Van Niekerk, Muller take Itec Challenge

RUDI van Niekerk continued to show his dominance in Bay squash by winning the Itec Crusaders Challenge men’s title for the fourth year in a row at Saders on Sunday.

The Londt Park star won the Westview Open earlier this year, but was then runner-up in the Londt Park and Madibaz events.

He will be pleased to be back in the winners’ circle and had too much class and control for his opponents over the weekend, taking the title without dropping a game.

In the final, he came up against NMU student Gershwin Forbes, who had caused a mild upset by coming from 2-1 down to beat second seed Dean Venter in the semifinals.

The younger Forbes gave a fine account of himself in the final as he tried hard to match his more experienced opponent, but finally ran out of steam to lose 11-7 11-9 11-0.

The women’s division produced a well-contested tournament, with high-quality squash from the top four, who competed in a round-robin format.

Defending champion Lizelle Muller won her second title in a row and fifth overall when she defeated Londt Park clubmate Jacqui Ryder 3-0 in the tournament decider on Sunday.

Both players were unbeaten after Saturday’s match; Sunday’s match was effectively the final.

After some close contests between the two this year, Muller managed to control most of the match to win 3-0. The clash was marked by an extremely tight second game, which Muller won 14-12.

Once she had a 2-0 lead, she refused to let it slip and eventually got home 11-8 14-12 11-7.

Results: Men A section final: R van Niekerk bt G Forbes 11-7 11-9 11-0; plate: R Pretorius bt T Whitby 11-8 11-9 7-11 11-2 B section final: S Keevy bt L Mtotoyi 8-11 11-9 11-9 10-12 11-9; plate winner: T Tsotsobe C section final placings: 1 F Smith, 2 E Morrison D section winner: Q du Toit Women A section final placings: 1 L Muller, 2 J Ryder, 3 A Murray, 4 Douglas B section final placings: 1 L O’Grady, 2 S Mountfort