H & H Awesome in Christchurch

From the pen of Hayley:
As some of you know Helen and I went to Christchurch to fly the Northern flag at the Christchurch Open Tournament.
Helen won her first match convincingly, then moved through to have to play Eliza Sims. For those of you that don't know, Eliza is about 17yrs old, and is probably one of NZ's most promising women players. She is coached and trained by Nick Mita, and is a very sharp A2 grade. Helen did an awesome job and certainly held her own, but did not win the match. Helen then won her 3rd game easily and went into the speical plate final I think it was against Renee Walkinshaw. Helen took the first match off the higher graded Renee, and run gallantly through the next 3 matches, but sadly did not get the match, going down 3-1. Helen was in the top open ladies division and was matched against some very talented players, so I think that she was happy with her wins.

I had a very good weekend, despite battling a persistant cough which made my breathing somewhat difficult! I was in Division 2, seeded 3rd from 16. I was susccessful in winning all 4 of my matches to take the Div 2 Championship. My final was quite a battle. I played a 15 yr old who has clearly received coaching! Luckily for me, her attitude was not quite 100%, and when put under pressure she dropped her bottom lip and started to make mistakes. Our match went to 5, and I managed to win it 15-10 in the 5th set. All matches were American scoring to 15. I was really happy with that, being my first tourney of the year.

Christchurch Squash Club is certainly one very impressive place. They have 5 courts, ALL glassback! Downstairs and upstairs viewing areas are amazing. Bar, lounge area is huge with a big projecter TV. Very friendly and well run tournament, except for when the president of the club decided to cook sausages on the bbq INSIDE the club rooms during the finals, smoked out the courts and set off the fire alarm! Had to evacuate building and wait for fire brigade to arrive to reset alarms etc! Some of the finalists were not happy as they were half way through matches, then had to stand outside in a 12 degree southerly for 20 minutes!