Te Puke club’s jubilee year full of success

Players do well at National Superchamps

ISQUASH

t’s been a big year for Te Puke Squash Club. The club has celebrated its 50th jubilee this year, and recently celebrated success on the court. In July, squash clubs across the Bay of Plenty put forward their best teams in each grade to fight it out for the chance to represent the region at the National Superchamps graded teams event.

Te Puke Squash Club earned the right to represent the Bay in the E Grade Men’s and Women’s and F Grade Men’s national championships.

After a mammoth effort from our Te Puke Squash wha¯nau and the local community to raise funds to make the trip possible, E Grade teams headed to Alexandra, while the F Grade men made their way to Ashburton to battle it out against the best provincial teams in the country.

Our teams included 13 junior players and a number of people who were playing at national level for the first time.

The F Grade Men’s team, seeded last in the competition, fought with heart and maturity beyond their years to finish in third place in New Zealand after a close three-way tie and count back.

The E Grade Women, as second seeds, went through the pool matches unbeaten, and completed a 5-0 victory over Te Awamutu in the semifinal round.

The strong Henderson team proved too tough in the final and the ladies finished second in New Zealand.

Seeded seventh, the E Grade Men were also unbeaten through the pool stages and won their semifinal against the home team, Alexandra, 4-1.

Their final came down to the last match, with Hastings winning the final tie, 3 matches to 2.

The club is grateful to everyone in the Te Puke community and beyond who has supported our fundraising efforts and cheered us on from afar.

A big shout to Squash Te Puke, Squash Te Puke Junior Fund, Squash Bay of Plenty, We Care Community Trust, Bayfield Farms, MJ Excavator’s Ltd, H2 Contracting, Chris Jensen, Super Liquor Te Puke, 100% Phil Booth & Beds, Papamoa Beach Family Practice, Willie Moss, Adrian van Engelen, Poppa Camel and everyone who brought raffles, sweet treat cookbooks, 100 Drop tickets and came along to support our events.

F Grade men’s team. Back row: Fraser Betham, Corbin Ngawhare, Glenn Kelly, Harry Bragg. Middle row: Oscar Gibson, Finley Gibson, Bridget Grave. Front row: Cooper Ngawhare, Logan Kelly, Josh Crump.

E Grade men’s team. Back row: Willie Moss, Pou Stubbing, Blair Collier, Doug Taylor, Daljit Daliwal. Front row: Quinn Mulcahy, Olly Collier, Jack Lord, Helen Taylor.

E Grade Women’s team. Back row: Shane Mulcahy, Claire Mulcahy, Zoe Flay-reddaway, Helen Hodge, Brian Hodge. Front row: Isabella Mulcahy, Charlie Stubbing, Sophie Jensen, Nicole Wylie, Danelle Stevens.