Auckland Squash Open PSA tournament postponed with new date sought
Monday 1 March 2021, 2:07PM
By dave worsley
1604 views
One of many sporting events to be put on hold this week with the rise in Alert Levels around the country is the Barfoot & Thompson PSA Auckland Squash Open at the North Shore Squash Club.
The men’s and women’s PSA Challenger was due to run 4-7 March including live televised finals on Sky Sport. The draw was particularly strong with top 100 ranked players Evan Williams (87) and Emma Millar ranked 98th as top seeds.
Both players won their respective first national champs titles at the same venue in November last year and were keen to continue their success and to gain further PSA world ranking points and prizemoney.
The remaining competitors in the men’s draw all had PSA international rankings with Lwamba Chilshe the second seed at 149 in the world while the women’s event was set to have plenty of depth, including 111th ranked Abbie Palmer and defending champion, Lana Harrison who is formerly a top 100 ranked.
Organisors are now working on a new date to fit in the calendar to host the important tournament again, especially with events overseas and travel limited.
One and three-quarters of the five tournaments in the Barfoot & Thompson PSA Summer Series have been completed so far with Evan Williams beating Joel Arscott in the men’s Henderson Challenger and Emma Millar winning the women’s Satellite at Henderson over Shelley Kitchen.
The Eden Epsom Satellite final was set to be between brothers, Lwamba Chileshe against Temwa Chileshe in the men’s while Millar was to face Auckland’s Palmer in the women’s final. However both of the finals were not able to be completed as a result of the Level 3 alert coming in to place the evening after the semifinals.
The next tournament scheduled is the Arch Delahunty Memorial EBOP Open Satellite in Whakatane 12-14 March followed by the Royal Oak Open women’s challenger and men’s Satellite 19-21 March.
The Morrinsville Squash Open and PSA Challenger is an additional tournament which has added to the overall calendar.
All events are subject to appropriate Covid Alert Level conditions.