Central dominate shield

SHIELD REGAINED: The successful Squash Central team with the Newbigin Shield; Holly Donnelly (back left), Diya Joukani, Brandon Keenan, Jason van der Walt, Annaleise Faint, Sally Stantiall; Allan Bailey (front left), Rebecca Clifford, Corbin Faint, Di Tasker, James van Kerkhoff, Stephen Bennett (on grass).PHOTO/SUPPLIED

THE SQUASH Central representative team comfortably regained the Newbigin Shield from neighbours Squash Eastern in their first one-day fixture of the season on Saturday.

The team of six men and six women is predominantly represented by Palmerston North's SquashGym, however Wanganui's James van Kerkhoff was on debut as No6 player for the men, while Rangitikei's Di Tasker and Sally Stantiall were at No5-6 for the women.

Manager Kent Darlington, of Wanganui, said a number of players were on debut in Napier - having come out of the newly established Zone Squads which represent the districts in the Central region.

"This was taking care of player development in the tier below the high performance representative squad and keeping everyone on track for this time of year as they get into "tournament mode", Darlington said.

"Zone Squad members Allan Bailey [SquashGym] and James van Kerkhoff also played well to pull off three wins between them.

"Di Tasker and Sally Stantiall, the two Rangitikei players ... battled hard all day long - Tasker unlucky in losing both matches in five sets and Stantiall nailing one tight four setter."

Central, led by their experienced players who have had success at nationals like SquashGym's Jason van der Walt, Stephen Bennett, Corbin Faint and Brandon Keenan, won their two games each.

Both squads were missing a few players, but this hindered Eastern more than the visiting Central team, who won the fixture 17-7.

"It was great to be able to bring the Shield back to Central as it has a long history between the two districts, dating back to 1971 when it was first played for," said Darlington.

"It was great also to see our Zone players Bailey, van Kerkhoff, Tasker, Stantiall and newbies [Holly] Donnelly and [Diya] Joukani get a taste of rep team clashes."

Van Kerkhoff beat Trevor Walker in five tough sets, 6/11 12/10 11/4 10/12 13/11, before losing to Mitch Goodchild 11/5 13/11 11/6.

Stantiall was beaten by Audine Grace-Kutia 11/8 12/10 11/7, but rebounded to defeat Kate Graham 11/9 9/11 11/7 11/8.

Tasker lost narrowly to both Graham (11/8 11/4 9/11 7/11 13/11) and Grace-Kutia (11/6 9/11 11/4 7/11 11/8).