East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa: Eastern Province produced one of their best performances for many years by defeating KwaZulu-Natal in the Growthpoint Interprovincial squash tournament in East London on Wednesday, but agonisingly lost out on a spot in the top four playoffs.
In the end there was little to choose between EP, Joburg Squash and KZN, but when the dust had settled the latter two sides had clinched places in the semi-finals. Each side won two matches and lost one in the pool phase of the event.
EP, though, did not pick up quite enough points and finished one point behind Joburg Squash (40 points) and four behind pool B log leaders KZN.
This means KZN will face Western Province and Joburg Squash will tackle champions SA Country Districts in Thursday’s semi-finals.
Nonetheless, it was a courageous effort by EP, who inflicted the first defeat of the week on Kwazulu-Natal, taking the first three matches of their clash at Buffalos.
After solid wins by EP’s Tyrone Dial and Warren Bower, the match took an interesting turn as two Jarvis Cup stalwarts, Jason le Roux (EP) and Adrian Hansen, took to the court.
It was Le Roux who drew first blood to shoot up a 2-0 lead, but Hansen has not played more than 30 interprovincial without learning a few tricks.
His superb control and determination saw him fight courageously back to 2-2 and suddenly a straightforward victory for EP was in the balance.
However, Le Roux seized the advantage early in the decider through a couple of Hansen errors and in the end the EP man raced through the fifth game 11-1 for a memorable victory.
The other key tie saw Joburg Squash salvage what an ordinary week with a hard-earned 16-7 win over Northerns had been to seal their spot in the top four.
After the teams split the first four matches, it was left to No 1s Christo Potgieter (Joburg) and Ruan Olivier to slug it out for the bragging rights.
Potgieter dropped the third game after building a 2-0 lead but was not in trouble in the end and comfortably ruled the fourth game 11-3 to survive a pressure-filled situation.
In pool A, Western Province comfortably saw off Midlands 20-4 to make sure they went past Zambia, who were outplayed by SACD, in the final standings.
In the women’s Kaplan Cup, SA Country Districts shrugged off a slight wobble to inflict the first defeat of the week on Northerns and put them in an almost unassailable position to retain the title.
After five-game wins for Northerns players Awande Malinga and Lara Patrick, young SACD No 5 Elske Garbers sparked their comeback with a 3-0 result against Megan Shannon.
The champions’ top two of Lizelle Muller and Alexa Pienaar then took control and although they each dropped a game; the final result was seldom in doubt as they came through for an 18-8 victory.
In the afternoon SACD continued their winning ways with a 19-6 win over EP to move to 77 points, 15 ahead of Western Province with two rounds remaining.
Only Janet Byrnes could win for EP although No 1 Hayley Ward put in a terrific effort against SACD’s Lizelle Muller, leading 2-0 before finally going down in five.
Joburg Squash’s plans to challenge SACD took a dive when they were defeated 14-7 by WP.
Although strong at the top of the order, with wins for Cheyna Wood and Teagan Roux, Joburg suffered lower down as the experienced trio of Sacha West, Karen Schultz and Juanette le Roux put them in the driving seat.
The results were :
Women’s Kaplan Cup
