Rod Hayes, the brilliant young Christchurch squash player, will try for his third successive tournament success when the Sumner open is held this weekend.
The 19-year-old university student has already won both tournaments – the Sockburn Park Recreation Centre’s open and the Christchurch club’s pre-season Edmonds Tang open – run in Christchurch this season and is certain to be very hard to beat again.
None of the local players is likely to touch Hayes if he displays the form which gave him upset wins in the Edmonds Tang tournament over two nationally ranked players, Laurie Greene (Hamilton) and Tony Naughton (Wellington).
Naughton is a member of the New Zealand side which will go to Karachi for the second Pakistan International Airlines tournament later this month, and no-one was more surprised than her when Hayes comprehensively beat him in the final 18 days ago.
If Hayes does falter at Sumner the player most likely to trouble him is Lyn Sparks (Burnside), the top-ranked player in the province last year and second seed for this tournament.
Barry McNeil (High School Old Boys), the third seed, showed glimpses of his best form during the Edmonds Tang tournament and much will be expected of him at Sumner.
Also seeded is another young Christchurch players, Paul McFadzien, who took a game off Sparks in the semi-finals of the Sockburn tournament. A little surprisingly, McFadzien has been placed ahead of Lawrence Skurr (Old Boys), the Canterbury No.4 last season.
Other prominent players competing are Viv Hargreaves (Old Boys), Barrie Matthews (Christchurch) and Don Preston (Greymouth. Preston a former national representative, was to have met John Redpath but an ankle injury to the latter has forced his replacement with another Old Boys player, John Tolchard.
A sprained ankle has also put the promising Joanne Milne (Sumner) out of the line-up in the women’s A grade but otherwise the majority of the province’s leading players are competing.
Inevitably Ros Stanton, the winner of at least seven squash tournaments last season, is seeded first, ahead of Kathy Graham (Burnside), Phillippa Lush (Christchurch) and Merle Holland (Sumner). 
Although Holland is seeded only fourth she showed great determination in a recent match against the Queensland star, Gail Hughes, and a meeting with Stanton could be very interesting.
There will be three men’s grades of 16 players after several had to be balloted out but entries are fairly low for the women’s section; 10 will contest the A grade and B grade has 16 entries.