My Account
Anne Leakey, on the balcony at Red Beach Squash Club, proudly wearing her NZ Secondary Schools Squash uniform.
In just over three years, Orewa College student and Red Beach Squash Club junior Anne Leakey has gone from a novice to a New Zealand representative player.
Since first picking up a squash racquet as a 10-year-old at Silverdale Primary, Anne has developed an unwavering commitment to the sport. With good coaching, hard work and regular participation in school and interclub competitions, her grading has improved remarkably, especially in the past two years.
Anne plays in the B2 grade and, according to the latest ranking lists, is ranked number four on the Squash Auckland list and number 14 on the Squash NZ list, both for junior girls U15.
The Year 9 student is the top-ranked girls player at the college and was part of their first squash team to win an Auckland Secondary Schools Premier Squash League title for girls, in a weekly competition that started in May and ended in August.
In early August, Anne led the Orewa College girls team at the NZ Secondary Schools Championships in Palmerston North, where they finished 15th after being seeded 17th.
Because of her strong performances at these championships, she was selected for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Squash team, which travelled to Sydney in late August to compete against state teams from New South Wales and Queensland, as well as against Australia in a one-off test match.
“It’s quite exciting when you’re leaving, and you know you’re part of a New Zealand team,” Anne said of the build-up to the Trans-Tasman event.
The NZ team won both the secondary schools competition and the test match, with Anne receiving plaudits for her performances from team manager and teacher-in-charge of squash at Orewa College Aaron Webb.
“She played very well,” Aaron says.
Anne’s recent selection to the NZ junior development squad has seen her father Nigel hand over most of the coaching duties to Paul Hornsby, the former Squash NZ national high-performance coach, with whom Anne practises every fortnight.
Keeping it enjoyable and varied has been a significant part of her approach to training.
Of her immediate goals, Anne says she wants to keep squash fun, to improve her ranking and to try to represent NZ again.
“I can hardly get a point off her these days,” Nigel says with a smile, knowing that that situation is unlikely to change.
