Teams Announced for November’s Nations Cup
Eight teams will battle for supremacy at the inaugural Nations Cup, with Paul Coll and Joelle King teaming up to represent host nation New Zealand in Tauranga from 3rd to 6th November.
Held at the Trustpower Arena, the Nations Cup is the first iteration of the new SquashFORWARD series which has been created in order to trial changes to the traditional competition and scoring formats used at official tournaments, including those on the PSA Tour.
Coll and King – both Commonwealth Games gold medallists in the summer – will make their first competitive appearances on home soil in over five years. Seeded second is England, who will be represented by Mohamed ElShorbagy and Sarah-Jane Perry.
Third seeds are Team Europe – represented by men’s Sebastien Bonmalais and Nele Gilis – while Scotland is seeded fourth and will be represented by Greg Lobban and Lisa Aitken.
Other nations to take part are Canada (David Baillargeon and Hollie Naughton), USA (Timothy Brownell & Olivia Clyne), Australia (Jessica Turnbull and Rex Hedrick) and the New Zealand B team (Lwamba Chileshe and Kaitlyn Watts).
Nations Cup Format
The eight teams will be split into two groups of four, with the top teams from each group meeting in the final and the second-place teams contesting the third-place playoff.
The Nations Cup will use a best-of-seven games scoring format throughout the event. Each game will be first to seven points. If the game scores are locked at 6-6, a sudden-death point will be played, with the winner of that rally taking the game. Each player can opt for a ‘Power Play’ twice per match where he or she can win two points.
A fixture will feature a men’s and a women’s match with the overall team score to be determined in the following order: (1) the number of matches won; (2) the number of games won; (3) the number of points won.
The new scoring format was decided following engagement with the squash community, with votes being cast on a series of proposed scoring formats during April-May on the PSA World Tour website.
Group A will consist of New Zealand, Scotland, Canada and Australia, while England, Europe, United States and New Zealand ‘B’ will make up Group B.
The Nations Cup will be broadcast live on SQUASHTV, as will the New Zealand Open, which features the Roberston Lodges NZ Men’s Open and the Barfoot & Thompson NZ Women’s Open. Both are PSA World Tour Silver events and will be played at the Trustpower Arena between November 8-13.
