Border A off to flying start in squash interprovincial

The Border men’s A squash team made a fine start to the Growthpoint Interprovincial in East London on Monday when they registered an emphatic 17-3 win over Free State A in their morning encounter.

After limited entries for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, SA’s premier team event is back in full swing, with 28 teams contesting four men’s sections and 12 women’s sides competing in the A (seven teams) and B (five teams) sections.

Only Lawrence Kuhn, with a 3-0 win over Luke Jacoby, was able to win for the Free Staters as the Border players called all the shots in the rest of this early section B encounter.

There was a tougher start for the Border C team in section D as they went down to neighbouring rivals Eastern Province C 19-5.

However, there were some tighter contests in this fixture, with Border No 1 Ulf von Delft taking the first game of his clash with Ryan van Eyk, but failing to capitalise on that, losing the next three.

Craig Farrell also fought hard in his encounter with Ruan van der Heever, showing good energy to win the third game 12-10 after being outplayed in the first two.

However, he was not able to maintain the momentum and Van den Heever took the fourth game 11-6.

The only win for Border C came from No 5 Jacob Sinclair in a titanic struggle with Nana Owusu-Sekyere.

The EP player led 2-1 before Sinclair levelled the match by taking the fourth, and then the decider went down to the wire.

It reached 10-10 before Sinclair broke the deadlock to take it 12-10.

In the women’s Kaplan Cap A section, Northerns A overcame two stiff challenges to put themselves in line for a crack at the title.

The dust had barely settled from the opening night’s reception when the Northerns team found themselves deadlocked in a Kaplan Cup battle for survival with Western Province.

Down 2-1 in matches the pressure was ramped up for the Northerns top pairing of Milnay Louw and Helena Coetzee, but they rose to the occasion with a powerful late surge to take their matches and the tie 14-8.

Coetzee had the tougher match against Karen Blom after losing the first game, but stayed the distance and eventually came through in four games.

Louw, however, proved too much for a game Siyoli Waters in the match decider, winning a close first game but then running away with the match 3-0.

In the afternoon Northerns came up against stiff resistance from Eastern Province, with three of the first four matches all going to five games.

The Northerns players again stood firm for wins by Lara Patrick and Megan Shannon, and that, coupled with Awande Malinga’s victory at No 3 was enough to give them the five bonus points.

In the women’s B section Border A lost their opening encounter to SA Country Districts B 18-6.

The remaining matches were still in progress at the time of going to print.

The results were:

Women’s Kaplan Cup

EP A bt Midlands A 20-5 (EP first): Hayley Ward bt Nadia Dippenaar 3-0 (11-8 11-0 11-4), Jacqui Ryder bt Nicola Bentley 3-0 (11-5 12-10 11-4), Anlen Murray bt Noel Lee 3-0 (11-7 11-6 11-7), Janet Byrnes bt Ana Chemaly 3-0 (11-6 11-1 11-4), Mikayla Boy bt Melanie de Wet 3-0 (11-3 11-6 11-5)

Joburg Squash A bt Zambia A 20-0 (Joburg first): Cheyna Wood bt Sharon Chifwembe 3-0 (11-6 11-0 11-6), Teagan Roux bt Namwene Muchaile 3-0 (11-4 11-5 11-2), Jennifer Preece bt Majory Mwamba 3-0 (11-2 11-3 11-7), Shannon Harvey bt Monica Chimese 3-0 (12-10, 11-6 11-4), Mariske Wiese bt Natasha Chimese 3-0 (11-3 11-2 11-9)

Northerns A bt WP A 14-8 (Northerns first): Milnay Louw bt Siyoli Waters 3-0 (11-9 11-0 11-5), Helena Coetzee bt Karen Blom 3-1 (5-11 11-5 12-10 11-9), Awande Malinga bt Sacha West 3-1 (7-11 11-8 11-9 12-10), Lara Patrick lost to Karen Schultz 3-0 (11-4 11-4 11-4), Megan Shannon lost to Juanette le Roux 3-0 (11-6 11-4 11-0)

SACD A bt Zambia A 20-0 (SACD first): Lizelle Muller bt Sharon Chimfwembe 3-0 (11-2 11-2 11-2), Alexa Pienaar bt Namwene Muchaile 3-0 (11-1 11-3 11-2), Shelomi Truter bt Majory Mwamba 3-0 (11-4 11-0 11-4), Keschia Scorgie bt Monica Chimese 3-0 (11-8 11-2 11-4), Elske Garbers bt Natasha Chimese 3-0 (11-8 11-3 11-2)

WP A bt Midlands A 20-3 (WP first): Karen Blom bt Nadia Dippenaar 3-1 (11-6 9-11 11-5 11-4), Sacha West bt Nicola Bentley 3-0 (11-2 11-7 11-8), Karen Schultz bt Noel Lee 3-1 (11-4 7-11 11-2 11-3), Juanette le Roux bt Ana Chemaly 3-1 (11-2 11-8 7-11 11-8), Katie Mayhew bt Melanie de Wet 3-0 (11-1 11-1 11-0)

Women’s B section

SACD B bt Border A 18-6 (SACD first): Cara Fourie bt Hayley Wyer 3-0 (11-7, 11-3 16-14), Alouise Campher bt Katherine Gaylard 3-0 (11-2 11-2 11-3), Lisa Venter bt Courtney Stone 3-1 (11-8 8-11 11-6 11-6), Madjone Engelbrecht lost to Gugulethu Moyo 3-1 (9-11 11-8 12-10 11-5), Valme Webster bt Megan Patrick 3-2 (11-2 8-11 9-11 12-10 11-4)

Men’s B section

Border A bt Free State A 17-3 (Border first): L Jacoby lost to L Kuhn 3-0 (11-9 12-10 11-4), G Stephen bt T McDonald 3-0 (11-6 11-5 11-3), J van Niekerk bt R Metz 3-0 (11-4 11-0 11-2), G Shean bt G Amm 3-0 (11-9 12-10 11-8), J Terblanche bt C Deutschmann 3-0 (11-2 11-9 11-4)

Men’s D section

EP C bt Border C 19-5 (EP first) R van Eyk bt U von Delft 3-1 (9-11 11-5 11-6 11-9), T Southway bt E Clarke 3-0 (11-7 11-3 11-6), R vd Heever bt C Farrell 3-1 (11-6 11-3 10-12 11-6), R Horn bt G v Heerden 3-0 (11-8 11-9 11-8) N Owusu-Sekyere lost to J Sinclair 3-2 (11-8 9-11 6-11 11-5 12-10)

Free State B bt Border C 16-8 (Free State first): T Davies bt E Clarke 3-1 (11-5 8-11 11-9 11-6), M le Bretton bt C Farrell 3-1 (11-4 11-8 9-11 11-6), L Barnard bt G van Heerden (11-9 11-6 11-9), J Botma lost to J Sinclair 3-1 (9-11 14-12 11-3 13-11), N Otto lost to K O’Kennedy 3-1 (10-12 11-5 11-3 11-6)