Van Niekerk takes squash Challenge

DEFENDING champion Rudi van Niekerk produced a typical display of relentless and precision squash to comfortably annex the Joe Davis Locksmiths Crusaders Challenge title yesterday.

Van Niekerk, who first won the tournament in 2011, made it three titles in a row as he dismantled Londt Park teammate Sean Bailey 3-0 in the final.

Bailey, who had a titanic five-game win over second seed Jason le Roux on Saturday afternoon, showed glimpses of his ability, but mixed that with too many errors to test Van Niekerk.

Perhaps the Saturday victory had sapped some of his strength and against a player with Van Niekerk’s constant energy, it seemed a bridge to far.

Van Niekerk surprisingly dropped a game against Andrew Reekie in his quarterfinal match on Saturday morning, but otherwise again showed his dominance over local competition as he racked up another title.

The women’s A section was contested by Lizelle Goosen and Jacqui Ryder, with the former taking her first title since her previous win in 2013.

Ryder was the winner from 2014 to 2016, but could not match her higherranked opponent on this occasion.

The men’s B section produced a competitive set of matches, with Crusaders’ Andre du Toit emerging as the champion for the second year in a row.

After easily winning his pool, Du Toit defeated Freddy Bopp of Westview 3-1 in the final.

The full results were:

Men A section final: R van Niekerk bt S Bailey 3-0;p 3rd: J le Roux bt D Bigara 3-2; plate winner: Warren Watermeyer B section: A du Toit bt F Bopp 3-1; 3rd: B O’Grady bt D Claassen 3-2 C section: D Botha bt D Moffat 3-1; 3rd: A Wilson bt M Muller 3-1 D section: A West bt J Forbes 3-1; 3rd: D Clayton bt S Chance 3-2 Women A section: L Goosen bt J Ryder 3-0 B section, 1st: M Bailey; 2nd: L O’Grady; 3rd: S Hohli C section, 1st: A Douglas; 2nd: R Hyman