On Friday, July 11, 2025, the BC Jesters held their annual doubles calcutta at the Vancouver Lawn Tennis & Badminton Club.The event was organized by Drew Henderson, Karen Levine, and Robert Pacey (who drew the short straw and refereed every match played that night.)
The championship match pitted Hugh Wooley and Glenn Sorenson against Lynn Broman and Morgan Latrimouille. Hugh and Glenn pulled off the upset in 5 (12-15, 15-6, 15-8, 9-15, 15-12)
The 2019 edition of the BC Jesters summer Doubles Calcutta was held at the Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club on Friday, June 14, 2019
The teams:
16 participants were purchased with bids as low as $150 and as high as $350. Teams were created and a points handicap system was used to level the playing field. An incredible number of games ended 15-14 and more amazingly, both semi-finals and the final all ended 2-1 with a 15-14 score in the 3rd and deciding game! Kudos to Morgan Latremouille for organizing this event – finding the 16 players, finding 2 more to replace last minute withdrawals, establishing the points handicaps and making sure the event starts on time and finishes before midnight is a huge challenge. Not only was Morgan up to the task, but he somehow managed to win for a 2nd year in a row (no doubt because of his partner, Madeline Sava). Perhaps we need to re-assess letting Morgan set the handicaps😊!Thanks to all the Jesters who played and also to those who bet on the players. This year nearly $4000 was raised for Squash BC’s Building the Future Fund with the tax receipt for the owners of the winning team going to the all-female conglomerate, C’s Company!
The draw
Cathy Brown and Andrew Lynn Ruth Castellino and Mark Robinson Karen Levine and Robert Pacey Brian Covernton and Lynn Broman Carolyn Russell and Kelly Latremouille Madeleine Sava and Morgan Latremouille Justin Todd and Russell Smith Laura Ramsey and Thomas Brinkman
Karen and Robert lost 15-14 in the decider to Madeleine and Morgan
Golf Tournament Saturday saw beautiful sunshine and 20 keen golfers descend on University Golf Course to test their skills and, if you were in my foursome, have a few beverages! When the dust settled, Michael Jackson walked away with the big trophy for Net Champion with an amazing 65! Andrew Lynn managed to defend his title as Low Gross champ with a modest 77 much to the chagrin of the others.
KP winners were Karen Levine, Ruth Castellino and Morgan Latremouille (is there anything this guy doesn’t win?) and the Long Drive winners were Ruth Castellino and Geraint Khan. There was a repeat champion for the honour of Most Honest Golfer but he shall remain nameless to maintain his dignity! Many thanks to those who donated prizes, to Tim Bale for booking the tee times and most importantly, to Ruth Castellino for organizing this event (she did win two prizes so don’t feel too bad for her!).
Après-golf Dinner Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was the dinner at Russell and Gillian Smith’s place. Close to 60 people wined, dined and socialized in what will be our final hurrah at the Smith’s place. I don’t think we broke anything this year (Barclay was well-behaved) and it was great to see so many Jesters and their guests. Thanks to Hugh and Sandra Woolley for the wonderful dinner, John and Debbie Hungerford for the tasty dessert, Doug MacDougall for the wine/beer and Paul Stevenson for the non-alcoholic drinks. There are no words to describe how generous Russell and Gillian have been to our group, hosting numerous Jesters functions at their house – thank you both so much!
This year’s 36th edition of the BC Jesters Doubles Squash Tournament starts February 15 and runs through to the 19th. Matches will be taking place at the Vancouver Racquets Club, The Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club, the Evergreen Squash Club and the Hollyburn Country Club.
The last two years have sold out (64 players max) so sign up early.
100% of your entry fee goes to the 2020 Fund for the Future of Junior Squash. For more information on the fund, or to donate directly, please visit their Vancouver Foundation Donation Page.
UPDATE – June 16, 2013
An amazing night of doubles squash was had by all that participated in the 2013 Calcutta. The first two matches at Vancouver Racquets Club saw Robert Pacey and Mark Heaney defeat Doug MacDougall and Nicola Martin 3-0 while Brian Covernton and his sister Cathy defeated Tim Martin and Lynn Broman 3-0. Meanwhile at the Vancouver Lawn & Tennis Club, Chris Harley and Ruth Castellino defeated Michael Leckie and Sue Wastie 3-1 and Greg Desaulniers and Katherine Johnson defeated Ryan Haider and Natasha Doucas by a score of 3-1.
Robert Pacey and Mark Heaney – 2013 BC Jesters Calcutta Champions
The second round took place at Van Lawn and in the first semi-final match Robert Pacey and Mark Heaney defeated Chris Harley and Ruth Castellino 3-1. The second semi-final saw the Coverntons defeat Michael Leckie (subbing in for an injured Greg Desaulniers) and Katherine Johnson 3-0. This set up a final between the “0” handicapped team of Robert Pacey and Mark Heaney and the the “+1” Coverntons. It was a well played match that went to five with Pacey and Heaney coming out on top. This was Pacey’s second title in a row and word is that his handicap will be much different next year.
