Champion of Champion National Singles 2024

Lisa Dickson put in a gallant effort but it wasn’t quite enough to bring another New Zealand  title for the Takapuna club or the North Harbour centre when the national champion of champion singles titles were decided in Dunedin at the weekend.

 Playing in the southern city’s indoor centre, Lisa made Sunday’s post-section play but in the women’s semi-finals missed out to Auckland’s Lisa Prideaux 21-12.
 Prideaux then went on to lose to Bay of Plenty’s Sue Hodges in the final 21-16.              .
 
That meant Hodges remained unbeaten throughout the tournament in making post-section and among those she had beaten in the qualifying rounds was Lisa Dickson, who thus had the consolation of incurring her only losses to the two finalists.

 To make the semi-finals Lisa scored a good 17-12 win over Northland’s Sue Wightman, who in 2009 was the national women’s singles champion.
 
 Brent Malcolm, also representing Takapuna and North Harbour, had a more difficult time in the men’s champion of champions event and with only one qualifying win did not make post-section play.
 
However, the competition was of a high standard and among those who were also-rans were a world champion, Shannon McIlroy, former national champions in Maurice Symes and Mike Galloway and the talented former Harbour representative, Rory Soden, who is now playing in Kaitaia in the Far North centre.

 In the men’s event, a bright new star emerged in Jordan Keen, from Wellington’s Stokes Valley club. Having earlier beaten McIlroy, he beat Paul Harrison, from Hawke’s Bay’s Hastings club 21-5 in the final.