Hot Courts, Rowdy Crowd Defeat Varsity Squash Team, 6-3, at Navy

"In the hottest courts I have ever seen and before a packed gallery that screeched before, during and after each point and frequently loudly disapproved of the actions of the Harvard players, the Crimson squash team lost to Navy, 6 to 3."

With this statement, coach Jack Barnaby summed up yesterday's surprising loss to a mediocre, but hard fighting team. This is not a case of bitterness over a close loss, for Barnaby's sportsmanship is well known, but he was frank to add, "While I have lost before, I have never had such an unpleasant experience in 26 years of coaching."

Despite the astonishingly bad conditions under which the match was played, the Crimson lost by a matter of just a few points. At first singles, Gerry Emmet, who became number one man shortly before the trip began, lost to D. C. Lowry, whom he beat handily in four games last year at Hemenway Gymnasium. The score was 12-15, 15-11, 15-10, 10-15, 15-10.

At second singles, captain Charlie Hamm won the only quick match of the day, 15-5, 15-7, 15-6. On courts as hot as those in Annapolis such a score is astonishing. The squash ball heats up and bounds like a ping-pong ball around the court, making the put-away shots which are so necessary in regulation courts almost impossible. Another reason for Hamm's easy win is probably that he is definitely the wrong man on whom to try the usual Navy rough-'em-up style, as such tactics often elicit a response in kind from him.

But such tactics, combined with the heat of the Navy courts, proved the Crimson's undoing. At third singles, Tim Gallwey, nursing a bad back, bowed to Tony LaSalla, 15-7, 15-11, 8-15, 15-8, and in the fourth position, Fred Vinton bowed in five close games, dropping the fifth, 17-16.

Below fourth singles, only Pete Lund and Tony Lake, at fifth and ninth singles respectively, could win for the Crimson.