Palmerston North teams dominate squash

SQUASH: Palmerston Noirth teams have dominated the area squash competition right through to the final.
The semi finals of the 92.2 MORE FM premier interclub series saw the two leaders in pool play win with ease and now Palmerston North Gold come up against Palmerston North White in the grand final in a fortnight.
Palmerston North Gold hammered Palmerston North Blue 4-0 in the semis with Mike McSherry easily beating Glen Carson 9/3 9/2 9/3 for a start.
Grant Smith came up against Jason Burton-Brown in the president verses the manager game, and Smith won with ease 9/1 9/3 9/0. The other two matches saw Pete Simpson come back from two down to beat Gavin Holden 7/9 3/9 9/4 9/2 9/1 and Jarod Boyle capped off the convincing team win by beating Phil Blumont 9/6 9/5 6/9 7/9 10/8 in a close and titanic battle.
The other semi between Palmerston North White and Dannevirke saw the Palmerston team come out the winner 3-1. Matt Spooner beat Craig Nash 9/0 9/6 9/0 to continue his good form of the season. Captain Jason Fletcher beat Nick Reed 9/2 9/3 9/1 and youngster Matt Nation beat Dave Clifford 9/4 10/8 8/10 9/6.
The only win for Dannevirke came from its own local legend Geoff Spencer over Shaun Grant 9/2 9/3 9/2.
In the battle for fifth and sixth spot Wanganui is ahead with a win over the Harlequins side 3-1, but if they lose next fortnight a count back of matches will have to find the winner. Ideally the local team will want to continue its winning ways like on Tuesday night when Kent Darlington had a battle against Ross Hewitt but managed to win 9/4 6/9 9/4 6/9 9/4; Kevin Ross finally managed to get another win against Paul Remnant 9/8 9/4 9/5 and Min Bristol easily won against Mike Stagg 9/0 9/1 9/1. The only win for Harlequins came from Brent Foster who beat Craig Brider 9/0 9/2 9/5.
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Also last weekend local A grader Paul Tuffin competed in Khandallah Open in Wellington and got through to the final after beating Shane Johnston 3-0 in the semi. Tuffin was seeded second and was up against top seed and local Wellington hard man Willie Bicknell. Bicknell eventually won but not before Tuffin gave it his all. Bicknell won the first two sets but then Tuffin came storming back to push it into the fifth set but couldn't get that one, eventually losing it 9/4 therefore going down 3-2.
Also at the same event was Australia youngster Maggie Marshall who has come over for a six-week stint and is based and training in Wanganui. She is playing in local events building up to the North Island juniors next month. Seeded sixth in the women's B grade she knocked out the top seed Di Mullo 3-1 in the semi going on to win the final against Rhonda Christensen.
After a slow start down two sets, she hung in and managed to claw her way back, saving match balls in the fourth set before gutsing it out to take the fifth set 10/8.
This weekend sees the annual Central District training camp held in Palmerston North with a number of local players attending, with the intention to impress for selection for the triangular series between Central, Wellington and Bay of Plenty, being held at the Feilding Squash Club on July 9-11. The team, six men and six women will be named after this training camp.