scheduled to meet Alan Clyne in the final if all goes to plan. Clyne, the number 2 seed from Scotland has played and won the event before. It’s always great to see past champions re-visit the club to compete again. However it’s not all written in stone, thinking back to last year’s event, the top seeds went out in round one which is nearly unheard of so anything can happen. All in all it should be a really exciting event. The first round of qualification kicks off on Tuesday 15th April. Another exciting bit of news this year is that local boy John Rooney is making a very welcome return to Galway and this event. Although not on the PSA scene currently John rose to an impressive world ranking of 52 in his prime and won this tournament in 2007 and was national champion in 2009 & 2010. He is currently playing and coaching in Buffalo USA and is going to be a real threat and certainly going to be getting a lot of support from the locals who will be hoping for an upset I’m sure. Please try and get down to the event to give John your support.
As far as other Irish contenders are concerned we have Arthur Gaskin in the main draw. Gaskin had a terrible time last year when he had to withdraw due to illness so I’m sure he’ll be keen to give a better account of himself this year. Sean Conroy from Dublin who is training and playing full time as a PSA player now has made the qualification draw so hopefully he can do well and qualify for the main draw too. We also have Keith Moran from Sligo and Brian Byrne from Claremorris competing in the ‘local spot’ positions so good luck to them too!
The schedule for the event is as follows: Tuesday 15th April: first round qualification Wednesday 16th April: final round qualification Thursday 17th April: main draw first round Friday 18th April: PSA quarter finals and first round for the graded events Saturday 19th April: PSA semi finals with second day for the graded events Sunday 20th April: PSA and graded finals day.
For tournament entry and information see here: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=892EFAEC-4469-4A88-8418-2E3E8CFE3F76
LINKS
Www.gltc.ie
Www.garavansbar.ie
Www.psaworldtour.com
Andre Davies West of Ireland Tournament Director.