By Neville Idour
The Canterbury men’s and women’s squash teams can feel well satisfied with their efforts at the 1980 Le coq Sportif national championships which ended last Saturday in Whakatane.
In the individual championships, the major disappointment was Rod Hayes’ loss to Trevor Colyer.
However, when he spoke to me before leaving he said that his fitness and hard match play levels were not high enough. So it proved, although as the week progressed so did Hayes’ form.
He went on to win the Classic Plate easily and was in commanding form in the teams event, where he conceded few points and did not drop a game.
Craig Hibbert justified his 16th seeding and performed admirably against Frank Donnelly, the ultimate winner, before losing in four sets.
Chris Wasley played a blinder in his first round against third seed Neven Barbour. He lost 9-6, 3-9, 2-9, 7-9, but was so close to going the full distance.
In fact, after the event concluded Barbour said that next to his match with Ross Norman, his win over Wasley proved the hardest.
Wasley then went on to win his next five matches to take the plate. A fine effort at his first National Championships.
Barrie Matthews had a good first round win , then lost to Shane Smith. He went on to the Special Plate semi final where he was unfortunate to lose 10-8 in the fifth to New Zealand junior John Mills.
Lawrence Skurr also won his first match, but eventually lost to Matthews in the Special Plate.
Inevitable
The three women who made the open draw unfortunately were grouped together and while first round losses were inevitable, they then had to beat each other to progress.
Jacqui James was in Division two and managed to win the Plate event, not really unexpected.
In the teams contest the men, seeded fourth, finished third, but may well have finished second given the opportunity.
Second last year, Canterbury’s fourth seeding was questionable to say the least.
Wellington and Waikato, seeded second and third last year, finished seventh and fifth then. This year they were seeded third and second, yet on paper looked no stronger than Canterbury.
Canterbury was in fact stronger this year, While Wellington, without (Robin) Espie looked weaker.
The new system this year meant that to make the final, a team had to win its pool. But with Auckland to contend with, the fourth seed had no chance.
Denied
Canterbury was thus denied its rightful chance. This was proved by a fine effort against Auckland and a comfortable win over Wellington for third place.
Canterbury took a match from Auckland when Hayes beat Norman 9-6, 9-0 before Norman retired suffering from the effects of influenza.
Norman nevertheless came out next day to thrash Waikato’s (Dean) Lovett in the final. Waikato was whitewashed 4-0, yet took second.
Canterbury beat three team 4-0, Wellington 3-1 and lost to Auckland 1-3.
Each player was at his best throughout.
Hayes won five matches, Hibbert three, Matthews four, including a fine win over John Mills in four sets. Skurr won all his four matches while Wasley lost his only match against Colyer (Auckland) in four sets.
The women finished as seeded in eighth place.
They lost to Wellington 0-4, but were unlucky as all matches were close, two of them particularly so.
Jacqui James lost to Michelle Wing, 9-5, 0-9, 8-10, 8-10, while Lorna Symes was so close against J. Afford (Jocelyn), losing 9-5, 9-3, 7-9, 1-9, 6-9.
Naturally, Auckland was too strong, 4-0, although Lorna Symes came so near to causing the upset of the day against Susie Simcock. She had match ball in the fourth set before succumbing in the fifth.
The team drew 2-all with Northland, Hawkes Bay and Central, which indicates the close struggle for minor places.
The six wins went to Symes three, (Kate) Carpinter two and James one.
