Abbie's star on the rise after adding NI crown

Waipu's Abbie Palmer is the toast of the Northland squash community after claiming the under-13 North Island title at Hamilton over the weekend.
Palmer, the top seed, made short work of second-seeded Paris Dalrymple-Mortleman, beating her in straight sets, backing up her victory in the South Island Championships last week.
The win means she will be  No1 seed for the under-13s at the national tournament at North Shore in April but may choose to enter the under-15 competition instead.
The Waipu 11-year-old played up a division in last year's nationals winning the under-13 grade as a 10-year-old but has still to decide whether she will play up again this year.
The talented youngster won the Australian under-14 title in April this year and is contemplating a trip to the UK in November to have a crack at the British Open. She is the youngest New Zealand player to have ever reached the B1 ranking after progressing through the B2 ranks in just over five months.
The top seeds took out the open titles in Hamilton, with Auckland's Lana Harrison beating Wellington's Emma Millar 3-1 in the final. Auckland's Lance Beddoes, 16, won the boys title, although he had to fight hard to beat Central's Joseph Watts 3-2.
Northland's Tate Matson just missed out on the semifinals of the open or  under-19 competition, losing to Hawke's Bay national junior teammate Bryce Redmond in three to finish fifth and achieve his pre-tournament seeding.
But it was Mangakahia's Sam Crawford who was the toast of the Northland team after he pulled off an unlikely win that made his trip to Hamilton memorable.
Crawford, an E2 ranked played was seeded last in the under-19s but played a faultless game to pull off an upset win over Bay of Plenty's Ben McCann, a C2 ranked player. Darren Gibbons was the other Northlander in the under-19s but didn't find the same success.
In the under-17 boys Josh Thomas had better luck, beating Waikato's Ryan Kavanaugh to win the consolation plate in five sets. Ryan Chestnut had some success in the plate competition but was knocked out before the final.
In the under-15 boys, Kane Turketo and Nathan Chestnut had to play off in the first round of the plate competition with Turketo progressing through to the next round with Chestnut trying his luck in the consolation plate.
Sam Sayes was runner-up in the under-13 plate competition,  and Max Trimble was runner-up in the consolation plate.
Finn Trimble was runner-up in the under-11 boys consolation plate.
Eleventh seed Shontelle Goodhew  went out in the consolation plate of the under-17 girls, while Brittany Gibbons was knocked out in the second round of the plate competition.
Jacinta Matson improved one place on her pre-tournament ranking to finish 10th in the under-15 girls and runner-up in the plate competition.