Port Elizabeth
Tuesday 9th July 2013
Central Gauteng and Kwazulu Natal, the second and third seeds respectively, notched up maximum points in the second round of the Investec Jarvis/Kaplan squash interprovincial being played in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday 9thJuly.
Showing little latitude for Border, Central Gauteng dropped 4 games in their encounter while Kwazulu Natal were also in rampant mood against Northerns dropping only 2 points.
SACD nearly caused an upset in their clash with Western Province which was without the services of Shaun le Roux. Rodney Durbach drew first blood for Province beating Jimmy Schlebusch 3-1 but J P Brits (SACD) levelled the score accounting for Zuko Kubukeli by the same margin. Rudi Willemse, having moved up from the B side, then defeated Francois le Roux in a five game tussle . Clinton Leeuw swung the match in Western Province’s favour outplaying Christo Potgieter in 4 games.
But it was Finland’s Olli Tuominen, ranked 26 in the world, who added another scalp to his list when he upset Australia Cameron Pilley of Australia, ranked 13 in the world, in 5 games. On the first day’s play he upset Steve Coppinger ranked 16.
With Northerns A women’s side, seeded fourth, upsetting second seeds Central Gauteng 15-8 on Tuesday, defending champions Western Province appears to be taking control of the Kaplan Cup A section.
As with Central Gauteng on the first day, there was a tense silence in the Western Province camp in their clash with Eastern Province as the one Landman twin, Elani, started off the fixture against Alexandra Fuller. A member of the victorious University of Johannesburg team, which successfully defended their title at the Universities Team interprovincial last week , also in Port Elizabeth, Elani skilfully edged through against the University of Cape Town number 1, Alexandra Fuller in 5 games. Second on court was Lume, who outplayed Karen Schultz in four games to give Eastern province a 2 nil lead. Western Province’s Sacha West accounted for Anlen Jarman in straight games followed by Siyoli Waters and Line Hansen who both registered straight game wins over Jacqui Ryder and Lizelle Goosen respectively, thusregisteringa 17-6 win for Western Province.
On paper Central Gauteng should have had the experience to edge through in the match against Northerns, but it was not to be. Cheyna Tucker opened the scoring for Central Gauteng accounting for Cara Fourie 3-1 but Robyn Baptiste evened matters for Northerns with a straight game win over Karen Hawyes. Megan Page,. the S A under 19 number 1, dropped a game against the experienced Sharon le Roux giving Northerns another win at 3-1. TUKS university student Senade Haupt then defeated National Champion Diana Haynes 3-1 to clinch victory for Northerns. England’s Emma Beddoes rescued another point for Central Gauteng by beating Milnay Louw 3-0.
In the third fixture in the Kaplan A section, Kwazulu Natal was relieved to register a 16-10 win over SACD. For SACD, former English Junior, Lauren Siddall had a tight 3-2 win over England’s
Lauren Briggs, presently ranked 29 in the world and the SACD number 5 player Marjorie Smit from Boland accounted for Kim Stewart 3-0. However Sam Herbert, Julie Lee and Anne Chalmers all played determined squash to oust their respective opponents Alexa Pienaar, Carin Pretorius and Heleen de Jager to take control of the match.