SACD A and BizHub Central Gauteng A have triumphed in the respective men’s and women’s top sections of the GrowthPoint Interprovincial squash championship in Pretoria.
For SACD, with world champion Karim Gawad in the No1 slot, it was the culmination of 10 years planning to lift the prestigious Jarvis Cup trophy.
In a match lasting six hours and 20 minutes and with the score standing at two matches all, SACD’s No4 Rudi van Niekerk and his Central Gauteng counterpart Dylan Groenewald (pictured above) were involved in a titanic struggle. Games see-sawed to two games each and it was Van Niekerk who clinched victory for SACD at 12-10 in the decider .
In the earlier matches, JP Brits had drawn first blood for SACD, beating Devon Hendrikse in four games but Thoboki Mohohlo levelled for Gauteng when he disposed of Christo Potgieter also in four games. The clash between the No1’s, Gawad and Fares Dessouky, delighted the packed gallery.
Dessouky took a 14-12 8-11 11-8 lead but Gawad clawed his way back to level the games at two each and win the fifth 11-4. The fourth encounter saw the Central Gauteng No5, Rudi Willemse beat Jimmy Schlebusch in five tight games to square the match score.
The Women’s A section – the Kaplan Cup – had the closest finish in the last decade with four teams: SACD A (43 points), Northerns A (46 points), Western Province A (42 points) and BizHub Central Gauteng A (45 points) – separated by only four points on the last day.
Northerns, spearheaded by Canadian Holly Naughton, ranked 38th in the world and 2017 S A National champion Milnay Louw, dashed SACD’s chances of a double victory winning 15-7 and then watched anxiously as Bizhub Central Gauteng played Western Province A.
In the No3 slots, Lume Landman (CG) and Karen Blom (WP) had a tough tussle with fortunes swinging both ways but it was Landman who took the fifth game 11-7 to give Central Gauteng a 1-0 lead. Lume’s twin Elani increased the lead to 2-0 by beating Alex Fuller in four games. Nele Gilis, ranked 33rd in the world, notched a win for Western Province by outplaying Cheyna Tucker (CG) in four games.
Michelle Kohne sealed Central Gauteng’s victory when she defeated Gill van Vlaanderen and it was Diana Haynes who added the fourth win as she outmanoeuvred Sacha West in straight games to bring Central Gauteng’s tally to 18 points – just two more than Northerns but enough to lay claim to the Kaplan Cup for a consecutive year.
Bizhub Central Gauteng celebrated a successful year as they also won the Women’s B Section and the Men’s D section. Together with their second place in the Men’s A section and a second place in the Men’s B section they walked away with the Gary Thompson trophy for the most successful province.
Picture courtesy of Beandri Potgieter