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Doubles to kick off domestic season

SquashGym Palmerston North will play host to the first national event of the season this weekend

The domestic squash season gets underway this weekend with the Big Barrel New Zealand Doubles Championships at SquashGym in Palmerston North. 

The tournament is in its third year with the first two events being held in Auckland. Squash NZ’s Mike Pittams said it was an easy decision to bring the event to Palmerston North. 

“SquashGym has an outstanding history of running high quality events, Squash NZ recognises the importance of the National Doubles tournament and bringing the event to New Zealand’s number one Squash facility is an excellent fit.”

It is the first national event on the 2013 calendar and there is plenty to play for with one eye on next year’s Commonwealth Games in Scotland.  New Zealand has enjoyed significant international success in the doubles format in the last 15 years, including numerous medals at the Games.

A number of New Zealand’s top players will be missing from this year’s event due to commitments in Europe, but Pittams says that just opens the door for the next tier of players to show what they can do in the format.

“There are some young guys who will be wanting to impress with an eye on making wider training Squads for the World Doubles Champs and Commonwealth Games in 2014”.

One of those young players looking to impress will be Palmerston North Squash professional Joseph Watts, who currently holds a World Singles ranking of 193. Watts is teaming up with former New Zealand representative Mike McSherry, with the local pair named as top seeds.  Watts says patience will be the key to success.

“Doubles Squash is a lot different to singles as it is very hard to deceive your opposition as there are two players to retrieve your shot, minimising your mistakes and shot selection will be vitally important.” 

The title favourites should see stiff competition from Zac Millar (Wellington) and Todd Redman (Napier) who played each other in last year’s New Zealand Junior National final also held in Palmerston North.

Meanwhile, the Women’s draw sees another local pair of Danielle Fourie and new Massey University Student Rebecca Barnett team up to be top seeds. They should play Auckland A graders Joanna Shanks and Jutta Tuunanen in a closely matched final.

SquashGym is one of only a few Squash centres in New Zealand that has two international size doubles courts. A Doubles court is 1.2M wider than a standard Squash court and the tin for the championship will be lowered to 17 inches from the standard 19 inch tins used for singles play. Tournament director Jason Burton-Brown is happy with the quality of entries for SquashGym’s inaugural hosting of the Doubles.

“The top six pairs in the Men’s draw are all quality A Graders and the Women’s final should be a really close affair.”

Burton-Brown expects a few of the more experienced combinations to trouble the younger players with less movement needed in the doubles format and ‘cool heads’ required.

Each match will be played over a best of three sets played to eleven.  At ten all it will be sudden death to decide who takes the set. The tournament has a number of different divisions including Men’s and Women’s Open’s, Mixed and Masters
draws.

The competition starts from 5.00pm on Friday with the finals on Saturday afternoon. Entry is free for all spectators.

Draws

Men
Round 1
1. Joseph Watts/Mike McSherry vs Colin Wheeler/Don Carter
Ant Rountree/Matt Ratcliffe vs Peter Singer/Ben Lewis
Tom Nash/Regan Smith vs Geoff Spencer/Shaun Grant
4. Michael Pittams/Richard Pittams vs Brandon Keenan/Blake Koolen
3. Bryce Redman/Cameron Jamieson vs Sean O'Connor/Tom Carey
Dylan Tasker/Ben Calvet vs Jason Burton-Brown/Croyden Rutherford
Justin Brown/Grant Smith vs Luke Jones/Mike McLean
2. Zac Millar/Todd Redman vs Matt Oldfield/Sam Oldfield

Women
(Round Robin)
Round 1
2. Jo Shanks/Jutta Tuunanen vs 3. Sheryl Curtis/Susan Lawlor
1. Danielle Fourie/Rebecca Barnett BYE


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