Newly promoted to the Jarvis A Section, Midlands and SACD A (with world champion Karim Gawad at the helm) provided the fireworks on the first day of the GrowthPoint Jarvis/Kaplan Cups interprovincial squash championships being played in Pretoria.
Playing without their No1 player Paul Coll of New Zealand, who had not got a visa before coming to South Africa, Western Province players were astounded as Midlands number three, four and five players Justin Gouweloos, Daniel Smith and Luke McFarland accounted for JP van der Merwe, JoJo Shean and Thean Toerien in straight sets respectively to take an unassailable 3-0 match lead.
Rodney Durbach, runner-up in the recent GrowthPoint S A National Championships, salvaged some pride for the coastal province, edging through 11-9 in the decider against Josh Taylor while Clinton Leeuw, now based in the US, beat Tristan Eysele, the Midlands No1 in three games.
In the last nine years Western Province and KwaZulu-Natal have dominated the event with KwaZuluNatal capturing the title five times.
But this year saw KwaZulu-Natal suffer a similar fate as Western Province as they were bundled out 20-6 by a determined SACD A team.
The first encounter had JP Brits outplaying Andrew Martin in four games followed by Rudi van Niekerk who edged through in five games against stalwart Adrian Hansen.
The SACD No5 Jimmy Schlebusch (pictured above) gave SACD the winning edge as he defeated Justin de Neef by three games to love.
Christo Potgieter, the SACD No2, was involved in a tough tussle with the 2017 SA National champion Gary Wheadon going though 11-9 in the decider. And it was left to the World Champion Karim Gawad to finish the whitewash as he ousted the 2014 World Junior Champion, Diego Elias in four interesting games.
The third match in the A section had the more favoured Bizhub Central Gauteng A side given a torrid time by Free State A, led by Egyptian Ramit Tandon, which resulted in a 16-10 win for Central Gauteng.
In the women’s A section – the Kaplan Cup – SACD A had a narrow 15-10 win over Western Province A. Northerns A with Canadian Holly Naughton, ranked 38th in the world, in the No1 slot, registered an easy 20-3 win over Eastern Province A.
Picture by Beandri Potgieter