MacDougalls in clean sweep

SQUASH Club finals day at Wanganui Squash Club: DGrade Final: Jeremy Pigou (left) and Stu Hulton. WGC 14Sep11 - D GRADE DABBLER: Wanganui tennis pro and self-confessed squash dabbler Jere

There is now a real race for the leaderboard after round three of the 2013 Protecta Insurance Central Squash Players Series at Pahiatua's Tararua club.

MacDougalls Tararua and Inspire Net secured wins.

On their home courts, the Tararua MacDougalls Farm Supplies team had a clean sweep in all four matches against a weakened Doyles Accountants Wanganui.

The youthful MacDougalls team started well with schoolboy Luke Jones beating former Davis Cup tennis player Victor Romero in the match of Wednesday night, while MacDougalls other players - Matt Nation, Tyron Fourie and the doubles pair of Mike Stagg and Dean Gray - also had good wins.

Doyles were without their Wanganui pair Rod Bannister and Ant Rountree.

The other leading team, Inspire Net, were made to work much harder in their tie, and beat Higgins Contractors on a sets countback eight sets to six, when matches were tied at 2-2.

Inspire, led by former NZ champion Kashif Shuja, won 3-0 against fellow Central Districts rep Tom Nash and was ably supported by professional coach Jason Fletcher.

Ashley Petterson and doubles pair of Wanganui's John Roestenburg and Ken Mair pulled back wins for Higgins to force the countback.

In the other match, GSA Design continued their good form beating More FM team 3-1.

NZ Junior player Rebecca Barnett, fresh from the World championships in Poland, beat the experienced Brent Foster while Foster's son Danny - playing for GSA - beat Marton's Jake Tasker in a close four sets.

Ben Calvert pulled one back for More FM in the battle of No1s by beating Regan Smith in four sets.

MacDougalls and Inspire Net now lead the chase with 41 points each, followed by GSA Design and Higgins.

Most of the region's players now head to next week's New Zealand SuperChamps graded teams events at various finals venues around the country, while the top schools players are in Waikato this weekend for the New Zealand secondary schools championships.

The next round is in two weeks on August 28, in Wanganui.

Results

Team Inspire Net beat Higgins 2-2, 8 sets to 6.

Singles: Kashif Shuja bt Tom Nash 11-8, 11-6, 11-9; Jason Fletcher bt Grant Smith 11-7, 11-4, 11-8; Matt Rattcliffe lost to Ash Petterson 11-8, 6-11, 4-11, 11-1, 11-4; Doubles: Blake Koolen, Brandon Keenan lost to Ken Mair, John Roestenburg 3-0.

GSA Design beat More FM 3-1.

Singles: Regan Smith lost to Ben Calvert 11-8, 11-5, 10-12, 11-6; Rebecca Barnett bt Brent Foster 6-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-3; Danny Foster bt Jake Tasker 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 13-11; Doubles: Jason Burton-Brown, Croyden Rutherford bt Mark Gunning, Nick Reed 3-0.

MacDougalls Tararua beat Doyles Accountants Wanganui 4-0.

Singles: Matt Nation bt Dylan Tasker 11-7, 11-7, 11-7; Luke Jones bt Victor Romero 12-14, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5; Tyron Fourie bt Liam English 11-3, 11-9, 11-4; Doubles: Mike Stagg, Steve Gray bt Marius Fourie, Geoff Spencer 3-2.

Points Table (After Round 3): 1= Inspire, 41; 1= MacDougalls, 41; 3. GSA Design, 33; 4. Higgins, 29; 5. More FM, 22; 6. Doyles, 16.