Squash: World's No 1 woman joins in

A deal done over the phone from Palmerston North will have world No 1 women's squash player Michelle Martin playing for the Central regional team in the national televised series next month.

Central Squash development officer Graeme Randolph rang Martin in Brisbane and discovered that the dates for the British Open championship in which she is competing had been put back, so she would be delaying her annual expedition to Europe.

An appearance fee which is performance-based was negotiated and she agreed to play.

The 31-year-old Martin has dominated world squash since New Zealander Susan Devoy retired.

Although she did lose her world title to compatriot Sarah FitzGerald, she has since won it back.

The Express Squash series will be played at the Henderson courts in Auckland on March 13 and 14.

The series will employ a quickfire version of the game - a point a rally, tiebreakers and six-minute sets.

Central will have one of the three or four strongest teams in the series.

The two men players are Palmerston North's Michael McSherry and Masterton's Willie Bicknell.

Martin should go through unbeaten against the women players from the other seven teams - North Harbour, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Canterbury and Southland.

Her toughest game is expected to be against New Zealand No 1 and world No 6 Leilani Joyce when Central play the strong Waikato side.

Another Australian, world No 8 Carol Owens, will be playing for Bay of Plenty.

Northland: Grant Linton, Rodney Bannister, Hayley King.

Auckland: Scott Harrison, Campbell Barbour, Shelley Kitchen.

Waikato: Wayne Werder, Daniel Murphy, Leilani Joyce.

Bay of Plenty: Robbie Wyatt, Paul Viggers, Carol Owens.

Central: Mike McSherry, Willie Bicknell, Michelle Martin.

Wellington: Allan Crome, Nathan Sneyd, Fiona Dean.

Canterbury: Mike Alred, George Crosby, Sarah Cook.

Southland: Sean Madden, Dean Smith, Louise Crome.