Massey High squash champ off to the UK

Going places: Lance Beddoes from Massey high School is off to the United Kingdom this December to represent New Zealand at the Junior British Open.

PHOTO CREDIT: BEN WATSON

By Justin Latif

Lance Beddoes' first beat his father Ted in squash as an 11-year-old.

Now he's 14 and looking to add more names to his long list of vanquished opponents when he travels to the United Kingdom in December for the Junior British Open.

Lance, who's been involved with the sport since he was 9, received a young squash player of the year prize during the the Auckland Squash Excellence awards on October 12.

The last season has been a stellar one for the Massey High schoolboy who has won under the 15 national title for the second year running and placed fourth at the prestigious All Star Invitational tournament held in Malaysia.

He is also a member of the New Zealand Junior Elite squad and has already secured a rare sponsorship deal with international squash merchandisers Black Knight.

Lance says seeing New Zealanders like Shelley Kitchen winning on the world stage inspires him to do the same one day.

"I want to be the world champ," he says.

The teenager says enjoys the speed of competition and likes to play a tactical game.

"Squash is fun, competitive and hard," he says. "I'm quite a tricky player and pretty fit."

He admires the Pakistani squash players for their agility and fitness but his role model is Glenn Wilson.

"He was my coach," the Massey resident says. "He now lives in Canada and he has a good playing style.

"He is the number 30 in the world."

Lance will be a year younger than most of his opponents at the tournament so he will be focused on learning as much as he can from the experience.

"I turn 15 soon and I'll be under 17 for the British Open so I'll just be looking to get more experience there," he says.

*The Henderson Squash Club is holding a number of fundraising initiatives to help Lance pay for his trip. Information, phone: 8388628

Western Leader