Play Squash. Have fun.

The Daikin Coastal Open, held over the weekend of 18-20 December at the SFC Squash Club, wrapped up an incredible season attracting a record 50 entrants from all over Namibia and South Africa.

The annual event has become one of the most prestigious squash tournaments on the calendar with excellent prize money, polished organisation and a festive holiday mood.

The packed SFC Squash Club saw more than 130 matches - many of them epic battles - from Friday afternoon all the way through to the finals on Sunday evening.

Jenny Pahl, ranked 2 in Namibia, took the women’s title beating Patricia Finly from Cape Town in an exciting final. At 8-10 in the second, Jenny was about to lose her first game of the tournament but she changed gears and forced a run of errors from Patricia to keep her 3-0 record clean.

The men’s final was an exciting derby match between Namibia’s top players David and Ian Rowett: David having won their last encounter at the SFC Club Champs in August.

Gruelling rallies in the first and second games took their toll allowing Ian to edge past 12-10 and 11-9; and despite his heroic defence in the third, the pace was too much for David as Ian pushed through to seal an emphatic victory.

“I had to get that win on record before David gets fit again and thumps me,” said Ian afterwards talking of his brother’s return to squash as full time coach in Swakopmund next year.

The men’s plate event was a soul-sapping five-setter between Uwe Grüttemeyer and Heinz Ahrens with both players enduring tough matches at every stage of the tournament. Uwe took a 2-0 lead but ran of gas as Heinz dug deep clawing back and taking the fifth 11-4.

The qualifying plate saw Namibia’s upcoming juniors tackling a host of squash newbies in some entertaining encounters. 13-year old Jaco Greeff beat Patrick Manyika in a hard-fought five games to win the final.

Chandre Jansen, Johan Wagner and Leslie Bosman were presented with Achievement Awards for their commitment, enthusiasm and exemplary sporting conduct throughout the tournament.

Full results
Men’s main event: I Rowett, D Rowett, S Grüttemeyer, J Steenkamp, L Allen, D Tredoux, M Gruhn, C Dewing, R Kotze, C Brayshaw, W Breytenback, D Greeff, S van Lingen, B Finly, F Botha.

Women’s main event: J Pahl, P Finly, A Lambert, J Usher, R Hornickel, S Usher, A Steyn, C Roux, T Stührenberg, C Jansen.

Men’s plate event: H Ahrens, U Grüttemeyer, P Pahl, R van der Meer, S Sumuelson, J van Zyl, B Grüttemeyer, D de Haas, H Fernandez, W Wagner, T Kotze, L Bosman, D Nel, E Taylor, J Wagner, T van Zyl.

Men’s qualifying plate event: J Greeff, P Manyika, W Breytenbach, F Lambert, M van Lingen, J Allen, F Cornelissen. No-shows: L Underhill.

Filed under: Announcements on December 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »

So many entries so many headaches. But after several re-writes the draw is ready. We have an extra qualifying round - with a qualifying plate event - and a separate women’s section. Lots of squash, lots of fun at the annual Daikin Open.

Men’s Main Draw | Men’s Qualifying Plate Draw

Women’s Main Draw

The women’s draw is divided into two equal strength round robin pools with playoffs for final positions.

Schedule

Round 1: Friday 14h00 - 20h00
Round 2 and 3: Saturday 08h00 - 20h00
Party: Saturday 20h00
Round 3 and 4: Sunday: 08h00 - 15h00
Finals: 15h00 - 17h00

Filed under: Announcements on December 17th, 2009 | No Comments »

My sincere and humble apologies to team SFC: I had doubts, grave doubts and for that I am ashamed. Assembling our motley team of stout-hearted players against the formidable Buccaneers 1st XX I fully expected a routing. I should have believed.

With a point-per-game scoring system, we started off neck and neck thanks to points from Bertus, Christiane, Edward and David. The dreaded Buccs middle order then got to work amassing a string of wins to all but clinch the clash half way through the day. But spirited efforts from everyone chipped away at their lead with 15 of the 20 players scoring points to rein in the romping pirates. Then some power punches from Luke, Warren, Ruan and ahem reduced the deficit to an agonising 3 points.

And that’s where it stayed with Buccaneers winning the inaugural Wagner Cup 39 points to SFC’s 36 points. The overall match tally was an astonishing 12-8. A magnificent effort from everyone. Next year, we’ll ‘ave ‘em.

Huge Thank Yous and Big Baie Dankies to the Buccaneers players for coming through and enjoying our new bar; and thanks to the brothers Wagner for honouring this event with their name and a splendid trophy; thanks too to the bar-builders Mario, Andree and ahem; more thanks to Danie Jansen and Eugene for donating the wood and the lighting; and a final thank you to everyone who donated bar stools - we are officially in business now.

