After six tournaments over six years between White River and Nelspruit, the playing fields are even. Now the latter squash team officially has the right to brag.

This follows after the Inter- provincial Town Top 12 ended in a 9-3 match win for the home team at Van Riebeeck Park Squash Court last Thursday.

Nelspruit not only equalled the score after three consecutive wins since 2017, but smashed nine of their 12 opponents from White River.
All but Quintin Taljaardt (2), Driaan Odendaal (3) and Jacques Henning (4), managed to dominate the T.

Neil Henning (1) took on Chas Prettejohn (1) in a thrilling match which resulted in a 3-0 defeat for the former. Seeing that 18-year-old Henning represented South Africa with his highest ranking being number 3, his composure, fitness and ultimately his effortless squash style got the better of Prettejohn. He is not only a power player, but a shotmaker and an attritional player. By combining these styles, he wore his opponent down in a short amount of time.

If you want to beat the chairman of White River Squash Club, Tom Mullins (2), who rarely flinches on the court, you have to bring everything you have. Cool, calm and collected, Mullins took a 3-1 win after the game against Taljaardt got off to a very slow start.
Odendaal knew he had no chance against former Malawi number one and coach John Lingashi (3). As expected, Odendaal was outplayed 3-0.

Breathtaking for both supporters, as well as Dave Moffett (4) and Henning, the former walked away with a 3-2 after a five-setter that lasted almost an hour.

Peter Stephen (5) showed that age is but a number. This 65-year-old (oldest member of the club) beat youngster Eksteen Jacobsz 3-0.
Mozambican Robert Silubonde (6) did not come all this way to go home with a loss. He took Roy Hensley 3-0. Two brothers, Kasper and Wouter van Rooyen from White River are slowly but surely moving up the ranks, and even though they lost against JD Herbst (7) and Andro Gibbard (8), they are certainly players to watch.

Hersbt beat Kasper 3-0 and Wouter suffered a 3-1 loss against Gibbard.

Givemore Sithole (9) from Nelspruit beat Bruce Moxham, 3-0. Nelspruit’s most improved squash player of the year, Wayne Enslin (10) beat Adriaan Odendaal 3-0.

Diederick Scholtz (11) showed that he can not only shine during the Comrades, but also on the squash court. He beat Carel Jacobz 3-0.
Johan Louw (12), another player to keep an eye on, beat Graham Kramer 3-0, helping his club clench a 30-games-to-10- victory.

Next up is the Lowveld Championships, followed by the doubles, spring league and club championship next year.