Squash: Upsets aplenty as Bay claims title

Bay of Plenty Junior Men's squash team won the Junior National Inter District Squash Teams event in Napier.

Bay of Plenty Junior Men's squash team have stunned Wellington to win the Junior National Inter District Squash Teams Event held in Napier.

It was the first win for the Bay in the event since 2003.

The third-seeded Bay team were the giant killers of the tournament in the first round of pool play beating Central Districts 4/0 in a clean sweep, then later on that day beating a strong Eastern lineup 3/1.

In the semifinals the team of Luke Cooper (Mount), Joe Lyons (Devoy Squash - Tauranga), Tyler Ranger (Ti St - Rotorua), Ben Thornton (Devoy Squash - Tauranga), Daniel Ranger (Ti St - Rotorua) and Jesse Conroy (Ti St - Rotorua) took on second seeds Auckland.

The Bay boys got off to a great start with Joe Lyons comfortably accounting for Auckland's No2 Henry Pyc in four games, which was followed by Tyler Ranger winning in five sets against Auckland's Zac Thomas. BOP No1 Luke Cooper was next up but struggled with A grader Sion Wiggan, losing in 3 sets. Ben Thornton secured the tie with a four set win over Oliver French.

The final against the defending champions Wellington was a huge battle from the start.

Joe Lyons played the game of his life against higher graded Jason van der Walt from Wellington. The shot making Lyons lost the first set but certainly not his confidence. He followed coach Robbie Wyatt's plan very well and stormed through the next three games 11/9 12/10 11/6 to give the BOP an unexpected lead.

Next to follow was Tyler Ranger against Chris Collins. After dropping the first set, Tyler never looked back taking the next three games 11/7 11/7 11/6 to give BOP a solid 2/0 lead. Coach Robbie was especially impressed with Tyler, who is the youngest in the team at only 15, saying he handled the pressure brilliantly.

Luke Cooper was next against Scott Galloway who is ranked 2nd in NZ for the boys under-19. Cooper was always up against it in this match but gave a big effort losing in three sets.

It was down the Tauranga's Ben Thornton to win the tie for BOP and secure the first NZ teams event win for a decade. Ben lost the first set against Wellington's Tohe Wanoa. Nerves were obvious, but like the rest of the BOP boys Ben followed the game plan given by the coach perfectly, winning the last three games comfortably 11/5 11/6 11/5.

The team and management were overjoyed with the result.