Congrats to all of those who placed bets and helped the BC Jesters raise $2500 for Squash BC’s 2020 Fund.
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The BC Jesters are holding their annual Doubles Calcutta on Friday, June 14, 2013, at Vancouver Lawn & Tennis Club. 2/3 of the monies raised will go directly to the 2020 Fund which is an initiative of Squash BC that promotes the growth of the game of squash through the development of junior squash. This event is open to the public and admission is FREE.
• Bids are accepted for individual players and each player has a handicap.
• Once the bidding closes players will be randomly assigned to teams and randomly placed in the draw.
• Each team’s handicap will be the sum of the two team member handicaps added together (i.e. it is possible for a team to have a negative handicap.)
• All matches are best of five games.
• ‘Pro-am scoring’ will be in effect – i.e. a team team that loses a game gets 3 additional handicap points for the next game – unless this would bring them automatically to 15 points, in which case the three points are subtracted from the other team’s handicap. If a team loses the first game and then wins the second game, the three points that were awarded after the first game are deducted (rather than added to the other team).
TO PLACE YOUR BID:
Email Michael Leckie: mleckie@camposleckie.ca
Bids will be published here at 9am / 1pm / 6pm daily
Bidding closes Thursday June 13th at 5pm
BIDS:
BIDDING IS NOW CLOSED
PLAYERS / HANDICAPS / BIDS:
Sue Wastie (R) +5 ($150 Doucas)
Lynn Broman (R) +4 ($100 Doucas)
Ruth Castellino (R) +3 ($200 Osburn)
Robert Pacey (L) +3 ($150 Silgailis)
Natasha Doucas (R) +2 ($150 Bowen)
Brian Covernton (L) +2 ($200 B/L Armstrong)
Doug MacDougall (L) +2 ($200 Clarke)
Greg Desaulniers (L) +1 ($200 Brown)
Nicola Martin (R) 0 ($100 G Desaulniers)
Katherine Johnson (R) 0 ($200 Hungerford)
Cathy Covernton (R) -1 ($100 Barclay)
Ryan Haider (L) -2 ($100 B/L Armstrong)
Chris Harley (L) -2 ($150 Harley)
Tim Martin (L) -3 ($100 Hungerford)
Mark Heaney (R) -3 ($200 Woolley)
Michael Leckie (L) -4 ($200 Goldsmith)
The first round had it all including an upset with Nicola Martin and Ryan Haider overcoming Adam Radziminski and Brian Covernton in what many considered a clerical error*. (*New rules regarding handicaps were put into place just minutes before match time.) Greg Desaulniers (The Bionic Man) and Ben Thomas put away Rod Nicolls and Mark Ridgeway in 5 and Michael Leckie and Cathy Covernton played an amazing match over a greatly improved Chris Harley and his partner David Goldsmith winning 3-2.
All semi-finals were played at the Lawn with Castellino/Pacey winning in 4 over Thomas/Desaulniers and Covernton/Leckie squeaking out a 3-2 win over Martin/Haider. The latter match had the intensity of a final going right to the last point!
The final saw a differential of 9 points (Castellino/Pacey at +6 vs Covernton/Leckie at -3) and it’s fair share of controversy. With Castellino/Pacey up 2-1 in games, and 13-10 in the fourth, Leckie and Castellino collided and collapsed in the right back corner with Leckie managing to keep the ball in play. While Leckie and Castellino attempted to untangle themselves Pacey and Covernton fought it out at the front of the court with Pacey managing a cheeky (and lucky) drop shot for a winner. Leckie appealed to the crowd for a Let that he was sure he asked for but the ref and the crowd denied it and the point stood. (Henceforth this rally will be known as “The Let NOT heard ’round the world.”) A quick cross court nick off the serve by Pacey ended the match and found Castellino/Pacey in the winners circle hoping their owners would at least buy them a beer from the winnings.
All participants and “owners” retired to the Van Lawn lounge where Mr. Leckie only mentioned “that” rally once or twice and grumbles were heard about handicaps changing next year.
From tournament organizer Michael Leckie: A big thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s Jesters Doubles Calcutta – players, bidders, and hecklers. We had a great turnout and managed to raise over $2400 for the 20/20 Fund. We would like to recognize the generosity of the owners of the winning team – Hugh Woolley and Rod Nicolls – for donating the $750 prize as part of the overall donation. John Hungerford was the sole winner of the 50/50 Draw, predicting the result of Castellino/Pacey (+6) over Covernton/Leckie (-3) in the finals. Nice playing Ruth and Pacey!
The draw.
Heaney, Pacey, MacDougall and Castellino
Thomas, Pacey, Castellino and Desaulniers
Leckie looking for the ball.
Cleaning up Desaulnier’s spill:)
The finalists. Where’s Leckie?
We raised over $2400 for the 2020 Fund!
The finalists: Covernton, Leckie, Wooley, Pacey and Castellino
