Central Squash celebrates double victory at national tournaments

The Central Squash junior boys team (from left) Maximus Mathews, Liam Burnard, Brodie Bennett, Sam Watson and Thor Darlington are the Junior Boys National Teams champions.

Central Squash has returned home from the New Zealand Junior Age Grade Championships with national champions in the individual and team categories.

The champions in the Junior Boys National Teams competition, coached by Kent Darlington, were Maximus Mathews (Whanganui), Liam Burnard (Ohakune), Thor Darlington (Whanganui), Brodie Bennett (Tararua) and Sam Watson (Stratford).

It is the first time since 2005 Central Squash has won a junior teams title.

Mathews also claimed the New Zealand Junior National title in the Under-19 grade.

The GJ Gardner Homes New Zealand Junior Age Grade Championships and New Zealand Inter-District Junior Team Championships were held at the Henderson Squash Club in Auckland from September 26-30.

Darlington was stoked with his team’s effort throughout the tournament.

“It was a fantastic way for the boys to finish off the tournament,” he said.

“To back up our number one seeding is never an easy thing to do but the boys really stepped up and took their opportunities, especially when other players had a lot of big matches.

“Our boys got on court, worked them hard, took it to them and played some dominant squash.”

Darlington praised the efforts of Mathews and Bennett, who represented New Zealand at the World Squash Junior Championships in Cairo, Egypt.

“It’s tough to come back and play well at a national event eight weeks later so it’s testament to the work they put in,” Darlington said.

Whanganui's Maximus Mathews is the New Zealand Junior Under-19 squash champion, following the New Zealand Junior Age Grade Championships in Auckland.

Central also had a girls’ team, coached by Whanganui’s Paul Tuffin. The team were Grace Rowe (Ohakune), Hana Harding (Ohakune), Tahlia Kean (Palmerston North), Amyra Kartiyani (Palmerston North) and Anna Stokes (Kawaroa Park).

The girls went into the tournament as the eighth seeds of eight teams and recorded losses against Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato and Northland.

Darlington said all of the girls pushed their higher-graded opponents, with Harding the standout, winning a couple of matches against older players with higher grades.

“The girls found it tough but all played really well at the back end of the tournament and, for most, it was a first look at the junior national event so going forward, they are only going to get better.”

Darlington was already looking forward to next year’s event because four of the five boys would remain in the U19 age group.

“We will be definitely looking at going back for a repeat. A lot of teams lose their number ones, except Bay of Plenty who will have the same line-up so it will no doubt be a tough battle again,” he said.

“We’ll certainly be training hard and trying to push our kids to another level because that’s what it will take to win it again.”

Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.