The South African squash team to compete in the WSF World Cup Championships in India next month has a remarkable Eastern Cape connection, with all four team members having their squash roots in the province.
Although Hayley Ward, who attended Collegiate and NMU, is the only one of the four who represents Eastern Province at interprovincial level, her teammates – siblings Dewald van Niekerk and Lizelle Muller, and Tristen Worth – all learnt their squash in the region.
Van Niekerk and Muller, who were educated at Framesby, grew up in Gqeberha, where Muller is still active for Londt Park in the EP leagues, while Worth, now at North West University, went to Selborne in East London where he played junior squash for Border. The trio now represent SA Country Districts at the annual Growthpoint interprovincial.
Following his second straight title in the Growthpoint SA Nationals last year, Van Niekerk clearly established himself as the top gun in SA squash and this year has been campaigning overseas. His experience from that will be invaluable in the Chennai event.
A seasoned campaigner and the 2021 Growthpoint national champion, Muller will captain the side and her skill and knowledge will also be crucial to South Africa’s cause when the champs take place from June 13-17.
After winning her South African colours for the first time last year, Gqeberha’s Hayley Ward said she was excited to put into practice some of the lessons she learnt from attending the African Championships in Zimbabwe and the Women’s World Team Championships in Egypt.
“It’s great that we are getting another opportunity for some exposure at an international level and we are looking forward to competing in India,” said the 25-year-old, who has won PSA satellite tournaments at Wanderers in Johannesburg and Harlequins in Pretoria this year.
“We know the conditions will be tough, but we have been hard at training preparing for this event and it will be another invaluable experience.
“It was exciting to be named the team of the tournament at the Women’s World Team Championships last year and we are keen to build on that effort.”
EP Squash Union chairman Lance Petersen expressed their backing for the SA team in India.
“From my side, I would like to convey that EP Squash is very proud that we are represented at the highest level and the players have our full support and well wishes as they prepare for this event,” he said.
“We have also been privileged to receive support in the form of access to facilities, training plans, educational workshops and testing from the Eastern Cape Academy of Sport, specifically for the athletes who are representing our province at an interprovincial and national level.”
The SA team will certainly have to be on point for the World Cup, which has been revamped and is being staged for the first time since 2011.
In a significant change to the traditional game, matches will be played over the best of five games, but each game will only go to seven points as opposed to the regular 11. At 6-6 the game will be decided on sudden-death.
Ties will consist of four matches between the teams and the round-robin pool stage will be followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and the final on the all-glass show court at the Express Avenue Mall.
The competing countries are SA, India, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, Colombia, England.
The SA team is: Lizelle Muller (captain), Hayley Ward, Dewald van Niekerk, Tristen Worth. Non-travelling reserves: Alexa Pienaar, Ruan Olivier.
Alan Straton
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