The New Zealand squash team finished the first day of their Commonwealth Games campaign with a just one loss.
Campbell Grayson in the mens singles, and Jaclyn Hawkes and Joelle King in the womens singles survived, but Martin Knight, the 15th seed, bowed out of the mens singles.
Knight, after a comfortable 11-3, 11-2, 11-5 first round victory against Hardeep Real of Kenya, went down in four tough games to Chris Simpson of Guernsey in a strength-sapping 63-minute battle of attrition.
Before the match, the contest shaped as a 50:50 bet and the pair proved extremely even. Simpson was slightly more forceful, but Knight defended well and employed an excellent lob.
Simpson won the first two games 11-8, 11-4, and when he led 10-7 in the third, triple match point, it seemed as good as over.
However, the New Zealander fought back to grab the game 14-12. It proved to be his final fling though. Clearly tiring he dropped the fourth quickly 11-3.
Grayson, seeded 16th, beat Ray Simbule of Zimbabwe 11-9, 11-6, 11-2 in the first match. He had some trouble in the first game, inexplicably hitting a succession of tins.
However, in the interval between games, it was discovered that the tin was too high and it was lowered. Grayson had few problems after that.
In Graysons second match, he beat Harry Leitch of Scotland 11-5, 11-3, 11-4 without too many problems.
Neither of the New Zealand women were unduly troubled to progress into the round of 16.
King, recently crowned New Zealand champion, was especially impressive in hammering Jeannine Cowie of Jersey 11-2, 11-2, 11-4. She is seeded 12th and now runs into Donna Urquhart of Australia, the eighth seed, a match that could go either way
Hawkes, the seventh seed, faced a potentially tricky first outing against Australian Amelia Pittock, but was too fit and consistent, winning 11-5, 11-9, 11-7. She now faces ninth-seeded Malaysian Low Wee Wern.
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