Namibian squash triumph in South Africa

FIVE Namibian squash teams returned from participating in the South Africa Country Districts tournament held in Paarl, South Africa, recently.
The women’s team of Isabelle Schnoor, Adri Lambert, Nancy Fernandes, Jenny Pahl and Amanda Beukes, competing for the first time in the event, finished first.

Whilst the men’s Namibia A team, consisting of Ian Rowett, Tyc Kakehongo, Angelo Titus, Jacques Steenkamp and Andrew Forrest finished in a highly respectable fourth place.Held every year, the international event features teams from South Africa’s smaller provinces as well as teams from neighbouring countries such as Swaziland, Botswana and Zimbabwe and is one of the most prestigious competitions for Namibian players to take part in. Namibia sent two men’s teams and one women’s team to compete in the main event, as well as three teams from Wanderers, Swakopmund and Buccaneers Squash Clubs to take part in the more social festival tournament.Top Namibian players Adri Lambert and Isabelle Schnoor, frequently rivals on court, were team mates for the week and helped power their team to victory in the main women’s event. This result took them both a little by surprise, as Lambert observed: ‘For the last two years the women’s team from Namibia did not participate, so it was a surprise and shock at the same time. Although we were quite a strong team, I did not expect to win.’Schnoor echoed this and added that she was pleased to see that considering the number of players in South Africa, the smaller Namibian team did very well. Indeed the combative Lambert spoke of the tournament as increasing the confidence of Namibian players and not having to ‘back down for the South African players at all.’For Schnoor there was the added prestige of being selected for the JAVA team (picked from the best players at the tournament) after fighting her way to the final of the ladies’ singles tournament (where she was narrowly beaten 3-2) to participate in the SA inter-provincial competition later this year. GREATACHIEVEMENTNamibia Squash Association chairman Gerdus Louwrens points out this is an achievement to be proud of and one that will help her game develop further, ‘For Isabelle this will ensure exposure to competition amongst the elite of South African Squash, including some terrific players that have strong ties with South Africa, like Natalie Grainger, current world number 2 ladies’ player.’In the men’s main event, Namibia enjoyed mixed fortunes. Playing two to three games a day for four days, the Namibia B team of Dries Tredoux, Gabs Muteka, Nelson Herunga, Bimbo van der Bijl and Immanuel Amorongo finished 13th. The A team finished a highly respectable 4th, despite losing fewer games than the teams that finished in second and third place. Namibian number one (and surprise omission from the men’s’ Kaplan/JAVA team) Ian Rowett felt the event was great exposure to players of different styles and levels of skill. ‘The team performed exceptionally well: Andrew and Jacques both gained valuable experience and confidence from the intense competition, both only losing one match; Titus and Kakehongo showed why they are the top players in the country with some insanely gritty determination and indomitable will.’Organisational blunders apart (such as the late notice of rescheduling games and venues, which cost the ‘A’ team valuable points in the end), Rowett saw the highlight as the crunch match between Namibia and the South-west Districts team from George/Plett/Knysna area. RESULTS Titus came back from 2-0 down only to lose 11-9 in the fifth; Forrest had a similar fate clawing back from 2-0 down to lose 3-2. Steenkamp enjoyed an emphatic 3-0 win over his counterpart; Kakehongo then battled to win his match 3-2 to draw the fixture level at 2-2. Kakehongo said Namibian squash has a long way to go in order to catch up with South Africa. Rowett furthered this view: ‘The squash infrastructure here is sufficient, with decent courts in the major centres, however we need to broaden the player base from junior level upwards with school/junior leagues and pro-active development programmes that market the sport to a wider audience making it accessible and attractive to people from all income brackets in Namibia.However Louwrens was positive about the Namibian performance. ‘I’m quite pleased by the results and the teams’ performances. However, we have to be realistic in that we will probably never be able to compete with South Africa on strength (South Africa had more than 1 200 squash courts at last count, with Namibia having an active competition playing participant base of less than 250 players). But we have produced a number of players who play at a very competitive level, including Marco Becker, Ryan Thompson and Isabelle Schnoor, proving that we can nurture individual players of good quality.’ – chrisbuckland@rocketmail.co.uk