Squash: Undefeated River City club take title

The Palmerston North SquashGym team took fifth place at the Cousins Shield tournament at the weekend. Pictured are Kashif Shuja, Rod Bannister, Luke Jones, Tom Nash, Jason Fletcher, Joshua Greenfield, Victor Romero. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Stevos Distributors River City Squash Club wrapped up an undefeated campaign to claim the regional Premier Men's Squash Interclub competition on Wednesday night.

The team won the final 3-1 in matches against the strong Squash Gym Palmerston North Gold team to take out the title for the grade which features clubs from Wanganui, Manawatu, Ohakune, Rangitikei and Taihape.

The River City team consisted of Rod Bannister, Stephen Bennett, Matt Radcliffe, Min Bristol and reserves Phil Papworth, Ant Rountree and Arno Benadie.

They were the dominant side throughout the competition, including the final despite PN Gold having five-time national champion Kashif Shuja

It was the first time in the club's history they had entered a team at this level, which came together due to the Wanganui Squash Club not having the numbers to defend the title they won in 2013.

Upcoming events include the Protecta Series, which begins in July for the top 30 players in the Central Districts Region.

Next weekend will be a Professional Squash Association (world ranking event) tournament played in Palmerston North, which is combined with the North Island Senior Championships.

These serve as a selection event for the Central Districts senior team to play Eastern Districts in Hastings at the end of June.

Meanwhile, Bannister, Shuja and their team mates in the Higgins Contractors SquashGym men's squad finished fifth at the Cousins Shield tournament in Christchurch over Queens Birthday weekend.

The team, which finished third in 2013, contested the event known as the Ranfurly Shield of premier squash at the Burnside Squash Club.

On Friday they beat Auckland's Eden Epsom 5-0 while resting their No1 player Shuja, as Bannister played at No4 and beat opponent Nathan Gunn 3-0. The following day they lost in the quarter finals 3-2 to a strong Henderson team, who SquashGym would usually beat.

In an email, Bannister said Henderson had recruited Qatar's world No 76 Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi and New Zealand player Lance Beddoes, who beat SquashGym's Josh Greenfield and Shuja respectively.

Luke Jones and Bannister had wins and it came down to Tom Nash's match but he lost a close four-setter.

SquashGym moved into the fifth to eighth seedings bracket and beat Christchurch Football Club 5-0, with Bannister again winning at No4 against Canterbury's Matt Smith 3-1.

Then they beat North Shore 3-2 for fifth place, where Bannister, Greenfield and Nash won their games.

Bannister won all four of his matches against national elite top 'A' grade players. The host club, Squashways of Christchurch, beat Auckland's Herne Bay 3-1 in the men's final to take the Cousins Shield for the first time in the competition's history.