Potchefstroom
For the second consecutive day one of the two top seeds in the Laser Jarvis Kaplan Cup Interprovincial Squash Championships escaped from a near losing position to turn the tables and win the encounter much to the disappointment of their opponents. Monday saw defending champions Western Province snatch the match from SACD A. Tuesday it was the turn of second seeded Kwazulu Natal who survived against third seeded Central Gauteng.
Michael Wood notched the first points for third seeded Central Gauteng when he edged though 13-11 in the fourth game against Gary Wheadon,ranked 4 in the country. The next match saw Gauteng’s Devon Hendrikse account for Andrew Martin also in 4 games. Games seesawed in the vital third match between Rudi Willemse (CG ) and the wily Adrian Hansen , a former National player. Willemse trailing 1-2 in games, pocketed the fourth 11-8 and needed only 11 points to swing the match Central Gauteng’s way but Hansen took control in the fifth to give the second seeds the chance to survive.
In rampant form Laurans Jan Anjema needed only 3 games to subdue Thokoki Mohohlo and it was left to national champion, Steve Coppinger to extinguish the third seeds fire as he raced though 11-7 11-5 11-3 against Eddie Charlton.
Western Province was again involved in a tough struggle in their clash with Free State. Clinton Leeuw put the first points on the board defeating Paul Rodrigues in 4 games. Perhaps feeling the effects of his titanic match with Jimmy Schlebush on the first day , Rodney Durbach found himself clawing his way to a five game win , this time over Reinhold Hergeth, presently based in the USA. Captain Zuko Kubukeli experienced his second consecutive defeat as he bowed out to Jacques Swanepoel in four games. But again Shaun Le Roux waltzed to a straight game victory over Lawrence Kuhn to put Western Province in a winning position. The final match of the tie proved to be a really tough tussle which Australian cameron Pilley ranked 19 inthe world just managed t edge through at 130-11 in the fifth game against Egyptian Omar Meguid ranked 10 places lower.
SACD A notched an easy 19-4 win over Border with Tristan Eysele defeating his SACD number 2 counterpart J P Brits in 5 games.
In the Women’s Kaplan Cup Westrn Province the number 1 seeds wasted little time in disposing of Kwazulu Natal for the loss of only 1 point. Central Gauteng, the defending champions outpalyed Eastern Province 17-4 whie northerns upset the SACD side 16-8.