Filed under: Announcements on December 14th, 2009 | No Comments »

The bar is ready. We tested it and it works. Next we need bar stools and other bar-y things to make it more like a bar. More on this later but for now do yourselves a favour and pop down to the club on Friday 27th for the unofficial opening and be amazed. A huge thank you to Danie Jansen from WB Hardware for donating all the wood; and a get-down-on-your-knees-we’re-not-worthy thank you to Mario, Ian and Andree for helping build the thing.

Filed under: Announcements on November 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »

Swakopmund — The SFC Squash Club won the Trustco National Club Championships, held at the SFC Club over the weekend of 28 - 30 August, in a Hollywood tale of little heroes becoming giant warriors.

A year ago the SFC barely scraped a team together and narrowly avoided last place in the prestigious Club Championships - the Namibian version of an inter-provincial tournament. This year the SFC hosted the tournament, entered four teams, won the Men’s event and hoisted the Overall Winner’s trophy. Read more…

Filed under: Announcements on September 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »

Selection tournaments: finished. Squad training: complete. Team selection agony: over. Namibia’s top squash clubs are ready for action.

The annual National Squash Club Championships, boosted by Trustco support and a ground-swell of competitive squash in Namibia, is going to be a chest-beating, floor-scraping, fire-breathing Battle Royale. Read more…

Filed under: Announcements on August 25th, 2009 | No Comments »

Building up like a thunderous rain cloud the Trustco National Squash Club Championships - 27 - 30 August, 2009 - is all set to be a humdinger of a tournament.

Buccaneers, Wanderers and SFC (sadly no smaller clubs from the outlying towns… yet) each have two teams in the Men’s event and Buccaneers and Wanderers will have a sudden-death shootout in the Women’s event.

The Festival Event has five teams and the inaugural social event will have extra points awarded for Best Dressed Team, Most Sociable Team and Best Team Spirit.

An Overall Winner will also be decided with each club’s total points being divided by the total number of players. This gives the B teams as much to play for in the Overall Winner category as the A teams and should make the event even more competitive.

The SFC Squash Club is proud to host an event of this stature and size (60 players) and Trustco and the Namibia Squash Association are supporting this event as a key fixture in their long-term development plan for squash in Namibia.

While the Festival Event is all about fun and development, the Men’s and Women’s events are all about hard, gritty battle and we expect some close competition among Namibia’s top squash players for the ultimate prize.

Teams:

Trustco National Squash Club Champs 2009 - Teams

Match Schedule:

Trustco National Squash Club Champs 2009 - Match Schedule

Filed under: Announcements on August 24th, 2009 | No Comments »

The National Club Champs is a big annual squash event pitting all the clubs in Namibia against each other in a fun and competitive weekend. This year the event will be hosted by the SFC Squash Club in Swakopmund.

The event takes place over the weekend of 28 - 30 August, 2009. This year sees the addition of a social Festival section with mixed teams and the emphasis on fun and participation.

Events:
Mens A (teams of 5 players)
Womens B (teams of 3 players)
Festival (mixed teams of at least 2 women)

Dinner party on Saturday and prize-giving on Sunday.

Closing date for entries is Friday 21 August, 2009.

Contact your club captain or the SFC Committee to enter or for more information.

Download the poster for your club here: National Club Championships 2009 Poster.

Filed under: Announcements on August 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »

The SFC Club Champs takes place over the weekend of 14 - 16 August, 2009. All members of all levels welcome to enter this fun and social annual event.

Dinner and social evening on Saturday and prize giving after the final on Sunday.

Entry is N$50 and this inlcudes the dinner.

Closing date for entry is Friday 7 August, 2009 (Entry form is at the courts).

NB Results of the tournament will be used for team selection for the National Club Championships.

Filed under: Announcements on August 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »

After a most successful Round 1 and a ridiculous Handicap Hiatus, the Social League continues today with Round 2. Results from Round 1 and the draw and schedule for Round 2 are posted at the courts and on the website: http://www.sfcsquash.com/social-league/fixtures/

A note to the newcomers (welcome all) and a reminder to everyone how it works: the courts are booked from 5pm for Social League every Tuesday. When both you and your opponent arrive, you can put your names on the board as the next match. To avoid waiting too long, contact your opponent beforehand to coincide your arrival time.

If you can’t play your match on Tuesday, contact your opponent beforehand to arrange another time to play. You must play all your matches, i.e. everyone in your group, by the end of the round or we’ll pummel you with marshmallows.

One big change is the scoring format. We’ve got many more entrants for Round 2 so we need to use American Scoring (Point-a-Rally) or else we’ll be playing until midnight.

See you at the courts, if you have any questions, check the website: http://www.sfcsquash.com/social-league/ or contact the committee.

Filed under: Announcements on April 14th, 2009 | No Comments »