Wanganui's Rod Bannister completed a sensational month of Masters squash by winning the men's 45-49 title at the 2013 National Masters Championships in Henderson at the weekend.
Having won the Australian Masters title this month, played during the transtasman test series in Canberra, Bannister became only the second New Zealanderto claim the Aussie/Kiwi Masters double by winning both tournaments back-to-back.
Impressively, the No1 seed Bannister did not drop a set during his four victories to win the championship.
On Friday afternoon he beat Jeff Simmons 3-0 then picked up two wins on Saturday, stopping Craig Endres 3-0 in their 8am game and then Nigel Lloyd 3-0 five hours later.
It set up the championship match against Auckland's Mike Weston on Sunday afternoon and Bannister absorbed the pressure in the first two sets before running away with the contest in the third, winning 15-11 15-13 15-2.
Bannister's Wanganui clubmate Ant Rountree was not as successful in the Men's 35-39 age group, beaten 3-0 by the No1 seed Shaun Madden in the opening round. Although Rountree found plenty of company as Madden won his next two games without dropping a set to claim the title.
