{"id":41476,"date":"2024-04-13T22:24:10","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T20:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=41476"},"modified":"2024-04-13T22:24:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T20:24:10","slug":"stage-set-for-sa-schools-closed-squash-championships-finals-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=41476","title":{"rendered":"Stage set for SA Schools Closed Squash Championships finals on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a busy day at <strong>St John&#8217;s College&#8217;s Barrow Squash Centre<\/strong> and at <strong>Roedean School<\/strong>, the <strong>South African Schools Closed Squash Championships<\/strong> hit the business end of matters on Sunday, with titles in the three age groups on the line.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_41479\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41479\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-41479\" src=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/squash-barrow-sa-closed-130424-400x300.jpg\" alt=\"Three generations of the Barrow family, who sponsored St John's College magnificent squash complex, were on hand to take in Saturday's action, and were joined by some of the top u19 competitors. Left to right: Paul Barrow, Alex Barrow and Douglas Barrow, Semano Mohapi, Devon Osborne, Mrs Barrow, and Luhann Groenewald.\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-41479\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Three generations of the Barrow family, who sponsored St John&#8217;s College magnificent squash complex, were on hand to take in Saturday&#8217;s action, and were joined by some of the top u19 competitors. Left to right: Paul Barrow, Alex Barrow and Douglas Barrow, Semano Mohapi, Devon Osborne, Mrs Barrow, and Luhann Groenewald.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Boys&#8217; u19 top-seed <strong>Luhann Groenewald<\/strong> is into the title decider after another dominating day on the court that brought him 3-0 victories over <strong>Joel Fehrsen<\/strong> and <strong>Juan-Corn\u00e9 Brand<\/strong>. Only once in those six games did he concede more than five points.<\/p>\n<p>Groenewald won&#8217;t be up against second-seeded <strong>Judah Phillips<\/strong> in the gold medal match, however. Phillips was ousted by third-seed <strong>Devon Osborne<\/strong> in the semi-finals, with Osborne, from <strong>Parel Vallei<\/strong>, beating Phillips 11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 11-5.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, Osborne, once upon a time from <strong>St Andrew&#8217;s School<\/strong> in Bloemfontein, before he made the move to the Western Cape, beat <strong>Josh Smit<\/strong> and Saints&#8217;s <strong>Semano Mohapi<\/strong> in four.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Groenewald&#8217;s <strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Zwartkop<\/strong> counterpart, <strong>Chant\u00e9 Leppan<\/strong>, secured her place in the final of the girls&#8217; u19 division. It will be a Northerns&#8217; battle for the title, with Leppan facing <strong>Midstream College<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Elzandri Janse van Rensburg<\/strong> for the title in a meeting of the top two seeds.<\/p>\n<p>Both of the u19 finals are scheduled for 11:20.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_41481\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41481\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-41481\" src=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/squash-groenewald-sa-closed-130424-1-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"oys' u19 top-seed Luhann Groenewald saw off Joel Fehrsen in the quarterfinals. Photo: Adele du Rand.\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-41481\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boys&#8217; u19 top-seed Luhann Groenewald saw off Joel Fehrsen in the quarterfinals. Photo: Adele du Rand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It will be <strong>Joel Rix<\/strong> versus <strong>Christian Swanepoel<\/strong> in the boys&#8217; u16 final after Swanepoel ousted top-seed <strong>Benji Newman<\/strong> in four games, winning 11-6, 11-9, 5-11 and 11-5.<\/p>\n<p>Rix, the second-seed, very nearly missed out on the title decider, with sixth-seed <strong>Joseph Feast<\/strong> dragging him into deep waters. Rix, though, managed to outlast his never-say-die opponent, scraping through 4-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-4 and 14-12.<\/p>\n<p>Feast had earlier dispatched third-seed <strong>Thero Motshubi<\/strong>, who was playing on his home courts, in three straight.<\/p>\n<p>The girls&#8217; top seeds in the u16 age group won through, making it a showdown between no.1 <strong>Makayla Naidoo<\/strong>, of <strong>St John&#8217;s DSG<\/strong> and KZN, and no.2 <strong>Brianna Robinson<\/strong>, who is home schooled but plays for Easterns.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also one versus two in the boys&#8217; u14 final, with <strong>D\u00e9wan Borstlap<\/strong>, of <strong>Waterkloof<\/strong>, taking on <strong>Daniel Tarr<\/strong>, from the traditional powerhouse, <strong>Selborne College<\/strong>, for all the marbles.<\/p>\n<p>There is some intrigue involved in the girls&#8217; u14 competition after <strong>Lily Strydom<\/strong>, the fourth seed, from <strong>The Wykeham College<\/strong>, upset top-seed Rylee Howells, from another Pietermaritzburg school, <strong>Epworth<\/strong>, on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The points scored during the two-pool format being used in the girls&#8217; u14 age group will determine who advances to the final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a busy day at St John&#8217;s College&#8217;s Barrow Squash Centre and at Roedean School, the South African Schools Closed Squash Championships hit the business end of matters on Sunday, with titles in the three age groups on the line. Boys&#8217; u19 top-seed Luhann Groenewald is into the title decider after another dominating day on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":41481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}