New winners claim Southland Open squash titles
Geraldine’s Keidah Bungard and Dunedin’s Aria Bannister took out the Southland Open squash event in Invercargill at the weekend.
A record field of 122 players took part in the two-day tournament, sponsored by fi innovations.
Four years after being relaunched, the Southland Open squash tournament continues to gather momentum.
Last weekend’s two-day fi innovations-sponsored event, held at Squash City and ILT Stadium Southland, attracted a near-capacity field of 122, a small increase on last year’s record field.
Squash Southland district manager Bruce Thirkell said feedback from the players had been extremely positive.
“We were very happy with how everything played out after weeks of planning. There were excellent entry numbers from all over the lower South Island under what has been a tough start to the season for most tournaments.”
With only a handful of injury defaults, a total of 178 matches were played over the weekend, with two first time winners taking out the open finals.
Players from nine Southland clubs, 30 visitors from Central Otago and two from Midlands (Geraldine) took part across 16 closely-fought divisions.
There were 45 matches that went to four sets and a further 32 went to five sets, with Squash City’s Dean Laurie (Men’s C) and Fiordland Squash Club player Jonatah Benatti (Men’s F) sharing the honours as the lowest seeds (both seventh) to take out their respective grades.
Top seed Keidah Bungard (Midlands) won the men’s open event at his third attempt, beating second seed Regan McNaught (Makarewa) in three sets, 11-9, 11-4, 11-5.
Second seeded Aria Bannister, from Dunedin, came back from two sets down to overcome top seed Anna O’Connor (Makarewa) in the women’s open final, 3-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.
Both women were returning to New Zealand after playing stints in the United States, O’Connor only arriving home to Invercargill on the Thursday afternoon after being delayed in Houston for 24 hours.
It was an emotional win for Bannister, who also came back from two sets down in her semi-final. She dedicated the victory to a school friend who passed away in Dunedin last week.
Both open final winners claimed a $1000 prize, with nearly $10,000 in prize money across the 16 grades.
