Newsletter : December 2017

Newsletter : December 2017

When I wrote the first newsletter in February, I really intended to write further newsletters bi-monthly or at least quarterly but that was wishful thinking – what a year it has been - a roller coaster ride with lots of highs - the lows have been short lived before peaking with another high again.

By the end of March, 17 junior events had been played around the country and with 2 of the

designated junior selection criteria championships completed, a pattern was beginning to emerge in the Under 14, 16 and 19 age groups. John Kuhn (FS) annexed the Bloemfontein Under 19 Open title while Eastern Province’s Murray Schepers took the Balwins S A Closed crown. The Bloemfontein under 16 title went to Tristan Worth (Border) but Amukalani Zitha turned the tables at Parkview in the Closed. Dean Venter (EP) dominated the under 14 group winning both the Bloemfontein Open and the S A Schools Closed against Damian Groenewald (N). Luhann, Damian’s younger brother, was making his appearances very dominant in the under 13 sections.

Awande Malinga (N) and Elske Garbers (FS) finished 2^nd and 3^rd in the Prince S A Open under 13 Championships in August, which featured a number of US players. Both Malinga and Garbers elected to play under 14 in the other events. The under 14 girls, although a frighteningly small group – there were only 8 teams at the under 14 inter provincial in July - is proving a strong evenly contested group – Yasmin de Meyer (Kzn), Awande Malinga, Tyla Mae Roux (Bor), Dana van Rhyn (FS), Karo Beets (Boland) and Elske Garbers fighting it out for the top 6 places. Interestingly coastal girls dominated the under 16’s: Lara Patrick (Bor), Alouise Campher (Eden), Shalomi Truter (Bol), Monique da Cruz (Bor), Nadia Dippenar (Mid) were amongst the top contenders.

Panashe Sithole (CG), Jenny Preece (NC- 1st year at varsity), Helena Coetzee (N),

Teagan Roux (Bor), Izane Louw (FS) and EP’s Danell Douglas and Danielle Shone came through in the under 19’s.

The Tswalu SA National Doubles took place at the Johannesburg Country Club at the end of March. Christo Potgieter (NW) collected 2 titles: the men’s with JP Brits (Limpopo) and the mixed with Western Province’s Milnay Louw while Cheyna Tucker (CG) / Alexandra Fuller

won the women’s. The B section women went to Jennifer Fox/Cindy Purchase: the men’s B to Paul/James Barrow : the Mixed B to Kevin de Lange/ Michele Kohne: the Men’s C was

won by Vladimar Djurak/Henny Claasen (Vaal) and the Masters by Deon Venter/Erich Bruchhausen

4 PSA tournaments followed in April/May: The Parkview Open (10-13 April): the West Rand Open (18-21 April): The Keith Grainger UCT Memorial in Cape Town (21-28 April) and the Bull Ring Open at the Wanderers, Johannesburg (4-6 May.)

Interestingly Mohamed El Sherbini, who had to qualify in 3 of the events, won all 4 men’s titles. In the Parkview Open El Sherbini defeated India’s Velavan Senthilkumar: and then repeated the win at the West Rand Open: he then beat Tristan Eysele in Cape Town and returned to Johannesburg to account for Kyle Finch at the Bull Ring Open. Frenchman Augusta Dossourd, the number 1 seed in both the Keith Grainger UCT Open and the Bull Ring Open, must have been very disappointed with his first visit to SA. In the Keith Grainger he lost to Gary Wheadon in the first round and in the Bull Ring Open to Christo Potgieter.

There were mixed fortunes for the women. Alex Fuller picked up two titles when she won against Milnay Louw at Parkview and then defeated 7^th seeded Menna Hamed in the Keith Grainger while Milnay Louw beat Hamed at the Bull Ring.
A highly successful, fiercely contested SACDistricts and Festival Senior Championships was hosted by North West Association in Potchefstroom from 10^th-13^th May. North West A won the men’s section followed by Limpopo A and North West B. Eden provided a surprise winning the women’s section with North West A second, followed by North West C. Limpopo C were victorious in the Festival men’s section with Dolphin Coast second and Limpopo B third. Vaal B won the women’s festival section.
A highlight was the visit by World Champion Karim Gawad on the final day and at the prize-giving.
4 men’s teams and 2 women’s teams were selected to participate in the 2017 GrowthPoint Jarvis/Kaplan Cups. In the 10 days following SACD, Gawad, Christo Potgieter and JP Brits played exhibitions in Centurion, Pretoria, the Wanderers Club Johannesburg, Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp and Rustenburg and George much to the delight and enjoyment of the full houses which attended.
Gawad has certainly made good friends with Potgieter and Brits and is very at home in the SACD environment.
Gary Grant of Accelerate’s announcement of a sponsorship tie-up with GrowthPoint was one of the 2017 highlights. Three events were targeted: S A Nationals, Jarvis/Kaplan Cup and the first S A Open since 1995 !!! Being the 25^th year of Squash South Africa’s existence since unity was signed in February 1992, a highlight package was filmed and flighted on SuperSport.

