Norman returns for national squash

Press, 8 September 1982, Page 26

Norman returns for national squash

PA Wellington Ross Norman, is under no illusions about the task facing him in Hamilton next week after three consecutive losses jn the men's individual final of the Le Coq Sportif national squash championships. “I’m pretty keen to win this time but I know it will be hard,” said Norman from Auckland. The No. 1 seed for Hamilton is just back in the country from an overseas tour. The man he is scheduled to meet in the final, Wellington’s Stu Davenport, is one of the outstanding young prospects in the world. Norman, aged 23, beat Davenport, aged 19, on the four occasions they met in Europe this year. But in the Bavarian Open, Davenport took Norman to five games, and in the German Open, to four- games.

“Meeting Stu is going to be difficult. He’ll go places,” said Norman, who has been playing the third and fifth seeds for Hamilton, Craig Blackwood and Neven Barbour, since arriving back at the week-end. "He’ll soon be in the world's top 20. If he hadn’t kept bumping into me in Europe he'd be there by now. “It would be great. I need another guy up there from New Zealand to lift morale.” Last year, a countryman, Bruce Brownlee downed Norman in an enthralling final, and in the previous two years Norman could not master Australia’s Frank Donnelly. Norman has a world seeding of No. 7. Recently in South Africa he’ twice lost to the No. 6, Dean Williamson, of Australia, in the latter stages of tournaments. “On computer points Dean

is quite a way ahead of me but I’m well clear of those below me,” said Norman. “It’s been a year of consolodation for me. I'm getting good draws wherever I go.. “It’s very hard to get past No. 7. My progress hasn’t slowed. Things just seem to get tougher.” Norman twice met the world No. I,' Pakistan's Jahangir Khan, and though he was beaten both times in straight games he was pleased to last for more than an hour against Jahangir in the quarter-finals of the British Open.' New Zealand’s top-ranked player with the enforced retirement of Brownlee, Norman said he is looking forward to the three-tourna-ment professional series in New Zealand in late September and early October. He is confident that Jahangir. Egyptian Gamal Awad, Williams and Briton Phil Kenyon will play.