SQUASH RANKINGS Barbour again top man

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33966, 6 October 1975, Page 13

SQUASH RANKINGS Barbour again top man

The Henderson player, Neven Barbour, has been preferred to the national champion, Trevor Johnston (Bay of Plenty), for the top spot on this year’s national squash rankings.

Although Johnston played; some excellent squash dur-' ing the New Zealand individual and teams champion-I ships in Christchurch, he | competed in no other major I tournaments and it is prob-1 able that Barbour, ranked: first for the third year in a' row, would have won the i final had it not been for his t injured leg. A minor surprise in thelist, announced yesterday by the convener of the selectors (Mr V. J. W. Hargreaves) is the placing of Shane O’Dwyer (Wellington) in sixth position, ahead of Murray Lilley (Central). O ’ D w y e r had a magnificent record in the national teams' tournament, winning five of his six matches, but the energetic Lilley was preferred as a reserve for the New Zealand team to contest the world series in London next year. The 1972 national champion, Laune Greene (Waikato), has been ranked only eighth, his lowest position in the last six years. He thrashed both Johnston (second) and the Auckland champion, Howard Broun (fifth), in the teams contest but lost just as easily to Lilley and O’Dwyer. As expected, the top four placings in the women’s list are filled by the four mem-

bers of the New Zealand side — Pam Buckingham (Auckland), Julie Hawkes (Wellington), Robyn Davis and Rosemary Garvey (Auckland) — which toured South Africa recently. Ros Stanton, the 20-year-old Canterbury player, is the only South Islander on either list She earns her eighth position after a remarkably consistent record this reason, losing only to the top North Islanders.'

Jane Wood, the promising Hawkes Bay-Gisborne representative (seventh), was just beaten by Miss Stanton in ithe teams event but decisively beat her when they met (again in the Canterbury (championships. I Jenny Webster, the top- ' ranked woman and national champion in 1974, is placed

only sixth after a poor early season record, partly due to an injury. She recaptured some of her best form later to win the Bay of Plenty championships and the Henderson invitation tournament.

The rankings are (with last year’s placings in parenthesis):— Men.—N. S. Barbour (Auckland) 1 (1), T. Johnston (Bay of Plenty) 2 (2), T. H. Colyer (Auckland) 3 (6), B. C. Brownlee (Bay of Plenty) 4 (7), H. A. Broun 5 (3). S. P. OUwyer (Wellington) 6 (3), M. Lilley (Central) 7 (•), L. M. Greene 8 (4), A. G. Naughton (Wellington) 9 (10), B. Hughes (Waikato) 10 (-). Women.-Mrs P. Buckingham (Auckland) 1 (2), Mrs J. Hawkes (Wellington) 2 (4), Miss R. Davis (Auckland) 3 (5), Miss R. Garvey (Auckland) 4 (-). Mrs C. Mclntyre (Bay of Plenty) 5 (3), Mrs J. Webster (Auckland) 6 (1). Miss J. Wood (Hawke's Bay-Gisborne) 17 (-), Miss R. Sunton (Canter- | bury) 8 (-). Miss P. Lush (Central) 9 (-). Miss R. A. Blackwood ‘(Auckland) 10 (-). .