The lucky blue hat of Wanganui Squash Club coach John Roestenburg will go into retirement with the scorelines of 25 memorable victories written inside after the talented team that has progressed through the grades won their third national title on Saturday.
The core of this Wanganui team came up together as winners of the National E and D Grade Squash Championships in 2012-13, and they capped off their run with conclusive performances on Friday and Saturday to win the National C Grade Squash Championships in Taumarunui.
After comfortable wins over Christchurch (5-0) and Northland (4-1) on Wednesday, Wanganui held off Auckland 3-2 in a very tough Thursday matchup where Brett McKenzie and Shane Stone had to fight their way through tough five-set games to get their team over the line.
That put them into Saturday's final against the Wellington region winners, Island Bay, but before then was the matter of disposing of the Waikato team 5-0 on Friday.
"We played our No6 and No7 and we rested the two guys from the day before who had hard games," said Roestenburg.
A big contingent of around 30 Wanganui supporters drove up for Saturday's final, filling out the front bleacher seats in front of the glass to give vocal support.
Shanan Whitlock got the ball rolling against his young opposite, who like Whitlock was fit and wanted to play at top speed.
"They just ran each other into the ground," said Roestenburg. After one hour, 15 minutes, Whitlock emerged the winner.
Stone won his game in four sets, and then the team No1 James Van Kerhoff stepped up, watched closely by Wanganui's former Australasian Masters champion Rod Bannister, as Roestenburg insists the 15-year-old Van Kerhoff is Bannister's heir apparent on the local scene.
The teenager blitzed the Island Bay No1 in three sets to confirm Wanganui would claim the national crown.
In the remaining dead-rubber games, Nathan Wall was beaten in the clash of No4s, while McKenzie had another tough five-set match that he was determined to win, handing Wanganui the final 4-1.
"We're pretty stoked, but sad in the end," said Roestenburg.
"The squad's retired now because there's nowhere we can go."
Van Kerhoff, Whitlock and McKenzie have all reached B Grade level but for the entire team to qualify through to that mark, they would probably have to be based in Auckland to reach the regional qualifying standards, Roestenburg explained.
Nonetheless, the coach was incredibly proud of the team's progression as a group over the past four years - having won three regional qualifiers and finishing runner-up once, and then going on to win the national grade titles.
"That's 25 wins and one loss," he said.
"We worked it out - there's over 200 squash clubs in New Zealand. Eleven districts, each with around 20 clubs.
"If you get to nationals, there's the ten [best] teams."
After every victory, the team would write the score inside of Roestenburg's coach's hat.
"My lucky blue hat's been retired. I'll have to give it to a Wanganui squash museum, although that would be pretty small."