Pahīatua’s Brodie Bennett ends year on a high

Brodie Bennett, following his win in the Oceania Junior Championships U17.

Brodie Bennett has ended his year in squash at the top of his game.

The Tararua Squash Club member ended his year of squash on a high with a week of the sport in Tauranga, firstly as a New Zealand representative team member for the Trans-Tasman Junior test series at the beginning of December.

With some top squash on display, New Zealand came out as the eventual winner 19-13 against Australia.

Following the completion of the test series was the Oceania Junior Championships where Brodie was competing in the U17 boys age group.

Having a bye in the first round and cruising through the next two rounds against opponents from New Caledonia and Australia, he then met the Australian number 2 player in the semifinal.

Brodie was two games down, but with a shift in his game halfway through the third he managed to fight his way back to secure his spot in the final.

In the final against the Australian number 1 player, Brodie had met this opponent in the transtasman competition days before, going down in a long 5-set match.

With the chance to redeem himself, Brodie took this opportunity and dominated the first two games, the third game was well played and won by his opponent, Brodie confidently came back in the fourth to win the match and earn himself his first Oceania Junior Championship title.

Brodie Bennett extends for a forehand smash in a match against Ali Romanos earlier this year.

Other highlights of 2023 was winning the U17 NZ Squash Championship title, making the New Zealand Squash Secondary Schools team which travelled to Sydney, U17 runner-up in the North Island Junior Squash Championships and winning the Central Districts Junior Boys Open.

Brodie has hung up his racket for the summer to concentrate on cricket, but it won’t be long before he is back into it with national development squad training camps and the Australian Junior Open in Melbourne and the NZ Junior Open in Palmerston North in April 2024.