Young players show skills

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

The 44th Richmond Open attracted nearly 500 players this year, among them two of B.C.’s top young female players.

Khristina Blajkevitch, 14, is already on the Canadian national junior team and ranked 64th overall in women’s singles.

And Tiffany Tang, 13, of Richmond is fast becoming another player to watch.

Blajkevitch has been playing tennis for eight years, taking up the game after showing an interest watching her parents—who are recreation players.

“I’ve put a lot of effort and time into it,” she said.

“But my parents and coach (Vadim Korkh at People’s Courts in Coquitlam) have also been very supportive.”

Seeded fourth in the Richmond Open, Blajkevitch was given a first-round bye and won her next two matches before bowing out to a more experienced Rebecca Marino (a national teammate). However, she put up a good fight.

“I had a solid tournament and even though I lost my semifinal it was a great match and I learned a lot from it,” she said.

“I’ve never beaten her before and I didn’t have enough confidence to so this time. That’s something I’m continuing to work on.”

Blajkevitch, who has a powerful backhand shot, is looking forward to playing overseas this summer for Canada at singles tournaments in Germany, France and the Czech Republic.

Tang, who has been playing tennis for five years, made it through to the second round of the Richmond Open before also bowing to Marino (the second seed).

“There were a lot of very good players and it was a good experience,” she said.

“For the balance of the summer my goals are to play more tournaments and I’d like to improve my serve and be more consistent.

“Eventually my dream is to turn pro but for the next couple of years I’d like to make it to nationals and get a scholarship,” she said.

Tang was inspired to play tennis watching her brother, who is six years older.

“I play about six days a week at the Richmond Tennis Club, Sportstown and UBC,” she said.

“I like the competition.”

Tang’s favourite pro player is Maria Sharipova, and she plays a lot like her, sporting a powerful serve and technique. She also has a solid forehand and backhand.

Lowrey tossed twice as frustrations boil over

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

Gord Lowrey would prefer the focus not be on him, but involuntarily the Richmond Auto Body manager was centre stage in a pair of ball games in Surrey last weekend.

He was tossed from both which Richmond lost 5-3 and 5-0 to fall further back in the cellar of the Pacific Metro Baseball League.

Such is life for the Budgies these days. They just can’t seem to catch a break.

The benches cleared in the sixth inning of the opening game of Sunday’s twinbill after, according to Lowrey, a Surrey player ran over catcher Travis Phillips who was in the left side of the hitter’s box attempting to protect the plate.

“But it was a typical baseball (brawl),” Lowrey said. “People were sort of yapping at each other.”

Lowrey figures the play, which gave Surrey a 4-3 lead, was in retaliation to a similar play during a game here June 1 when Phillips aggressively lowered his shoulder heading home and Surrey’s catcher dropped the ball.

Surrey enjoyed a 3-0 lead in Sunday’s game before Richmond rallied with a run in each of the third, fourth and sixth innings on RBI by Dave Gilfillan, Bryan Kennedy and Tyler Cookhouse.

Matt Winograd started on the mound for Richmond and threw three-and-two-third innings before making way for Jarrod Nagai and eventually Mike Basford who wound up being tagged with his first loss of the year.

Jake Dojack and Derek Simpson threw well in the second game for Richmond, but the Budgies managed to produce only two hits.

“They were good ball games but not good enough (for us),” Lowrey said.

Richmond (3-10) is scheduled to play tonight in New Westminster (8-7) and host Surrey in a doubleheader this Sunday at Minoru Park. The first pitch is at noon.

Trojans hit the gridiron

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

They don’t play for real until September, but the Hugh Boyd Trojans got a head start on the 2006 high school football season last weekend.

The Trojans wrapped up a week-long training camp—featuring players from both its junior and senior teams—by defeating the defending B.C. senior champion Windsor Dukes in a modified exhibition game. Hugh Boyd scored three touchdowns (Kingston Fan on a long run and Ken Jackson and Connor Lutz on passes) to Windsor’s one. There was no kicking (field goals or punts) in the game.

“Things went pretty well and both groups were pretty solid,” said Hugh Boyd associate coach Bill Haddow.

“We had about 35 juniors out and 27 seniors, which are decent numbers for us,” he added.

Haddow is excited about the upcoming campaign. He noted last year’s senior team, consisting of mostly Grade 11s, reached the quarter-finals losing 39-21 to eventual-finalist Lord Tweedsmuir. The junior team of mainly Grade 9s lost to eventual provincial champion Tweedsmuir 39-21 in the semifinals.

Windsor, which went into the weekend tilt having won 23 games in a row, has dominated provincially in recent years. Though they lose several players to graduation this year, Haddow said he expects the Dukes—unlike most other teams—to be able to “reload” quickly.

Haddow said his team identified several players from last year’s junior team as likely contributors to this year’s senior squad, including Mark Que who played quarterback and safety for the junior Trojans last season. “I especially like our secondary; I think it will be the strength of our team,” Haddow continued. “We’ve got guys like Fan, Colin Cookhouse, Connor Lutz and Shaun Ballash—all of whom can run and hit.”