Changes and Day 1 at South Island Champs 

After a number of pull-outs due to injury and illness Day 1 has gone smoothly at the South Island Championships at the Marlborough Squash Rackets Club.

Shelley Kitchen who was seeded second in the Women’s Open has had to pull out due to illness seeing Erin Ellery taking the second seed, Nikki Kennedy moving into the third seed position and Dorothy Boyce into the fourth. It was all relatively straight forward for the higher seeded players with the closest battle coming between Christine Palmer and Christine Castle who went to five with Palmer coming out on top. In the eighth and ninth seeds battle Leigh Rodd managed to clinch the win in four over Jodie Blackhouse. The Quarter-Finals will see some close battles on court with local player Megan Craig expected to make her way through to the Semi-Finals with some ease.

In the Men’s Open the top four seeds all had byes first round seeing them getting to rest their legs for tomorrow. Quinn Udy managed to get his win in four against Bryce McIntyre whilst John Van Velzen, Liam Kennedy and Michael Blanchard both had wins in three over their opponents Nick Wilson, Clark Ellery and Ben Roughan respectively. The quarter finals is expected to be a tough battle for all with some close match ups expected.

Quarter-Finals games start at 9:20am at the Marlborough Squash Rackets Club.

Make sure you check out the windup to the event. 

Full results are below.

Women’s Open

(1) Megan Craig bt Rachel Hebberd – 15/4, 15/2, 15/2

Leigh Rodd bt Jodie Blackhouse – 15/8, 13/15, 15/8, 15/8

Kiriana Andrew bt Andrea Prince – 15/5, 15/2, 15/9

(4) Dorothy Boyce bt Raewyn Buscke – 15/5, 15/2, 15/9

(3) Nikki Kennedy bt Zoey Watt – 15/5, 15/2, 15/9

Michel Galloway bt Tracey Marshall – 15/7, 15/11, 15/7

Christine Palmer bt Christine Castle – 15/8, 8/15, 15/12, 9/15, 22/20

(2) Erin Ellery bt Shelley Ridd – 15/3, 15/2, 15/5

Men’s Open

(1) Oliver Johnston – BYE

Liam Kennedy bt Clark Ellery – 11/8, 11/3, 11/4

Quinn Udy bt Bryce McIntyre – 11/6, 7/11, 11/7, 11/8

(4) Grant Craig – BYE

(3) Neil Rossin – BYE

Michael Blanchard bt Ben Roughan – 11/4, 11/7, 11/2

John Van Velzen bt Nick Wilson – 11/9, 11/3, 11/7

(2) Megan Craig - BYE