New York to Host US Century Doubles

It’s time for squash in New York. The eighth annual U.S. Century Doubles Championships, which runs from February 20-22 and requires that the combined age of each team must be 100 years or greater, returns to New York this weekend. This year the hardball squash doubles tournament brings seventy-eight entrants to the University Club in New York to compete across six divisions: A Doubles, Grand Champions Doubles, Legends Doubles (60+), Masters Doubles (70+) Open Doubles and Women Doubles.

Perennial host, the U-Club, will unite with four other venues in the New York-area—CityView Racquet & Tennis Club, New York Athletic Club, Racquet & Tennis Club and the Union Club—to accommodate the number of players. The Century Doubles has been sponsored by Jefferson’s Small Batch Bourbon for the last few years, and each division championship team will receive a complimentary bottle for their squash efforts.

Defending champions of the Open division, Albert Tierney & Steven Scharff—who bested University Club of Boston’s duo Chris Spahr & Andrew Slater in four games—return to defend their title against four other teams.

In its third year, the Women’s division features the return of  defending champions Ann McGowan & Cathy Tuckwell—who rebounded in the 2014  finals 1-0 down to capture the win in four—to the fray to deter their seven other competitors.

In its eight years, the tournament has grown from one draw, to an Open A, Women, Mixed (not this year, unfortunately, but in last year’s event), Legends (requiring one player to be over sixty), Masters (requiring one player to be over seventy), and Grand Champions (requiring one player to be over eighty).

Kit Tatum, tournament founder, has said: “The original intention of the tournament was very selfish: the older I got, I thought we needed to create something that I had a hope of winning…The other intention was that we were just trying to find a vehicle to bridge the generations.”

For more information see the U.S. Century Squash Doubles Championships official tournament page.