A trio of Eastern Province players kept the region’s flag flying high when they delivered some stellar performances in the U15 section of the Growthpoint Nationals squash championships in Cape Town last week.
Playing on the iconic all-glass court at Makers Landing at the V&A Waterfront, EP were represented by Graeme College’s Ashton Burger, Liam Fehrsen of Grey High and Collegiate player Faatima Packery.
The tournament brought together the game’s brightest prospects from around the country for three days of high-octane competition, while the juniors also got a chance to see SA’s elite players in action, with the Senior Nationals taking place at the same time.
The boys’ U15 section produced one of the tightest finishes of the tournament, with Burger and Fehrsen joining Codey Abrahams (Eden) and Zander Smit (Boland) in the battle for the title.
After qualifying for the top four division by winning their opening matches on Thursday, there was little to separate the quartet in the round-robin phase.
It eventually came down to a dramatic finale, with Fehrsen needing to win his last match against Abrahams to have a chance of taking the title.
The Grey player did a lot of the hard work to take a 2-1 lead, but then Abrahams got on to a roll and in a courageous fightback he took control in the next two games for a 3-2 victory.
That placed him and Burger in a tie for the top spot, with the title going to Burger as he had defeated the Eden player in their head-to-head clash.
In an indication of how closely contested the boys’ section was, Burger was on the brink of elimination when he trailed Western Province’s Milton Posthumus 10-4 in the fifth game of their Thursday qualifying match.
Incredibly, he fought back with enormous resolve and skill to with the next eight points, securing his place in the top four.
After beating Abrahams 3-1 in his first round-robin match, he went down 3-2 to Fehrsen, but bounced back with a convincing 3-0 over Boland’s Smit in his final match.
It was so close, yet so far for Fehrsen, who fought with a lot of courage in his matches, all of which went to five games.
But he came up just short against Smit and Abrahams, allowing his EP colleague to eventually claim the title.
In the girls’ division, Packery lost her qualifying match on Thursday but then played with admirable spirit to finish second in the 5-8 playoffs, and sixth overall.
She registered hard-fought wins in five games over Boland’s Mienke Stander, after trailing 2-0, and Hanja Gildenjuys of Eden.
In her last match Packery went down 3-0 to Nhlalala Masingi of Joburg Squash, but it was an amazing experience for all three players, with many lessons learnt along the way.
The Herald
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