Central put title on line
The Central squash women have been seeded third for the defence of their inter-district teams championships title in Hawke’s Bay this weekend.
Central won the teams title in 2016 and 2014, which was the first time they had won it in 42 years.
Most of the team that won last year are back again, but they aren’t top seed, that honour goes to Bay of Plenty, who will have top Kiwi player Amanda Landers-murphy.
Central beat BOP in last year’s final and that was with Landers-murphy in the team.
Palmerston North teenager Kaitlyn Watts, who is fresh off playing at No 1 for the New Zealand junior team at the world junior championships in Tauranga, will play at No 1 for Central.
Danielle Fourie, who played at No 1 last year, will play at No 2, and the rest of the team is Courtney Trail, Jackie Tapp and Annaleise Faint.
All of the team are from Squashgym Palmerston North, except for Taihape’s Tapp.
Trail and Faint were in the Palmerston North Girls’ High School team that won the national secondary schools title last weekend.
Tamsyn Leevy was unavailable this year.
Central will need some luck to win the title, but are a chance.
Central play Northland on Friday night, then if they win, will play second seeds Auckland in the semifinal on Saturday morning. The final is on Saturday night.
The Central men, who finished fourth last year, are seeded eighth out of eight teams this year and will face a tougher road.
Wellington is the top seed and they play Central first on Friday.
In the men’s team is Jason van der Walt (Palmerston North), Corbin Faint (Palmerston North), Nick Stretton (New Plymouth), Brandon Keenan (Palmerston North) and Alan Bailey (Palmerston North).