Squash Central hosted its annual awards as an afternoon affair on Sunday 31st October at Whanganui Squash Club to celebrate the best in the district with many nominations across all award categories. The afternoon brought together past and present players, volunteers, life members, and those who were there to support and celebrate the 2026 nominees for the awards.

Matt Laurenson, Squash Central Chairperson stepped in as MC for the afternoon sharing the narrative of the winners nomination as they were presented with their award. The feedback from the judges for the 2026 awards was ‘We are lucky to have so many talented people and clubs in the district’. It was evident from the number of nominations across all award categories how many talented, committed and hard-working people, teams and club committees we have in our district.

Some of the stand out successes the district can celebrate include both Matt Nation and Maximus Mathews our top Central players competing amongst the worlds best internationally and nationally; The Central Junior Boys Team (and their coaches Kent Darlington and Paul Tuffin), winning the NZ Junior Teams Championship title for the second year in a row – a first with no other junior boys team having done this before; Whanganui Squash Club AD Long team being crowned champions a third year in a row; The Ruapehu College Squash team(s) (and their coach Matt Laurenson), winning the Co-ed cup and the girls A team, winning second place on the podium at the Secondary School Squash Nationals – a massive achievement for a small rural school; Allan Bailey refereeing in multiple fixtures internationally and nationally as a WSO Level 3 referee and the list of successful endeavours for the district could easily go on. Notably many of these successes are also alongside the countless individuals that put in incalculable hours of work as volunteers, coaches, club committees, maintenance teams, kitchen and bar staff, personal chauffeurs (for the younger players) and committed cheerleaders and positive personalities across our region.

A special thank you to our judges for making those difficult decisions to award the winners, Whanganui Squash Club for the venue and bar facilities and those that helped out across the afternoon. It really was an event supported by a great team with our three life members Grant Smith, Joss Urbahn and John Laurenson presenting awards and Grant Smith kindly stepping in to MC for a time as well.

Grant Smith (Palmerston North Mayor and ‘champion for squash’) also took some time to speak about the New Zealand Squash Open and Festival of Squash that will be taking place in February next year in Palmerston North. Grant encouraged those attending to get behind this event and purchase tickets. For those interested in attending the New Zealand Open, tickets can be purchased here. Those that are intending on watching some first-class squash featuring our top New Zealand and world players are encouraged to purchase tickets sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment.

Squash Central congratulates those that were nominated along with the award winners. It is clear that Squash is in good hands in the Central district and we look forward to another successful year in 2027.

Our full list of nominees and award winners are below.