Strong comeback by Shelley Kitchen

Shelley Kitchen has made a strong comeback to the squash scene, placing in the top four at the recent New Zealand senior championships in Christchurch.

As Northland's standout player at the event, Kitchen came up against New Zealand's top-ranked player Joelle King in the semifinal.

Shelley Kitchen.

Kitchen went down in her match against King but the former Commonwealth Games silver and bronze medallist and world women's doubles title winner then beat New Zealand N .2 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.

On the men's side of the draw, Finn Trimble won the men's division 1 while Ryan Chestnut was the runner-up in the men's division.

In the New Zealand inter-district teams event 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-seeded Bay of Plenty. The result 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 finish in fifth spot.

In that tie, Kitchen had a great win over Megan Craig, New Zealand's No 3 woman and ranked 38th in the world. Northland's teams comprised Kitchen, Moore, Pou Tito, Dykzeul, Sian Duggan; Quenton Tana, Trimble, Ryan Chestnut, Reagan Wakeling and Milton Brookland.