The World Masters Games took place in Auckland New Zealand during May.Craig van der Wath repeated his 2016 World Masters success in the Men’s 50-54 section, winning gold in the same age-group. Angelique Clifton-Parks took silver in the women’s 50-54 group and Des Sacco collected bronze in the Men’s 75+ section.

At the end of June Gary Wheadon, provided the upset in beating fellow Capetonian, Rodney Durbach to win his first ever National title. Durbach won the title in 1994, 1995, 2003, 2009 and was runner-up in 2001, 2005 and 2006 ! In the women’s final – also an all Capetonian affair - Milnay Louw defeated Alexandra Fuller to win her second successive national title.
Once again the Squash South Africa Awards were presented at the prize-giving of the Nationals.

Honours Awards went to: Lesley Cowan , Paul Atkinson (C.G): Janine Talbot (Mid), Nola Faber, Suran Panday (Kzn).

Mass Participation Coach: Greg Akkers (KZN).

Province of the Year: Midlands/Eastern Province.

Administrator of the Year: Glenda Erasmus (WP).

Ina Ackermann : Wendy Harvey/Kim Commins (WP).

Merit Award : Glenn Lazarus (CG).
A very positive S A National Convention followed on Saturday 1^st July, attended by representatives from: Border, Eastern Province, Western Province, Limpopo, Kwazulu Natal, Midlands, Easterns, Northerns, Central Gauteng, Eden, Mpumalanga Highveld, SACD, SAPS, SANDF, USSA, Correctional Services, S A Masters.

It was agreed there would be no increase in affiliation fees for 2018 nor would there be an increase in the Registration fee.

Willoughby Brits gave a presentation on Strategic Planning with the main focus being on development across the board: Talent identification: Facilities: Effective administration: more international and local tournaments: High performance: Marketing: Funding and Sponsorship.

The swing in fortunes of the junior provinces is changing with Eastern Province, Border and Boland dominating. Under 14 A boys was won by Eastern Province while Northerns won the girls A followed by Boland. Boland boys won the under 16 A with Border second. Free State took the under 16 A girls title followed by Border. The under 19 A boys title went to Western Province with Eastern Province second and Eastern Province won the girls section with Central Gauteng second.

The annual USSA championships were hosted by the University of Johannesburg from 3-7

July. The individual championship was re-introduced with Thoboki Mohohlo (who is now studying engineering at Trinity College (USA)) beating U.J’s Blessing Muhwati in straight games in the final. UJ’s Alexa Pienaar (who won the 2017 Award for the best Academic and Sporting achievements) accounted for Tukkie’s Hannelize Human in the women’s final.

UJ defended their team title beating rivals Tukkies in a hard fought encounter.
The focus then moved to Pretoria Country Club, the main venue for the 2017 GrowthPoint

Jarvis/Kaplan Cups. A record number of teams in the men’s section: 6 in the A and B: 8 in the C and 10 in the D. Sadly the Kaplan Cup had only 5 teams again, with 7 teams in the B section.

