A tactician’s performance by Rod Blank (Christchurch II) against Ryan McCutheon (High School Old Boys) won him the “New World player of the week” award in the A grade squash racquets competition on Tuesday evening.Blank used all his shots, though playing a softer game than ususal.
His fine win helped his team to an easy victory and left it well in the lead of the competition with 24 points, ahead of Christchurch III and Christchurch I – both 18 points -who also had wins last evening. Next come High School Old Boys II and Burnside 6; and Sumner 4.
Another Christchurch player, Paul McFadzien did well to take a game off Viv Hargreaves (HSOB), but he appeared to take the match too casually on the whole and showed lack of concentration by hitting several relatively straight-forward drives in the tin. The promising junior was the recipient of the other “player of the week ” performance for his creditable performance in the national under-age championships at Napier over the weekend. McFadzien was unseeded in the under 19 section but reached the finals by beating two of the top ranked players.
Canterbury’s top junior, Rod Hayes (Christchurch I) caused an upset by beating Lawrence Skurr (Sumner), a national colts reserve, in five very close games. Hayes took the first two sets in fine style, but Skurr came back strongly to level at two games all and then led 6-1 in the final game.
John MacDougall had only his third win in his last nine matches that went into the fifth game – against Alan Corkin (Christchurch I).
In the women’s matches, HSOB had its second successive 10-0 win – this time over Sumner – and now shares the lead with Burnside, which has played one more match.
Behind these teams’ totals of 20 points are Christchurch with 10, Suburbs 6 and Sumner 4.
Results
Christchurch II 8 High School Old Boys I 2
P McFadzien lost to V Hargreaves, R Blank beat R McCutcheon, B Hamilton beat G Jenkinson, P Salt beat D Dearsley
Christchurch II 6 Burnside 4
N Idour lost to L Sparks, B trangmar lost to G Foulds, B Matthews beat J Mosely, J Martin beat G Tait
Christchurch I 8 Sumner 2
R Hayes beat L Skurr, R Monk beat L Milne, A Corkin lost to J MacDougall, L Plever beat C Van Uden
Women: Burnside 8 Christchurch 2
K Graham beat B King, M Davenport beat A Bettle, J Burbridge beat D Goosman, S Saussey lost to W Dann
HSOB 10 Sumner 0
R Stanton Beat M Holland, M Steele beat M Quince, V Dunstan beat S Lane, M Mercer beat P Boland
