New champions were crowned in the open divisions of the Gnosis Bermuda National Squash Championships at the Bermuda Squash Club as Taylor Carrick and Eilidh Franklin triumphed on Friday night.

Carrick defeated Micah Franklin 3-0 to capture his maiden men’s open title, while Eilidh Franklin beat Melina Turk 3-1 to regain the women’s trophy she lost to the same opponent a year ago.

The Toronto-based Carrick never took his foot off the pedal after labouring to take the first game 14-12, clinching the second 11-3 and the third 11-6 to officially become Bermuda’s No 1 male singles player. He also denied Franklin what would have been a sixth success in the national championships.

“It feels fantastic to finally become the national champion,’’ Carrick told The Royal Gazette.

“I’ve come close in the past and almost tasted it last year, so I’m just excited to win it this year.

“My game plan was to make that first game as long as possible, win or lose. Taking it down was even better, that was the icing on the cake, and it went exactly the way I had planned it.

“I’m happy to have won it in three games, but he definitely played well. He played really solidly and I was pretty tired in the end.”

The 23-year-old has a busy year ahead of him, with the IQUW Bermuda Open coming up at the end of next month as well as the Island Games in July.

Franklin applauded Carrick for capitalising on his mistakes and executing his game plan to perfection.

“Congratulations to Taylor, he deserved to win,” Franklin said. “He had a great strategy and it worked for him.

“That first game took a lot out of me and then he changed up the pace in the second, and I didn’t have much left in the tank. He was aggressive and I was passive, he kept pushing and didn't let me back in the game.

“Congratulations to my wife for being the women’s champion, at least one of us won.”

Eilidh, the No 2 seed, took the first game 11-8 but Turk clawed her way back by clinching the second 11-5. The next two games went 11-8, 11-5 to Franklin.

“I tried to go in without putting much pressure on myself and I just wanted to play well,” the women’s champion said.

“I knew that if I stuck in there and didn't give away anything, I could have a good match. I really tried to think about winning one point at a time and try not to overthink too much.

“Melina played such amazing squash and we had a lot of fun. I didn’t feel like I was ever in the lead as she’s a really good player and I was expecting her to come back firing and she did.

“I was expecting her to fight back again in the fourth game, but we had quite a few long rallies in the tail end of the third. I really didn’t want to go into a fifth game so I pushed to win it in the fourth.

“It would have been nice for my husband and I to win our finals, but that’s the beauty of the game. Squash is good like that, it was Taylor’s time to win, so congratulations to him.”

Noah Browne defeated Kristian Muldoon in the men’s third place play-off while the women’s bronze went to Sydney Wallace, who beat Abigail Brewer.

Susie Howells won the women’s over-40 division by beating Joann Bielby. The men’s title in the same age group went to John Fletcher, whose victory came against Anthony Fellowes.

Spencer Moss, the No 3 seed defeated top-seed Nick Leach to win the men’s over-50 competition and Deborah Sagurs took the women’s title for the age group. Sagurs also won the women’s B tournament.

Second seed Jan Brewer secured the men’s over-60 title after No 1 seed Eugene Botelho retired in the fifth game. There was also success for Bermuda’s up-and-coming star William Frith when he clinched the men’s B title with victory over Owen Roserea,