Squash: Big comeback as Kitchen nails fourth

Shelley Kitchen

Former Commonwealth Games silver and bronze medallist and World Women's Doubles title winner Shelley Kitchen has made a strong comeback to the squash scene, placing in the top four at the recent New Zealand Senior Squash Championships in Christchurch.

Northland's stand-out player at the event, Kitchen came up against New Zealand's No1 ranked player Joelle King in the semifinal.

Kitchen went down in her match to King but she then beat New Zealand No2 Amanda Landers-Murphy in a five-set battle to lock in a third-place finish.

Fellow Northlanders Trina Moore, Sacha Pou Tito and Zoe Dykzeul all made the Women's Open draw and played to their seedings.

Finn Trimble won the Men's Division 1, having four tough matches before securing the title. Ryan Chestnut was the runner up in the Men's Division 3.

The individuals then led into the New Zealand Inter-District teams event where the Northland women's team finished fifth and the men's team finished eighth.

The third seeded women's team were unlucky not to make the final after they drew their tie with second seed Bay of Plenty. It came down to a countback and, after the teams were tied at seven games each, it was down to points scored and Northland was beaten 121-125.

The team then went on to beat Canterbury 4-nil to take the fifth spot.

In that tie, Kitchen had a great win over Megan Craig who is New Zealand's No3 woman and is ranked 38th in the world.

Northland's teams consisted of Kitchen, Trina Moore, Sacha Pou Tito, Zoe Dykzeul, Sian Duggan, Quenton Tana, Finn Trimble, Ryan Chestnut, Reagan Wakeling and Milton Brookland