Two of the most successful players the Kaitaia Squash Club has produced were on top of their game at the New Zealand Squash Masters Tournament in Hawke's Bay earlier this month.
While ex-pat Shelley Kitchen showed her class by taking out her age group in the women's section, current member Hongi Laing finished runner-up in his individual age group section after losing to an Australian player who was there for the trans-Tasman series held in conjunction with the nationals.
Laing also went unbeaten in the teams section, taking out some higher graded players in some very entertaining matches which saw the crowd going crazy according to his Kaitaia stablemate, Nirelle McDonald.
McDonald admitted she also enjoyed a modicum of success at the event, going in as bottom seed and emerging having bettered her seeding by one spot in the grade, which was easily taken out by the aforementioned Kitchen.
Elsewhere, McDonald noted, Northland kept to the fine tradition of mascot stealing, this time the victim being Sammy the Sheep from Central who enjoyed a day out with the Northland crew who sent pictures to update everyone on his whereabouts.
