Hayes-hoping for first victory over Barbour

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 28

Hayes-hoping for first victory over Barbour

Canterbury’s Rod Hayes will be looking for his first victory over the tough Auckland player, Neven Barbour, in the Adidas North Island squash championships at Tauranga over Queen’s Birthday week-end. Hayes, the third seed, is scheduled to have one of his rare meetings with the second-seeded Barbour in the semi-finals of the tournament on Sunday afternoon. He needs to beat a higherranked player such as Barbour, twice the national champion, to push his claims for a. place in the New Zealand team to contest the world championships in Sweden this September. A win here would almost certainly set Hayes up against Barbour’s ■ regular training partner in Auckland, Stuart Davenport (Havelock North), the top seed. Davenport, aged 18, has dominated the New Zealand tournament scene this season in the ab-

sence of the touring professionals, Bruce Brownlee and Ross Norman.

To progress through to the semi-finals the Christchurch secondary school teacher will first have to push aside former New Zealand representatives in Shane O’Dwyer (Mitchell Park) and, probably, Tony Naughton (Island Bay).

Hayes’ likely opponent in the quarter-finals, is the seventh seed, Wayne Rowlands (Gisborne), who surprisingly made the. final of the Northland championships last week-end. This will be the first of three successive week-ends in which Hayes will contest tough tournaments. His own training partner, Craig Hibbert, is also making the trip north and shbuld win his first round match against Otago University’s John Dancaster. Hibbert will, however, have a formidable prospective second round opponent in the

sixth seed, Andrew Sinclair (Tawa). Another Canterbury man, Chris Wasley, is already in the North Island making an internal tour with the New Zealand under-23 team. He has been unfortunate to draw his brilliant team-mate, Paul Viggers (Hawke's Bay), in the first round of the 32 draw and might have to seek consolation in the plate events.

Jenny Webster (North Shore) shared the North Island titles with Barbour in 1980 but is not expected to have much of a chance against a fined-down Annette Owen (Remuera) in light of present form. Miss Owen has won all three. Adidas T.P.C. circuit events convincingly so far, beating Mrs Webster, 3-0, in two of them.

South Islands only representative in the draw of 16, Joanne Milne, is seeded fifth but meets Miss Owen in the quarter-finals.