Canadian circuit lures young players

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 20

Canadian circuit lures young players

Two Sumner club players, Steven Wren and Richard Petrie, are part of a “Young Kiwis” squash team which will head for Canada next month for a tournament circuit.

The players who have organised themselves into the “Young Kiwis” include three A-graders, Robert Wyatt (Rotorua), Kelvin Kennedy (Timaru) and Wren, while Petrie has a B2 grading. Wren, a Canterbury representative, said that the general plan was to get a car in Los Angeles, drive up to Vancouver and gradually make their way across Canada.

The group will be playing the Canadian series of tournaments and, starting with the British Columbia Open on February 7, will compete in tournaments on four consecutive week-ends.

According to Wren, these tournaments in Western Canada were not so lucrative as those in the East, but would allow the young New Zealanders to “get our feet in the ground and make contacts.”

The Sumner player already has some useful contacts over there thanks to his trip to Calgary in April last year as a member of the New Zealand boys’ team which contested the junior world championships. A member of the Alberta Squash Association has helped the group line up a number of exhibition matches.

Wren is not expected to get big appearance money for the exhibitions, though. “Even a free beer for the night would be good,” he said.

The four New Zealanders are prepared to play any teams that can be put up against them. Among the ‘Young Kiwis” is Wyatt, with a national ranking of 12, but the four deliberately refrained from asking for any financial assistance from the national association. “We’ll have no obligations.” Later the group have their eyes on the tournaments over East. The local tournaments have $9OO for first prize.

In April, the players will travel to England and may contest the qualifying rounds of the British Open. They intend to play a few tournaments in Europe and

return home in July. On his return Wren says that he will be playing inter-club for Eden-Epsom in Auckland with the incentive of $5O per. win. But he will be available to play for Canterbury in the inter-dis-trict teams’ event. Wren is keen to perform well overseas after a rather up-and-down season on the domestic front He was pleased with the way he finished, making the last 16 in the New Zealand Open and collecting $BOO in prize money. The Sumner man bad „ started well, too. With spon-' sorship from Newmans Air, he was able to contest eight. tournaments out .of the 12 on the national circuit and he was runner-up to Wyatt in the Southern Districts championships in Invercargill. Wren, who suffered ankle injuries late in the season, said he got a bit tired and probably played too many tournaments. “But it was good preparation for what’s to come.” He finished twelfth over all on the Adidas national tournament circuit with 224 points. Before Wren actually leaves the country he has two main projects. One is matching the respectable time of Ihr 22min he did in the Mount Manganui halfmarathon last year; the other is playing well in the Mount Manganui squash tournament. TIM DUNBAR