PANTHERS Bathurst may have been unable to defend their men's A grade Inter Town Squash title over the weekend but their lower grade teams came away with success.
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Home association Orange locked out the A grade competition with dominant performances in the men's and women's competition while Panthers didn't come home empty handed after winning B and C grade crowns.
Panthers reached the final of the A grade women's event but were dealt a 3-1 defeat by a classy Orange outfit, who picked up their second win in the space of three years.
The Orange men recorded the same scoreline in their A grade finals victory over Springwood.
Bathurst's B grade team of Evan Jones, James Gallagher, Clint Bryant and Pat Edsall prevented Orange from adding another gold to their name with a three rubbers to one win in the final.
Panthers' C grade side of Dennis Besant, Will Maloney, Gemma Besant and Kelsey Borgstahl got the better of Crookwell 3-1 to win the C grade championship but Crookwell's women were far too good for Rylstone in the same grade with their 4-0 sweep.
Panthers almost made it a treble but their men's D grade team went down 3-1 to Grenfell in their final. In an all-Cowra final for the women's title the 1s side beat the 2s.
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Combined shield titles went to Orange (A grade), Cowra and Rylstone (tied in B grade), Crookwell (C grade) and Panthers (D grade).
Tournament organiser and Panthers A grade representative Dave Fuller said Orange were always going to be the team to beat in the top tier.
"Bathurst were never going to feature in the men's A grade final with the team we fielded this year. Orange were very strong. Jesse Keegan coming back into the squash fold really helped their side," he said.
"The courts in Orange are under new management now and squash has had a real vitality lift, which is sensational. They've got the juniors going really well and the guys on the committee are really drumming up the enthusiasm.
"That's why they were able to field four teams compared to last year when they only had one."
Forty two teams were involved across the weekend, which also featured some matches at Bathurst and Blayney.
Fuller said the best thing to see was the range of clubs sending teams to the event.
"Smaller towns are bringing great numbers of teams. Crookwell brought four teams, Rylstone brought four teams and Cowra brought seven teams with a team in every grade. Whatever they're doing in Cowra is working," he said.
"There's so many juniors coming through and things are looking great for the Central West heading forward."