A talented sprinkling of international players – 4 men in the world’s top 20: World Senior Champion Karim Gawad (SACD) ranked 2: Fares Dessouky ranked 10 (CG) , Paul Coll of New Zealand ranked 12 in the world (WP), World Junior Champion Diego Elias (KZN) ranked 19: Belgium’s Nele Gilis ranked 33 (WP) and Holly Naughton (Canada) ranked 38 (Northerns) and the stage was set !
Upsets were the order of the day. Kwazulu Natal and Western Province had for the past 9 years dominated the men’s A section but the first day saw them each lose their first tie. SACD, with Gawad in the number 1 slot, outplayed Kwazulu Natal for the loss of only 6 points. Newly promoted Midlands upset Western Province 16-6. WP was without their number 1 Paul Coll – administrative blunders saw Coll arrive in SA on Sunday morning without a visa: fly to London get a visa: fly back to O R Tambo to find the visa had not been signed. It was only through a contact in Home Affairs (Pretoria) and Glenda Erasmus’s daughter, Saffron, that Coll eventually walked on the court on the Wednesday morning but WP had also lost 4-17 to Free State on the Tuesday.
Western Province’s woes continued with them losing to Central Gauteng 9-16: 9-15 to SACD and then 8-15 to Kwazulu Natal on the final day to be relegated for 2018.
Kwazulu Natal had also tred a dicey path. Having lost 6-20 to SACD A: 7-17 to Central Gauteng: 9-15 to Midlands A: and 10-17 to Free State, without the win against Western Province, they could have been relegated.
10 years previously, SACD A (Jimmy Schlebusch was in the team) won Section D and started their climb through the Jarvis sections to 2017 where with a team in each section and after 6 hours 20 minutes of nail biting squash, they lifted the prestigious Jarvis Cup having edged out BizHub Central Gauteng by 3 matches to 2. With the matches level at 2 each, the final tie between the number 4’s Rudi van Niekerk (SACD) and Dylan Groenewald stood at 2 games all : points see-sawed to 10-all in the fifth before van Niekerk clinched the match at 12-10 !!

Northerns A, who had been relegated to the B section after 2016, included the powerful Mohamed el Sherbini in their side and walked away with the B section to be back in the A section in 2018.

The Kaplan Cup provided the closest finish in many a year. For 25 years Western Province A (9 times) and Central Gauteng A (12 times) have dominated the Kaplan Cup. Only Kwazulu Natal (3 times) and Easterns (1) had won the Kaplan Cup. 2017 was to provide the closest finish with 4 teams looking for the vital last round points and a chance of winning.

The penultimate log stood at: Northerns 46, BizHub Central Gauteng 45, SACD 43 and Western Province 42.

A fiercely determined BizHub Central Gauteng ousted Western Province 18-6 to win their 4^th consecutive Kaplan Cup while Northerns accounted for SACD 15-7 to finish second, only 2 points behind !

For the first time 12 S A Schools players participated in the World Junior Individual Championships in Tauranga, New Zealand in late July. Managed by Tim Leeuw (Border) and Joanna Dodd, Mikael Clayton (N), Murray Schepers, Keanu Langford (EP), Blaine Verhage (N), Glenn Yates (WP), Luke van Vuuren (Bol), Panashe Sithole (CG, Jenny Preece (NC), Helena Coetzee (N), Teagan Roux (Bor), Izane Louw (FS) and Danielle Shone(EP) made up the squad.

Sithole, Preece, Coetzee and Roux represented South Africa in the Team event where seeded 13 out of 14 teams, they finished 11^th.

A constructive initiative by New Zealand Squash Association saw a friendly 3 man team round robin for the junior men take place at the same time as the women’s team event. 2 teams each from New Zealand and South Africa: 1 each from India, Malaysia and Australia

saw South Africa A finish 3rd.

The World Doubles was played in August in Manchester. The winners of the National Doubles took part so as to gain experience and to provide some results when Squash South Africa has to motivate selection to SASCOC for the Commonwealth Games. 2006 was the last time we participated in the World Doubles. With the lower tins and the wider court it was a positive but tough learning experience. Milnay Louw/Christo Potgieter finished 11^th out of 20 pairings in the mixed doubles.

A very welcome sponsor - Laurium Capital – former National player Murray Winckler is co-owner – gave R100,000 for the S A Masters interprovincial staged in September in Port Elizabeth. As always, highly successful and enjoyable – Port Elizabeth also turned on beautiful weather – 550 players participated.
November had Kwazulu Natal host the annual S A Masters Doubles in various clubs in and around Durban: Gillitts, Westville Country Club, Amanzimtoti, Berea Rovers, Crusaders, Kloof, Chiltern amongst the venues, which saw more than 350 players, including Zimbabwe in the 11 women’s, 20 men’s and 23 mixed sections. Kwazulu Natalian Samantha Herbert partnered by Anne Bloem in the women’s and Chris Moody in the mixed, picked up 2 titles with Adrian Hansen and Gary Wheadon winning the men’s A section.

