Squash: Changing of the guard as Chris van der Salm wins Whanganui men's open title

Whanganui Squash Club's 2021 open champions Chris van der Salm and Aria Bannister. Photo / Supplied

The annual Whanganui Squash Club champs for 2021 finally ended last weekend, having started way back on August 17, the night before lockdown occurred.

During the past two weeks, club players from across the playing spectrum competed in draws for the juniors, masters, individual grades and doubles trophies and even a bit of racquet ball to mix it up. It ended with the prizegiving last Saturday night, with the titles handed out along with three special club awards.

There was a changing of the guard in the men's open title with newcomer to the club this year, Chris van der Salm, taking out the four draw, winning all his matches and taking down fellow A-grader Kent Darlington in the final. Van der Salm is the New Zealand No. 5 and holds an A1 grading. He is originally from Christchurch but after a stint in Auckland, moved to Whanganui early in the year after securing a job at Midwest Helicopters as a pilot/instructor.

After a funny old year with Covid-19 when many tournaments have been cancelled, van der Salm - who took out the Rivercity, Whanganui and Hawera opens earlier in the year, along with a couple of trips to Auckland for match play at the PSA tournaments - is now trying to gear up for the NZ nationals individuals. It has already had two postponements but is due now to be at played Hutt City Squash Club on October 29-31, with just a top-32 draw. With a few of New Zealand's top players now overseas, van der Salm will be hoping he can get through the draw and push NZ No. 1 Evan Williams as he has done in the past.

In the women's open, young junior Aria Bannister continued her impressive year to take out the title for the second year running after beating Laurie Hill in the final. Bannister, who is still only U15 and B1 graded, also took out the junior girls title and the most improved junior girl after improving the most over the year by 185 points.

The junior programme is becoming a great little feeder for the club, with some of these youngsters now moving up into the graded divisions and not just competing, but pushing their higher-graded clubmates on the court.

The junior boys winner for 2021 was Max Matthews, who played true to his No. 1 seeding and beat Thor Darlington 3/0 and then Sam Power in four sets 11/9, 6/11, 11/6, 11/8. He picked up the most improved junior boy award after a whopping 570 points movement over the year.

The J-grade draw in the boys was a huge 16 draw, which shows how many of the young up-and-comers are keen, and top seed Ethan Darlington beat second seed Armant Beukes in a tight four sets. In the J-grade girls, Holly Grant won all her games to take the title and as an extra she also picked up the most promising junior award on the night, for emerging players who are just starting to hit their straps.

In the masters division, the Darlingtons, Paula and Kent, continued their tradition and won their individual draws. They also won the mixed doubles title while Paula teamed up with Laurie Hill to take out the women's doubles. The men's doubles (D1 and above) this year had a new winner as van der Salm and Rod Bannister won the hotly contested nine-team division, which featured a couple of father/son combos with Carl/Max Matthews and Kent/Thor Darlington teaming up for the first time. The men's doubles (D2 and below) was won by Curtis Fatiaki and Kees Robbertsen.

Robbertsen also managed to take out the achievers award for the second year in a row with a massive points movement of 770 for the year, starting the year as an E1 and finishing up after club champs as a C2. Club president Alistair White picked up the best all-round club member for the 2021 season as his tireless work throughout the year didn't go unnoticed. White is down at the club pretty much 24/7 doing everything across the board that a squash club so often needs to be able to run, from cleaning courts to running the bar and kitchen, through to helping coaching on junior nights, all the time managing to get on court himself as well.

Of note is the great feature of juniors coming through the club. This was evident in the men's F-grade title won by 10-year-old Ethan Darlington after he beat top seed Mike Neil in a humdinger four-setter 16/14, 18/20, 15/8, 15/8. The men's C grade also threw up a couple of strong performances from two of the club's juniors, who last year were part of the club's winning district Superchamps E-grade team and that finished runners-up at the national event. Both are U15s and it was firstly Max Matthews who put in a big couple of performances. After being seeded fourth, he dominated top seed Shane Stone to beat him 3/0 in the semi and then pushed in the final against the eventual winner David Grant, unfortunately going down in four tight sets. Thor Darlington was the other youngster to impress, losing in five sets to Grant in the semi after being down two sets to nil and then giving Stone a few worrying moments as well in a big five-setter; again Stone was up two sets, young Thor came back but just faded out in the fifth set. The future looks bright for the club and these youngsters coming through - no doubt they won't be hanging around in the low grades too long.

Whanganui Squash 2021 club champs results

Club special awards
Most Promising Junior: Holly Grant
Achievers Award – Gained by hard work & ability: Kees Robbertsen
Best All-round Club Member: Alistair White

J Grade Girls
Winner – Holly Grant; R/Up – Harper Bannister

J Grade Boys
Winner – Ethan Darlington; R/Up – Armant Beukes; 3rd/4th – Kaleb Grant. Special Plate – Ethan Toy. Plate – Luke Darlington. Consolation Plate – Cleeve O'Connor

Junior Boys
Winner – Maximus Matthews; R/Up – Sam Power. Plate – Malachy O'Connor

Junior Girls
Winner – Aria Bannister; R/Up – Holly Grant

Women's Open & B Grade
Winner – Aria Bannister; R/Up – Laurie Hill

Women's C Grade
Winner – Pauline Slovak; R/Up – Amber Ward

Women's D Grade
Winner – Amber Ward; R/Up – Lee–Anne Glanville-Rothman. Plate – Angela Boswell

Men's Open
Winner – Chris van der Salm; R/Up – Kent Darlington

Men's B Grade
Winner – Matt Ratcliffe; R/Up – Daniel Potter. Plate: Carl Matthews

Men's C Grade
Winner – David Grant; R/Up – Maximus Matthews; 3rd/4th – Shane Stone. Special Plate – Sam Power; Plate – Nigel Ward; Consolation Plate – Sean Edmonds

Men's D Grade
Winner - Kees Robertsen; R/Up – Curtis Fatiaki. Special Plate – Alistair White; Plate – Akshay Kumar; Consolation Plate – Werner Beukes

Men's E Grade
Winner - Akshay Kumar; R/Up – James Gilbert. Special Plate – Caleb Gray; Plate – Logan Symes

Men's F Grade
Winner – Ethan Darlington; R/Up – Mike Neil. Plate: Jaiden Toy

Men's Tenderfoot
Winner – Akshay Kumar; R/Up – Caleb Gray

Women's Masters
Winner – Paula Darlington; R/Up – Laurie Hill

Men's Masters
Winner – Kent Darlington; R/Up – Matt Ratcliffe. Special Plate – David Grant; Plate – Matt Power; Consolation Plate – Werner Beukes

Mixed Doubles
Winner – Kent & Paula Darlington; R/Up – Matt Ratcliffe & Pauline Slovak. Plate: Amber & Nigel Ward

Women's Doubles
Winner – Paula Darlington & Laurie Hill; R/Up – Pauline Slovak & Amber Ward

Men's Doubles (D1 & above)
Winner – Rod Bannister & Chris van der Salm; R/Up – Stu Hylton & John Roestenburg; 3rd – Kent & Thor Darlington

Men's Doubles (D2 & below)
Winner – Curtis Fatiaki & Kees Robertsen

Men's Racquet Ball
Winner – Chris van der Salm; R/Up – Shane Stone. Special Plate – Josh Meade; Plate – Matt Power; Consolation Plate – Alistair White