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LATEST NEWS

28-05-2006

HP win Back 2 Back Pro League Finals
Holland Park have won back 2 back Pro League Grand Finals with a comprehensive win over Wavell on Saturday 27th May.

The Grand Final began with the clash of the Number 1 players. Zac Alexander (HP) and Josh Cox took the court and a close match was expected.

Alexander was ranked 7 on the Squashmatrix Rankings and Cox was 8. They both had a 2.3 average for last season and their overall Squashmatrix Head to Head record was 1-1.

Alexander won the first 9-4 before Cox settled and won the next two 9-4 9-4. A decision early in the 4th seemed to upset Cox and Alexander took the next two comfortably 9-2 9-3. Despite this the match went for 65 minutes.

Take nothing away from Alexander ... he played solid Grand Final squash. It was his second Grand Final success in 3 days after guiding his Thursday Night Super 8 Holland Park team to an equally impressive victory.

Holland Park then called for the Number 2 players. Big Steve Martin (Squashmatrix Ranking: 13) was up against Wavell's Bruce Dyne (Squashmatrix Ranking: 16).

Again another close match was expected given Martin won 6 out of 9 during the season at 2 and Dyne won 8 out of 13. Their last encounter saw Martin win in 5 and establish a Squashmatrix Head to Head record of 1-0.

Unfortunately, however the match didn't live up to expectation. The more experienced Martin was rock solid and destroyed Dyne 9-5 9-1 9-3 to put HP in the box seat.

The next clash saw Darryl Gayton line up against Wavell's Hyun Goo Kim. Once again a close encounter was expected.

Gayton had a Squashmatrix Ranking of 25 and Kim had a SR of 33. Gayton had won 8/9 and Kim 6/8 at the Number 4 position. Their averages were 3.9 (Gayton) and 3.8 (Kim).

There was no Squashmatrix Head to Head record for these two players.

The first was a very close 10-9 to Gayton. Kim held a 9-8 game ball for a long time and it was a credit to Gayton to hang in there and take the very important first game.

His Korean born opponent just wouldn't go away and the second was equally tough with Gayton once again getting home narrowly 9-7.

It seemed Gayton had to play the shots to win the match because Kim seemed determined to simply run everything down.

Kim played brilliant squash in the 3rd to keep the clash alive. His choice of shots were much better and it appeared the first 2 games may have taken their toll on Gayton. Kim won 9-3 and suddenly the game was taking on a new direction.

But Gayton is a very tough competitor and he out muscled his opponent 9-4 in the 4th to give HP back to back titles.

The number 3 players didn't play due to Wavell's Dale Robbins carrying an injury. Robbins would have played if required but there was no point in potentially doing more damage to his injured ankle.

CONGRATULATIONS to Holland Park!

Presentation Function.

The Pig on the Spit was ready and a BIG THANK YOU must go to Tony and Vicki Dummer who prepared what can only be described as a very nice piece of pork cooked to perfection.

After the meal the Presentation was made to the Wavell and Holland Park players.

The best averages for the 4th season of Pro League were:

Line 4 Darryl Gayton 3.9 – Holland Park
Line 3 Kelvin Smith 4.6 – Holland Park
Line 2 Nathan Stevenson 4.2 – Alex Hills
Line 1 Craig Rowland 4.1 – Sunshine

The Ian Freeme Encouragement Award.

This Award has been introduced to recognize the Player’s Player of the Season. As a guide the person you nominate should be a consistent member of a team, contribute to that team in a positive way, play the game with good sportsmanship, perform to the best of their ability each week and have demonstrated improvement during the season.

For the second season in a row Zac Alexander won this award.

It was a fitting selection as Alexander has relished his elevation to the #1 position and recently was named in the 2006 Australian Junior Team as the #1.

The Pro League Gold Award.

Finally the most prestigeous award was announced.

It will be presented to the player who accumulated the most votes throughout the season. Players voted on each night who they thought was deserving of recognition for outstanding play and good sportsmanship. Votes were awarded on a 4-3-2-1 basis.

The winner of the Gold Award for the 2006 Autumn season is Carl Hampson from Acacia Ridge.

The contest for this award was extremely close and the following is a list of the 7 players who scored 40 or more points:

Bruce DYNE Wavell 47
Peter TAYLOR Raceview 45
Cameron GOUGH Acacia Ridge 43
Steve MARTIN Holland Park 43
Zac ALEXANDER Holland Park 41
Ian FREEME Scarborough 40

ENDS