Upsets on Day 1 of Cousins Shield and Mitchell Cup

Pictured Right - Cousins Shield - Round 1 - Phil Buscke-Somervell Lugton Park (Left) vs Luke Jones SquashGym (Right)

It was always going to be a tough day of battles at the Cousins Shield and Mitchell Cup being held at the Masterton Squash Club supported by Red Star. The upsets came early and kept everyone on their feet right until the end of the day.

In the Mitchell Cup Women’s Event, Remuera showed their strength against Khandallah only dropping one game in round 1 winning their tie 5-0. North Shore saw two tough losses first up and Shelley Kitchen had to turn the fate of the North Shore club. Kitchen took North Shores first match win in Round 1 and the Shore never looked back claiming the remaining three matches and the tie 3-2. The first upset came from fourth seeds SquashGym over third seeds Royal Oak. This was a battle of round 1 and with each team going back and forth with their winning of matches it eventually fell in the favour of SquashGym and they claimed the tie 3-2 over their higher seeded opponents.

In the Cousins Shield Men’s Event, Devoy claimed their win over Royal Oak with some close battles with the final tie score being 5-0. The Henderson Squash Club also showed their strength over the Hamilton Squash and Tennis Club dropping only two games also taking their win 5-0. The 5-0 story was set to continue in the first round with Herne Bay A beating Hawkes Bay in a similar fashion. Thorndon didn’t want to upset this trend and also claimed their win over Masterton 5-0. Mitchell Park set out to cause the first upset to the seedings, with the ninth seed team taking out the eighth seeded Herne Bay B team with a 3-2 win which their top seeds were able to seal for them early on in the piece. Seventh seeds SquashGym faced a tough battle with tenth seeds Lugton Park. With SquashGym taking the early lead 2-0 thanks to Luke Jones and PSA staff member Elliot Selby, Zac Millar turned the favour for Lugton Park taking out Kashif Shuja and set Lugton Park on the road for victory. Temwa Chileshe and Corbin Faint fought hard but Chileshe tied the match scores up 2-2 sending it down to the final players. Jason Van Der Walt looked set to clinch the tie for SquashGym taking a 2-0 lead but Max Trimble fought back hard and some great pickups saw him work his way back from the death to eventually claim the match and the tie for Lugton Park causing the biggest upset in round 1. The North Shore men also had a close battle with Remuera with battles going either way but the experience of North Shore shone through and they claimed the tie 3-2.

The Women’s teams were back on for Round 2 of the Mitchell Cup having to back up some tough first round games. Hamilton ladies (seeded seventh) managed to clinch a tight win from the sixth seeded Khandallah team 3-2. The fifth seeds Devoy had a tough fight with the eight seeds Tokoroa and the matches swayed back and forth but it was the depth in the Tokoroa team from the third, fourth and fifth seeds which saw them claim the tie 3-2 and cause another upset on Day 1. The Masterton ladies fought hard on their home courts but it wasn’t enough and they were overpowered by the SquashGym ladies who have claimed their place in the top pool to fight it out for the Mitchell Cup.

Round 2 of the Cousins Shield kicks off with the bottom half of the draw starting at 9am and the top half at 12:30pm, whilst the third round of the Mitchell Cup also kicks off at 9am.

Full score results can be found on our Facebook page here 

Draws for Saturday can be found here

 Men's Draw 3-6

 Women's Draw 3-6

Make sure you don’t miss out on the news story regardinf the leadup to the event either!

Pictured Below - Cousins Shield - Round 1 - Sion Wiggin North Shore (Left) vs Sam Sayes Remuera (Right)