CAMPBELLTOWN player Jeff Bond will headline a strong group of contenders heading to Bathurst this weekend for the annual Bathurst open squash tournament where he will be aiming to claim his third title in a row.
Bond went through a series of runner-up efforts before finally winning his first title in 2010. He returned 12 months later to make it back-to-back championships.
He is one of over 100 competitors attending this years’ open and organiser Dave Fuller is excited about the standard and quantity of entries.
“We’ve got excellent fields across all the grades this year, it is bigger than what we had in 2011,” he said.
“We had five players in the open mens division last year, there are 11 this weekend which is great.”
Naturally there will be plenty of attention on the mens open competition where Bond looks likely to be favourite. Fuller said the depth in that division would make it a closely fought title.
“Jeff is the standout and he will be very hard to beat, but behind him there are three or four who are all pretty close and the rest of the field are very evenly matched as well,” Fuller explained.
Australian under 15s number one Jesse Keegan from Orange, is back from a national tournament in Tasmania and a big chance.
In the men’s A grade 21 players will compete, the biggest field in a particular grade that the tournament has ever had.
A total of 28 players will fight out the men’s B and C grades.
Orange’s Kylie Keegan represents the best Orange chance in the ladies state grade while the B and C grades will combine in the women’s draw where Tanya Matthews will fly the Bathurst flag.