Third round squash wins easy

Press, 17 October 1987, Page 13

Third round squash wins easy

PA London Defending champion, Ross Norman and fellow New Zealander, Stuart Davenport were untroubled to win their third round matches at the World Open squash championship- In Birmingham on Thursday, v ,

Second seeded Norman beat Sweden’s Fredrik Johnson 9-1, 9-7, 9-5, and said afterwards his build-up was going according to plan. “This is a long tournament and there’s a long way to go yet,” he said.

“I don’t want to feel I have to be going fiat out in every match at this stage.”

Norman meets England’s number seven, Neil Harvey (ranked 27 in the world) in the next round today after a lay, day yesterday. The New Zealand manager, Don Cotter, said Norman would have to work a bit harder to beat Harvey, who was a “good solid performer.”

Davenport was never fully stretched to beat 19-year-old Danny Meddings of Surrey, 9-3, 9-3, 9-3. Cotter said the 25-year-old Kiwi didn’t play his best, while his young opponent played above himself.

But Davenport, down 1-3 In the second, dug in and pulled out seven points in a row before. taking the game on the next change of service.

The number three seed goes on to play Surrey-based Jamie Hickox today after the unseeded . Hickox took out sixteenth seed and England number two, Geoff Williams. Meanwhile, the Australian, Ricki HUI, has failed in his attempt to have Davenport and England’s Gawain Briars dismissed as president and chairman of the International Squash Players’ Association. HiU wanted the pair sacked for playing in the South African Open in July, only five months after signing a document in Sweden stating that they had no intention of having any sporting ties with the Republic. / But the I.S.P.A. neatly avoided the issue by saying that as the South African Open was not a sanctioned event, it did not come under its authority and so they could not take any action against the two officials. The I.S.P.A. vice-president, Cerryg Jones, commented: “If sanctions were adhered to worldwide, there would be no question of going to South Africa, but they’re not”