The SDA Tour brings professional North American hardball doubles north of the border this weekend to the Cambridge Club in Toronto, Ontario, for the forty-second Jim Bentley Cup.
The historic tournament that has taken on many forms in its storied history will be contested this season as an eight-team main draw, a departure from the round robin formats of previous years.
Like last year, the most dominant team of the past five years, Damien Mudge & Ben Gould, lead the draw as the top seeds and this time as defending champions.
In contrast to last year when the Australian powerhouse had lost two tournaments leading into the Bentley, Mudge & Gould are undefeated so far this season with three titles in three tournaments, two of which took place in the past two weekends—the Big Apple Open and PDC Cup.
The Australians are seeded for a rematch of both the PDC cup final and the 2014 Bentley final against world No. 3’s Manek Mathur & Yvain Badan. Should Mathur & Badan
After making their SDA debut in the 2014 Bentley, Canadian national champions Robin Clarke & Scott Arnold enter the draw as the four seeds with a potential semifinal match up against Mudge & Gould. Clarke & Scott impressed on the tour so much in their maiden season that they were named rookies of the year.
The Jim Bentley Cup—namesake of the Cambridge Club founder—has a long tradition of elite squash doubles with a history that has included a variety of unique events. For many years, the Bentley was held as an invitational, where the club determined the pairings, matching top PSA softball singles professionals from around the world with the best in hardball doubles.
Before the main draw commences on Saturday, the Cambridge Club hosts two competitive qualifying draws Thursday and Friday to decide two spots in the main draw.
Willie Hosey, a veteran of the PSA/ISDA era, makes an appearance with young Canadian Thomas Brinkman as the top seeds in one of the two qualifying draws. Hosey has two Bentley titles two his name having won in 1998 with Todd Binns, and in 2000 when he teamed with former PSA world No. 1 and fellow Canadian Jonathan Power. The Cambridge Club will have an all-Canadian affair when Brinkman & Hosey take on Fred Reid & Justin Todd in their qualifying semifinal Thursday night.
The Bentley’s winners list is an illustrious one with rich history, including names such as Mo Khan,Gul Khan, Aziz Khan, Peter Briggs, Gary Waite, Mark Talbott, Stuart Boswell, Martin Heath, Paul Price, and of course the tournament’s namesake, Jim Bentley.
Another pair of names will grace the cup Monday night. Watch all of the action on SDA Live.