An interesting calculation using a percentage of the points earned over the possible maximum points by the various provincial pairings produced the following:

Women : 1 Northerns 2 Eastern Province 3 Gauteng

Men : 1 Midlands 2 Gauteng 3 Kwazulu Natal

Mixed: 1 Midlands 2 Dolphin Coast 3 Gauteng

Overall: 1 Midlands 2 Gauteng 3 Dolphin Coast

(Dolphin Coast only entered in the mixed and had 16 points out of 24)

Once again a highly successful enjoyable event !

Rodney Durbach – 9 appearances at the World Men’s team championships – led a “new” team to the World Championships staged in Marseilles at the end of November. Thoboki Mohohlo was selected for the National team in 2015, but the event moved from Kuwait to Cairo, never took place: Christo Potgieter, the 2017 S A Open winner and a member of the triumphant SACD team at Jarvis as well as double national doubles title holder, and Gary Wheadon, the S A Nationals winner.
Seeded 22 they beat Czech Republic (19): Pakistan (17) and then lost to 18^th seeded Argentina to finish a creditable 18^th.
South Africa has the talent but we seem to lack some ingredients to produce a string of

Players, who consistently play in the international arena. Finances play a huge role: South Africa is far away from the squash hub and the exchange rate is a challenge. Steve Coppinger has been the highest ranked South Africa for a number of years, but has now retired : it is a tough arena as is any professional sporting arena. Siyoli Lusaseni made her way to a personal high of 28 a few years back.

Tristan Eysele based in the UK is South Africa’s highest ranked male player at 130: J Brits is 255 and Christo Potgieter is 327, Alexandra Fuller is 60 followed by Milnay at 66, Elani Landman 90, Lume Landman 128 and Cheyna Tucker 142.
Regional Academies were held for the top juniors in 5 different provinces in January and then these were followed up with the National age – group academies at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria. Under 19 at the end of April: the under 13, 14/16 academies in September.

Thanks to Liz Mackenzie and her experienced TUKSSquash team, rigorous programmes adapted for each age group were drawn up putting the players though their paces – focussing on nutrition, skills, disciplined practising and training. Physical testings were completed and noted and sadly our top players are below par on fitness and skills.

There is lots of work to be done and we all need to work together in structured way to improve the many basic aspects and equip our players better.

A highly successful coaching workshop attended by 52 coaches of different levels and experience was held at the HPC Center in November. Liz Mackenzie produced a comprehensive manual with lesson cards for each of the delegates who were also subjected to the SKILLZ tests and to an animated presentation on fitness training by Warren Mcann.

It is necessary for those attendees to return to their areas and to hold similar workshops so that the coaches can all start working off the same page and plot a better way forward for our players. Particularly in equipping them with better skills and training programmes.
At the moment there is a group of under 14 and 16 players competing in Malaysia: Glenn and Charlie Yates (WP) together with Northerns’ Groenewald brothers, Damian and Luhann will be playing in the USA Junior Open. Jacques Duminy (WP), Mikael Clayton, Zian de Zwardt (N), Lialma Sinclair (FS) , Dean Venter (EP), Glenn and Charlie Yates will be in the British Open draws. Clayton has just returned from the Irish Open where he finished 3^rd .
The registration of players has improved this year although we are far from having all league and tournament players, coaches and referees across the spectrum from juniors through seniors to masters. We thank all the provincial and club administrators who have encouraged their players and/or have done bulk uploads – it really is appreciated.
The more people, who register the more Squash South Africa will be able to do across the country for squash. If we are to produce a ranking, the players need to register.
There have been many changes in Club and provincial leaderships and it is obvious that many people do not know where their province or club or players fit in to the squash jigsaw puzzle so communication is very high on the agenda. If the players are registered we will be able to communicate directly with them.
Presently Squash South Africa’s communication is with the provincial bodies but we need all the information to filter down through the provinces to the clubs and from the clubs to the players and sadly this does not happen.

There is so much activity going on throughout our provincial members and our associate members - S A Deaf, SAPS, SANDF, Correctional Services, USSA and S A Schools.

On behalf of Steven Doeg, the President and the Executive: Lynette Swanepoel and Jacqui Fryer, I thank you for the time, energy and work which you have all injected into squash this year.

To each of you and your families best wishes for the festive season and may 2018 be all you wish for.

Let us all build on the positive highs of this year and work together to make 2018 even better.