Countback counts against Central team

Only a countback prevented the Central women’s squash team a chance of defending their national inter-district teams crown.

Central finished third at the teams event in Hawke’s Bay at the weekend, getting knocked out in the semifinal by Auckland on a countback after the scores had been locked 2-all.

Kaitlyn Watts beat Ellie Epke 3-0 and Danielle Fourie beat Abbie Palmer 3-1, but Courtney Trail lost 3-0 to Juee Bhide and Jackie Tapp lost 3-0 to Priscilla Wildsmith, which made it 2-all. So it went to a countback to decide who would progress and it fell in Auckland’s favour.

In the playoff for third, Watts beat former Palmerston North player Rebecca Barnett 3-1, Fourie beat Debbie Dunbar 3-0, Trail beat Gemma Gee 3-0 and Tapp beat Abby Wooten 3-0.

Central won their opening game 4-0 against Northland, where Watts, Fourie and Trail all won 3-0 and Faint won 3-2.

No 1 Watts and No 2 Fourie were both unbeaten.

Auckland lost the final 3-1 to top seeds Bay of Plenty, who Central beat in last year’s final.

The young Central men’s team finished eighth out of eight teams, losing their playoff for last place 3-1 against Eastern.

Nick Stretton had the only win in the playoff for seventh and eighth, winning 3-0 over former Manawatu player Joseph Watts, who is now living in Waipukurau.

Jason van der Walt, Brandon Keenan and Allan Bailey all had 3-0 losses.

Central also lost 4-0 to Waikato, where van der Walt, Stretton and Keenan all lost 3-0 and Bailey was beaten 3-1.

Then they lost 3-1 to Wellington, where Corbin Faint beat Sam Atkins 3-2.

Stretton lost 3-1, and Keenan and van der Walt were beaten 3-0.

Top seeds Wellington beat second seeds Auckland in the final.