NMMU retake title
Students victorious in tough encounter with Londt Park
NMMU overcame chief rivals Londt Park 16-9 in a gruelling battle in the final round to reclaim the men’s Super League squash title at Londt Park last week.
The varsity side have dominated the top division in Eastern Province squash in recent years, having won the men’s first league title five years in a row and the Super League crown from 2012 to 2015.
Last year, they conceded the Super League title to Londt Park and player-coach Jason le Roux said they were delighted to annex it for the fifth time this year.
Le Roux, who plays at number one for the team, said they had set themselves the goal of continuing the tradition of success NMMU squash had achieved in the last few years.
“We had two new players in the squad in Grant Greyling and Gershwin Forbes and we told them we were all under pressure to maintain our level of success,” he said.
“We did not want to fall into the trap of just thinking we were building for the future, so we created a culture of striving to win all our matches.”
Le Roux said they always felt the Super League would come down to the final clash between themselves and Londt Park.
“There was a lot of tension going into the final match and it was very close, with the matches at numbers four and five both going to five games,” he said.
In those encounters, Forbes held his nerve against the experienced Quintin Masters and NMMU’s Johan Thiel survived a strong fightback from Tyler Whitby to take a crucial victory.
After Brendan Bassett (NMMU) had beaten Graham Hall in the first match of the evening, Thiel’s triumph meant the varsity team had taken an unassailable lead in the best-of-five encounter.
In the remaining matches, Greyling defeated Warren Watermeyer 3-1, while Rudi van Niekerk registered Londt Park’s only win when he beat Le Roux.
Following their victory, NMMU ended nine points ahead of second-placed Londt Park.
They will kick off their campaign to retain the first league title when the winter competition starts on April 18.
CRUSADERS retained the women’s title in a well-contested encounter with Londt Park, coming back from two matches down to win 13-11. Even though Londt Park had the advantage in games won on the night (11-9), Saders took the honours as they triumphed in three of the five matches to earn four bonus points. This placed them four points ahead of Londt Park on the final standings.
The potent Londt Park pair of Lizelle Goosen and Jacqui Ryder gave Londt Park hope when they defeated Anlen Murray and Janet Byrne respectively.
However, Diane Schultz sparked Saders’ recovery with a 3-1 win over Annemie Erasmus and then Bianka la Mude and Alison Oshry finished it off, albeit not without a few moments of anxiety.
La Mude needed five games to subdue Joanna Dodd and Oshry had to mount a fightback from 2-0 down against teenager Kaylyn Trevarthen to secure Saders’ fourth title in the last six years.
In the Goffer league, Londt Park claimed the title with a 14-9 win over Old Grey.