Crimson Depth Proves Superior As Squash Varsity Upsets Yale

In one of the finest performances seen at Harvard in recent years, the Crimson squash team defeated Yale's National Champions, 6 to 3, Saturday afternon in Hemenway Gymnasium. Led by a decisive opening victory by captain Charlie Hamm, the Crimson controlled the match from the very beginning, as the varsity regained the Ivy crown.

Hamm, playing the last intercollegiate team match of his three-year career soundly trounced Yale captain Charlie Kingsley, 15-9, 15-10, 15-9 to reverse the lopsided beating he absorbed from Kings ley at New Haven last season.

Combining power and control in excellent balance, Hamm dominated the match from the outset, and Kingsley became discouraged by his opponent's consistency. The outcome seemed inevitable after the beginning of the second game, and what might have been the roughest match of the day turned out to be one of the quickest.

Hamm's victory was followed rapidly by wins at fourth, sixth and eighth singles, and it is quite possible that the critical factor in the match was the decision to play the even matches first. This move capitalized on the favored Elis' inevitable overconfidence, and the resulting 4-0 Crimson lead put Yale in a nearly impossible position.

At fourth singles, Fred Vinton turned in a very strong performance in downing Yale's stubborn John Oettinger, 15-6, 15-8, 12-15, 15-9. Vinton rarely made an error, letting his opponent do most of the missing.

In the sixth position, John Davis had only slightly more difficulty in defeating Ash Eldredge, 15-12, 17-15, 12-15, 15-11, and at eighth singles Wally Stimpson ran through Terry Fuller, 15-12, 15-10, 15-14.

A few minutes after the last of the first bracket of matches had been completed, word went through the gallery that Charlie Poletti had won at seventh singles, 15-8, 15-7, 15-7, to give the Crimson an insurmountable 5-0 advantage.

With the Poletti match completed, the afternoon's excitement appeared to be over, but it soon became apparent that the best match of the day was just starting. In the number one position, the Crimson's Gerry Emmet turned in the most courageous match in many years on the Hemenway courts. His opponent Sam Howe--second only to Princeton's Steve Vehslage in U.S. Intercollegiate ratings--entered the match heavily favored over Emmet, who has not played his best squash for most of the season.

Emmet Takes Early Lead

It was quickly aparent, however, that such ratings would mean little in the match, and on the strength of some spectacular scrambling and occasionally brilliant shotmaking Emmet left the court with a 2-1 lead after the third game.

Howe won the fourth game, 16 to 14, despite a strong comeback by Emmet. After gaining the initiative during the best-of-five deuce, he capitalized on another Emmet letdown to gain a lopsided lead in the finale.

But here Emmet rallied again, and with the gallery holding its breath at every stroke, he won seven straight points to even the match, refusing to make the single error which would have given Howe the victory.

Emmet then gained a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five deuce only to tin a routine drive. On the final point of the match, Howe dropped a perfect lob serve in Emmet's backhand court, which the Crimson player could not effectively return. Howe's follow-up drive down the wall extracted the final error and ended the match.

On the next court down from the Howe-Emmet match, a similar battle between Mait Jones of Yale and the Crimson's Tim Gallwey ended in the same fashion, with Yale winning on the last possible point. Gallwey had been down, 2 to 0, but rallied to win a pair of 15-12 games. After dropping behind in the final game he manged to pull even at 13-all, only to lose the best-of-nine deuce, 5 to 4