Joburg Squash A bt Midlands A 20-3 (Joburg first): Cheyna Wood bt Savannah Ingledew 3-2 (8-11 7-11 11-9 11-3 11-1), Teagan Roux bt Nadia Dippenaar 3-1 (8-11 11-1 11-5 11-2), Jennifer Preece bt Nicola Bentley 3-0 (11-3 11-7 11-8), Shannon Harvey bt Noel Lee 3-0 (11-8 11-9 11-3), Mariske Wiese bt Melanie de Wet 3-0 (11-3 11-5 11-2)
WP A bt Zambia A 20-0 (WP first): Siyoli Waters bt Namwene Muchaile 3-0 (11-3 11-4 11-2), Karen Blom bt Majory Mwambe 3-0 (11-4 11-4 11-5), Sacha West bt Monica Chimese 3-0 (11-5 11-9 11-2), Karen Schultz bt Natasha Chimese 3-0 (11-5 11-2 12-10), Juanette le Roux bt Tracy Kawandami 3-0 (11-2 11-7 11-3)
SACD A bt Northerns A 18-8 (SACD first): Lizelle Muller bt Milnay Louw 3-1 (7-11 11-7 11-6 11-7), Alexa Pienaar bt Helena Coetzee 3-1 (11-7 9-11 11-9 11-3), Shelomi Truter lost to Awande Malinga 3-2 (11-7 3-11 11-6 6-11 11-7), Keschia Scorgie lost to Lara Patrick 3-2 (11-8 10-12, 18-16 8-11 11-3), Elske Garbers bt Megan Shannon 3-0 (11-4 11-9 12-10)
SACD A bt EP A 19-6 (SACD first): Lizelle Muller bt Hayley Ward 3-2 (6-11 8-11 13-11 11-9 11-6), Alexa Pienaar bt Jacqui Ryder 3-1 (11-4 12-10 7-11 11-5), Shelomi Truter bt Anlen Jarman 3-0 (11-4 11-9 11-2), Keschia Scorgie lost to Janet Byrnes 3-2 (8-11 11-7 8-11 11-8 11-2), Elske Garbers bt Mikayla Boy 3-0 (11-3 11-5 11-4)
WP A bt Joburg Squash A 14-7 (WP first): Siyoli Waters lost to Cheyna Wood 3-0 (11-3 11-2 11-4), Karen Blom lost to Teagan Roux 3-0 (11-5 12-10 11-3), Sacha West bt Jennifer Preece 3-1 (11-8 7-11 11-9 11-7), Karen Schultz bt Shannon Harvey 3-0 (11-9 11-5 11-4), Juanette le Roux bt Mariske Wiese 3-0 (11-6 13-11 11-7)
Midlands A v Zambia A 19-3 (Midlands first): Savannah Ingledew bt Namwene Muchaile 3-0 (11-4 11-3 11-3), Nadia Dippenaar bt Majory Mwamba 3-0 (11-3 11-8 11-1), Nicola Bentley lost to Monice Chimese 3-2 (10-12 11-3 12-14 13-11 11-5), Noel Lee bt Natasha Chimese 3-0 (11-5 11-6 11-8), Ana Chemaly bt Tracy Kawandami 3-0 (11-5 11-4 11-2)
Provisional log: SACD 77 (4), WP 62 (4), EP and Joburg Squash 57 (4), Northerns 54 (4), Midlands 25 (4), Zambia 6 (5)
Men’s Jarvis Cup
Pool A
SACD A bt Zambia A 18-4 (SACD first): Dewald van Niekerk bt Kundanji Kalengo 3-1 (11-6 11-8 10-12 11-4), JP Brits bt Kelvin Ndhlovu 3-0 (14-12 11-3 11-9), Tristen Worth bt Sam Siame 3-0 (11-4 11-4 11-2), Jimmy Schlebusch bt Manda Chilambwe 3-0 (11-4 11-4 11-4), Jonty Matthys lost to Sam Kabwe 3-1 (11-9 7-1111-9 11-8)
WP A bt Midlands A 20-4 (WP first): Mighael Lombard bt Justin Gouweloos 3-1 (11-7 11-8 10-12 11-6), Rodney Durbach bt Josh vd Wath 3-1 (7-11 11-9 11-8 11-7), Gary Wheadon bt Luke McFarland 3-0 (11-4 11-2 11-8), John-Ross Malloch bt Daryn Pieters 3-0 (11-5 11-6 11-9), Justin van der Poel bt Mick Gouweloos 3-2 (11-2 12-14 11-5 7-11 11-4)
Pool B
Joburg Squash A bt Northerns A 16-7 (Joburg first): Christo Potgieter bt Ruan Olivier 3-1 (11-9 11-9 4-11 11-3), David Sibanda lost to Damian Groenewald 3-0 (13-11 11-8 11-4), Grant Woodward lost to Sipho Ncube 3-2 (4-11 6-11 11-8 11-8 11-1), Dean Nortier bt Reece McLachlan 3-0 (11-4 11-6 11-8), Makho Ntuli bt Mark Schickerling 3-0 (16-14 11-7 11-6)
EP A bt KZN A 15-9 (EP first): Dean Venter lost to Matthew Boote 3-0 (11-6 11-3 11-4), Gerard Mitchell lost to Daniel Smith 3-1 (11-0 6-11 11-3 11-4), Tyrone Dial bt Luke Bakke 3-1 (11-6 11-5 6-11 11-6), Warren Bower bt Justin Neef 3-0 (11-5 11-9 11-4), Jason le Roux bt Adrian Hansen 3-2 (11-8 11-6 9-11 8-11 11-1)
Latest logs:
Pool A: SACD 56, WP 39, Zambia 30, Midlands 11
Pool B: KZN 43, Joburg Squash 40, EP 39, Northerns 21
Ends
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