Squash: Patience pays for Wellington top seed

Lance Beddoes (left) disputes a call during the men's open final against Evan Williams yesterday.

Wellingtonian Evan Williams dropped one set in four matches on the way to winning the men's open title at the Havelock North Squash Open which ended on Sunday. Top seed Williams beat North Shore's Lance Beddoes 3-1 (1-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-4) in the final and later attributed his success to superior patience.

"I lost the first set 11-1 but was more patient in the next three," he recalled. The New Zealand rep was playing in his first Havelock North Open.

"I came up here two years ago for an exhibition match and injured my wrist two weeks later. I only started playing again in November," Williams explained.

He will represent his Thorndon club in the Cousins Shield national interclub teams event in Whangarei this weekend. For fellow New Zealand rep and third seed Beddoes it was the second consecutive year he had finished second in Havelock.

New Zealand rep and top seed Amanda Landers-Murphy, of Bay of Plenty, beat Palmerston North's Danielle Fourie, the second seed, 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-9) in the women's open final. A bout of the flu forced former world No.4 and original top seed Joelle King, of Waikato, to withdraw from the 100-player tournament which was also a New Zealand Super 8 and Professional Squash Association event.

Auckland-based former New Zealand junior rep Bryce Redman, who is still a member of the Hawke's Bay club, did the best of the "Bay" players in the men's open division with a ninth placing. Havelock North's Jordan Le Comte won the men's division one title and his clubmate, Ben Remihana, finished fifth in the same division courtesy of his victory in the plate final. Julie Evans was the best of the host club females with a second placing in women's division one.

Sixteen-year-old New Zealand junior rep Anna Hughes, of Auckland, competed in the women's open and men's division two sections and did well to win the latter.