Stout & Gooding Retire In British Rackets Final
After three grueling hours of play with the match tied at three games apiece, Bermuda’s James Stout and his partner, Mike Gooding, retired due to injury in the final of the Neptune British Open rackets doubles championships at Queen’s Club, London, last Sunday. The score up to that point was [Stout & Gooding first] 14-18, 15-11, 17-16, 9-15, 15-9, 8-15.
Stout, the reigning rackets world singles champions, incurred a foot injury in the first game of the best of seven encounter against second seeds Ben Snell and Nick James, when he and James collided.
He spent most of the match hobbling on one leg. In the sixth game his condition worsened after he collided with Snell, and aggravated the injury. Gooding suffered a head injury when he also collided with Snell in the sixth game and fell against the slate back wall of the court.
The injuries effectively put paid to Stout and Gooding’s dream of adding the British Open doubles title to the US Open title they won in Philadelphia on March 3.
There were two consolations for Stout. First, in their match report the Tennis and Rackets Association described him as a candidate for “…the greatest exponent ever in history of the game of Rackets”.
Second is Stout’s first appearance in the top ten players in the Squash Doubles Association, with the release of April’s rankings last week. He has now caught up with his squash doubles partner, 25 year-old Scotsman Greg McArthur, who also is ranked joint ninth.
Bermuda’s Stout can now claim to be a world top ten player in three different sports: rackets, real tennis and squash doubles.
