|
|
|
By Mike McGorry
Photograph courtesy of the ISDA and Harrow Sports
|
| |
 In doubles squash, it is difficult to pinpoint the best player of all time. The differences between rightwallers and leftwallers are mighty: the rightwaller is typically the 'banger' who opens up the court for the leftwaller (usually a right-handed player on his backhand), the 'shooter' on the team. How well the players perform their assigned duties determines the outcome of a doubles match.
In a quest to determine the best North American rightwaller in the past 75 year--for argument's sake only--one name consistently surfaced: Jamie Bentley.
Bentley, like all good Canadian boys, started out as a hockey player. Born in May of 1963, he started playing squash 13 years later at the Toronto Cricket, Skating & Curling Club under the tutelage of Aziz Khan. Along with Bentley, junior players such as Paul Deratnay, Alan Grant, Taylor Fawcett and Doug Whittaker studied at the club. Bentley quickly learned the game, and he won the US U16 Hardball and Canadian U16 Softball Championships as a junior and was one of the top-ranked junior players in Canada.
Jamie Bentley
At age 17, Bentley quit playing competitive squash singles due to chronic ankle problems, and he switched to doubles. (The stopping and starting is much more severe in softball singles than hardball doubles; thus, less wear and tear on his ankles in doubles.) Bentley learned doubles from guys like 'Tiger' Benson, Vincent Taylor, and his father Jim Bentley, and he began playing tournaments teamed with Grant. Bentley won his first Canadian Nationals with Deratnay in 1986 and followed that with Canadian titles in 1988 and 1989 with Grant.
In the early '90s Bentley began to dominate the WPSA doubles tour. Teaming with Kenton Jernigan, the pair was ranked No. 1 for four consecutive years and won the inaugural World Doubles Championship in Toronto in 1994. After pairing with Jernigan for six years, Bentley saw a new opportunity to play with someone who epitomized his on- and off-court work ethic, and traded Jernigan for Gary Waite. Waite, then a rightwaller who had previously been ranked No. 2 on the Pro Tour with Scott Dulmage, combined with Bentley to form the only undefeated doubles team in history. For two years they never lost a match and won the second World Doubles Championship in 1996. The two married phenomenal pace and athleticism with patience to dominate the tour. It was this domination, however, which eventually led to their breakup'no one could beat them, and it was hurting the doubles game.
Since the split, Bentley has played with Scott Stoneberg, Mike Pirnak, Scott Dulmage and Willie Hosey, with whom he won his third World Doubles Championship in 2000. On the International Squash Doubles Association tour, on which he teams with Pirnak, the pair ranks 11th.
To rank Bentley the all-time best, however, one needs to go beyond records, especially considering he never played against the greats of yesteryear. Philadelphia's Maurice Heckscher, a many-time US, Canadian and Professional Doubles Champion, commented that Bentley is the prototypical rightwaller, a banger without equal who makes very few errors and opens up the court for his partner's shotmaking. Heckscher likens Bentley to the late Tom Page in athletic ability, but notes that Bentley hits the ball much harder than Page ever did.
Bentley helped usher in a new style of doubles squash player: the perennial player who trains, is tremendously fit, and plays the game as a profession rather than a hobby. He's keen on the game's workings, inside and out. Past-partner Waite notes that Bentley's biggest strength is that he is always in the right position. When they played together, it was soothing to Waite knowing Bentley's ability to hit the key shot at the right time--now as opponents, that same trait disheartens Waite.
Certain players claim that Bentley uses his power and athleticism to intimidate others. Some have even gone on to allege that Bentley may purposefully hit an opponent to throw them off of his game. Maybe that's just the frustrated old hockey player coming out in him.
|
| |
|
|
|
Feb 2008
(click for contents)
|
