Hargreaves top squash seed

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33803, 27 March 1975, Page 36

Hargreaves top squash seed

Viv Hargreaves (High School Old Boys), the 1973. winner, heads the seedings for the Villa Maria squash tournament which is being held at Sumner during Easter.

The second seed is Morris Billington (Christchurch), and Barry Gardiner (Timaru), a finalist last year, is ranked third. Barry McNeil (High Schoo] Old Boys) is ranked fourth.

Hargreaves lost to Gardiner in this event last year, but beat him later in the season. His sound game will be

difficult to counter in the .tournament.

Also likely to be prominent are the stylish Graeme Bird, Lawrence Skurr, a reserve for the national colts side, Lin Sparks, and John Pinel (Oamaru).

The defending women's champion, Mrs Kathy Graham (Burnside), has top seeding, ahead of Miss Ros Stanton (H. 5.0.8 Mrs Graham has been training hard over the last few months, and will be easily one of the fittest competing. Late last season Mrs Jill Bruce (Suburbs) had several surprising successes, and it will be interesting to see if she has maintained that improvement during the offseason. She has been seeded third, ahead of the ebullient Miss Adrienne Alleway (Sumner).

The strongest opposition to these four will be provided by Mrs Lyn Chamberlain (Burnside), and Misses Diane Houghton (Otago) and Phillipa Monk (Christchurch). Miss Houghton won the 1974 Canterbury junior title with some determined retrieving and warm conditions should suit her style of play. Ninety-two entries have been made for all the grades, meaning that the first matches had to be played in the lower grades yesterday, and the finals will be played on Monday after three full days of competition.