Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Northland squash: Riley-Jack Vette-Blomquist a standout at national age-group championships

Adam Pearse
By Adam Pearse
Deputy Political Editor·Northern Advocate·
10 Oct, 2019 09:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The Northland boys' and girls' squash teams did well to improve on their seeding at the Inter-District Teams Championships in Auckland this week. Photo / Supplied

The Northland boys' and girls' squash teams did well to improve on their seeding at the Inter-District Teams Championships in Auckland this week. Photo / Supplied

Northland's young squash players have made their mark on the national stage with a number of top 10 finishes at the national junior individual competition which ended on Sunday.

A standout in the Northland strip was Whangārei Boys' High School student Riley-Jack Vette-Blomquist who took out the under-17 boys' division, winning in four sets over Auckland's Jack Conder in the final at the National Squash Centre in Auckland.

Riley-Jack Vette-Blomquist took out the under-17 boys' division, winning in four games at the New Zealand Junior National Individual competition which finished on the weekend. Photo / Supplied
Riley-Jack Vette-Blomquist took out the under-17 boys' division, winning in four games at the New Zealand Junior National Individual competition which finished on the weekend. Photo / Supplied

Playing as the top-seeded player for the first time at nationals, Vette-Blomquist managed to get through his four games to take out the title, but not without some nerves along the way.

"It was definitely a lot of pressure having to maintain that seeding," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"In the last game it got pretty close, it was pretty tight the whole way through and it wasn't until the last couple of points when I managed just to push through luckily."

The 16-year-old's win was the latest success in a great year after he was picked for a six-strong New Zealand junior boys squash team who played in Malaysia earlier this year at the World Junior Squash Championships where he won four out of seven games.

Read more: Northland's Riley-Jack Vette-Blomquist off to World Junior Champs

Vette-Blomquist wasn't the only Northlander to earn a spot on the podium as Zac Laing, 10, made it to the final of the under-11 boys where he put up a great fight but eventually went down in four very tight sets to Bay of Plenty's Zezima Waitai.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Six other Northland players featured in the top 10 in their respective divisions. Annmarie Holst finished fifth in the under-19 girls, Shea Ferguson finished seventh in the under-17 girls, Chelsea Traill finished seventh in under-15 girls, Josh Laing finished eighth in the under-13 boys, Cam Griffin finish 10th in the under-15 boys and Tane Traill finished 10th in the under-13 boys.

Vette-Blomquist (left) stands with Northland coach Nicol Bekker (centre) and Zac Laing, who finished second in the under-11 boys' division. Photo / Supplied
Vette-Blomquist (left) stands with Northland coach Nicol Bekker (centre) and Zac Laing, who finished second in the under-11 boys' division. Photo / Supplied

The group had little time to rest after the four-day individual tournament as on Monday, the Inter-District Junior Teams Championships began for Northland's boys and girls teams.

Both the boys (Riley-Jack Vette-Blomquist, Devlin Gurr, Maz Saunders, Flynn Venmore, Cam Griffin) and the girls (Annmarie Holst, Shea Ferguson, Pippa Saunders, Chelsea Traill, Tamara Marshall) were seeded seventh out of nine teams at the three-day competition.

Coached by Nicol Bekker and Paul Hornsby, both teams improved on their seedings to finish sixth. The Northland boys team had three losses against Canterbury, Auckland and Eastern but beat Midlands to give the side a chance at a top four finish.

Discover more

Leslie wins big at Māori sports awards

07 Oct 04:00 PM

"That was our goal, both the boys and the girls goal moving into [the competition] was to beat our seeding and we both did that so pretty happy with that," Vette-Blomquist said.

Former Northland player Natalie Sayes also saw success last weekend as she won the under-17 girls division in four sets as the first seed.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Sport

2025 King's Birthday Honours List

Premium
Northern Advocate

Rupeni Caucaunibuca: Rugby’s greatest talent was never fulfilled

17 Apr 12:30 AM
Northern Advocate

Ninety-year-old’s passion for pickleball encourages all ages

10 Mar 11:00 PM

Help for those helping hardest-hit

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

2025 King's Birthday Honours List

2025 King's Birthday Honours List

Celebrating the Knights and Dames appointed in this year's King's Birthday Honours list. Video / NZ Herald

Premium
Rupeni Caucaunibuca: Rugby’s greatest talent was never fulfilled

Rupeni Caucaunibuca: Rugby’s greatest talent was never fulfilled

17 Apr 12:30 AM
Ninety-year-old’s passion for pickleball encourages all ages

Ninety-year-old’s passion for pickleball encourages all ages

10 Mar 11:00 PM
Rural Games success for Toa Henderson

Rural Games success for Toa Henderson

10 Mar 08:16 PM
How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop
sponsored

How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP