The Eastern Province women’s team comfortably negotiated their first hurdle on the opening day of the Growthpoint Jarvis-Kaplan squash interprovincial when they defeated Joburg Squash A without dropping a game at Old Grey on Monday.
SA’s most prestigious domestic team event is being played in Gqeberha for the first time since 2021 and the host province will be looking to improve on their third-place finish of 2024.
They were just too good for their Joburg Squash rivals on Monday despite some spirited efforts by their opponents.
Eventually, No 1 Hayley Ward wrapped up the victory with a hard-earned 3-0 over Joburg’s Teagan Russell to seal the commanding 20-0 win.
The Northerns A women’s team sent out a strong message to their rivals that they are a team to watch when they comfortably defeated defending champions Western Province.
Though WP No 1 Alex Commins prevented a clean sweep in this Kaplan Cup clash, Northerns took most of the accolades as the prestigious team event got off to a spirited start in chilly conditions.
Commins defeated Helena Hudson in the tie’s final clash, but by then Northerns had wrapped up the match with four solid victories.
Northerns No 3 Lara Patrick had a proper arm-wrestle with WP’s Katie Mayhew in their opening game, eventually conceding it 17-15.
But Patrick, who was crowned the University Sport SA women’s champion last week, quickly bounced back and rattled off the next three games relatively easily to take a 3-1 win, en route to an overall 17-4 result.
It may have been cold outdoors, but the action soon heated up inside as Northerns No 4 Connor Earl and Murray Commins (WP A) produced a cliffhanger of a match in their men’s Jarvis Cup showdown.
Both players showed supreme resilience and brilliant shotmaking skills as neither of them gave an inch in the bid for victory.
Commins fought with all he had to win the third game 18-16 to get 2-1 up.
But the persistent Earl never lost his focus, levelling the match and then finally coming up trumps in an epic fifth game to win it 12-10.
That effort levelled the tie at one match each, but Northerns stepped on the accelerator and wins by Nikhil Pather and Jarrod Cousins gave them an unassailable lead.
Defending champions Cape Fruit SA Country Districts held the edge over hosts EP A, though Dean Venter, at No 2 for EP, registered a highly commendable 3-1 win over seasoned campaigner JP Brits.
It was a rare Jarvis Cup loss for the four-time champions, but they still have plenty of petrol in the tank and everyone knows the fighting spirit of Brits, who is sure to bounce back stronger than ever.
The Herald
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