Greaves' death a blow to squash fraternity
By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
January 18, 2004
When 18-year-old Gerard Greaves lost his life on January 2 in a road accident, not only did his family suffer a great loss, but the local and regional squash fraternities as well.
Greaves, who celebrated his 18th birthday on December 20, started playing squash at the age of 11 at the Surapana Club in Linden. He was touted as a future Caribbean senior champion and a player who could have made a great impact on the international circuit.
While representing Guyana at the Senior Caribbean Championships in Barbados last year, Greaves had the opportunity to meet the United States' Over-35 champion, Guyanese Max Weithers. According to Greaves' adoptive father, Dr Stanley Marcus, a squash player himself, Weithers sent him (Marcus) an e-mail after last year's Caribbean championships, stating how impressed he was with Greaves' performance. "He shows great temperament and is one of the players who can reach the top of Caribbean squash. He can make it to the international scene very soon," the email said.
According to Marcus, Weithers said Greaves was fun to have around even off court. Weithers described Greaves as a disciplined player who took his game seriously even off court and had the right temperament for the game. He asked very intelligent questions about the game.
In 1997 at age 11, Greaves was encouraged to take up the game by Marcus and former national player Orin Gordon. He was later introduced to national coach Carl Ince who saw his natural ability and took him to the Georgetown Club, the home of Guyana's squash.
In 1997, he placed third in the under-13 age group where he had to contend with Ryan Farnum and Damien DaSilva who both started their squash career some six years before him. The two used to dispose of Greaves very easily, but the task became harder with each passing year until last year when Greaves defeated DaSilva to win the national boys under-19 title.
Greaves first represented Guyana in 1999 as an under-15 player at the Junior Caribbean championships in Barbados. In 2000, he was a member of the team that went to Bermuda. In 2001, he went to Trinidad and Jamaica and represented Guyana in the under-17 age group.
Last year he had the distinction of representing Guyana in both the junior and senior Caribbean championships held here in Guyana and Barbados respectively.
He was beaten by Bermuda's professional player James Stout in the boys' under-19 here in Guyana. But he assisted Guyana to win the boys and overall team titles.
According to Marcus who became Greaves' adoptive father when he was six years old, Greaves had a love for table tennis at an early age and even represented his school, Mackenzie High. He also placed third in the under-13 age group of the national championships.
Marcus said as time went by, Greaves realised that he could not have made a national table tennis team as an under-13 player. Marcus and Gordon encouraged him to start playing squash and very early in his squash career, he made his mark.
"He was immediately recognised as a player with talent, one who could have reached the top" Marcus stated, adding "when he beat DaSilva for the under-19 title last year, it showed how much he had improved over the years." Greaves attended Watooka Primary School then Mackenzie High where he successfully wrote seven CXC subjects - Agricultural Science (which is a double subject), English, Information Tech-nology, Integrated Science, Geography and Office Procedure - and was successful in all. He secured grades two and three passes.
He then went on to St Stanislaus College to further his studies before he met his demise.