Showing no effects of three plane flights since Sunday evening in order to sort out a visa, the world’s 12th-ranked Paul Col was in fine form at the GrowthPoint Jarvis/Kaplan Cups interprovincial Squash Championship played in Pretoria this week.
New Zealand’s Col defeated Fares Dessouky, ranked 10th in the world, in four games when they met in the Western Province/Central Gauteng clash in the third round. However, Coll’s win was not sufficient to save Western Province suffering a 9-16 loss to the top-seeded Gauteng team.
Dylan Groenewald and Rudi Willemse registered wins over JP van der Merwe and JoJo Shean respectively before the experienced Rodney Durbach, winner of the gold medal in the 40-44 category in last year’s World Masters Championships, outmanoeuvred Devon Hendrikse in four games to keep the coastal side in the match, trailing 1-2.
Presently studying at Trinity College in the USA, the Central Gauteng No 2 player, Thoboki Mohohlo, and Clinton Leeuw (WP), also based in America, were involved in a titanic struggle but it was the Gautenger who edged through in five games to give the tie to Central Gauteng.
Midlands, who had surprised the more favoured Western Province side 16-10 on the first day, also upset KwaZulu-Natal 15-9.
Daniel Smith and Luke McFarland accounted for Adrian Hansen and Justin de Neef to give Midlands a 2-0 lead. Andrew Martin registered a point for KwaZulu-Natal by beating Justin Gouweloos, before Josh Taylor sealed Midlands’ victory with a surprising 3-1 win over Gary Wheadon, the recently crowned SA national champion. The match between the No 1’s went KwaZulu-Natal’s way when Diego Elias, ranked 19th in the world, had the measure of a game Tristan Eysele.
In the final clash in the Jarvis A section, Karim Gawad, ranked second in the world, led the SACD team to an 18-8 win over Free State. Gawad was forced to five games by fellow Egyptian Ramit Tandon, who has been studying in the USA.
In the Kaplan Cup (Women’s A Section), BizHub Central Gauteng, who had suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of Northerns on Tuesday, bounced back with a 17-8 win against SACD A.
Elani Landman, Diana Haynes and Michelle Kohne all registered wins over Alexa Pienaar, Jacqui Ryder and Cara Fourie respectively, to give Gauteng the win. It was Lauren Siddall and Lizelle Goosen who notched victories for SACD against Cheyna Tucker and Lume Landman.
In the other clash, Western Province, still reeling from their unexpected loss to SACD, were in rampant mood and notched a 17-8 win over Eastern Province.
Picture of Col (in background) playing Fares Dessouky courtesy of Beandri Potgieter