BELLVILLE (10 December 2013) – The Western Province gave Gauteng North licking to signal their intention at this year’s South African Junior Interprovincial this year, while neighbours Boland bounced back from mixed first round results to defeat Mpumalanga that put the side firmly back in the battle for promotion at Bellville Golf Club on Tuesday.
Matters between Province and Gauteng North was all-square after the teams drew 2-all in the foursomes, but the 2011 winners put the defending champions on the back foot when Noel Anderson, Hayden Garcia, Michael Sherriff and Sean Bradley won the first four singles for Province.
Anderson beat Adriel Poonan 3 & 2, Garcia won by the same margin against Juan-Pierre Cooper, Sherriff defeated Ruan Conradie 4 & 2 and Bradley downed Stefan Wears-Taylor 5 & 4.
Nicholaus Frade clawed back a point for Gauteng North with a 3 & 2 win over Robert Bougas and Albert Venter beat Luke Trocado at the 18th, but Province number two Altin van der Merwe put Province in the winner’s seat with a 3 & 2 result against Keegan de Lange.
Province manager Henk Smith was impressed with the commitment from the young side to win 7-5.
“After we drew the foursomes, the boys really stood up to be counted,” said Smith. “It came down to a massive team effort, and even those boys who lost, were next the fairways, giving their team mates support.
“With Limpopo, Central Gauteng and Ekurhuleni still to come, this win was crucial to keep us on the winning track and give us a chance to challenge for the title. We go up against Limpopo first and we will treat them the same way we treat all the A-Division teams. They are all good enough to win on any given day and we can’t afford to get complacent or relax.”
And Smith expects Limpopo to come at them with a full arsenal after the A-Division debutants were given a 10.5 – 1.5 hiding by Central Gauteng.
Corne Olivier and Jaco Linde managed to gain a half point for the A-Division debutants in their match against Dean Martin and David Meyers, but Central took a 3.5 – 1.5 lead into the singles and proceeded to clean up.
A few games went down to the wire, but Keelan van Wyk, Karabo Mokoena, Dylan Naidoo, MH Steyn, Rupert Kaminski, David Meyers and Darin De Smidt secured seven points for the side, while Martin suffered the only loss when he was beaten by Franco van Zyl 2 & 1.
In the final A-Division match, Ekurhuleni managed to squeeze a 6.5 – 5.5 victory over Eastern Province.
Meanwhile KwaZulu-Natal replaced Southern Cape at the top of the B-Division, and Boland put themselves back in the run for promotion after taking down Mpumalanga 9-3.
KwaZulu-Natal, who was demoted last year, put themselves in line for promotion with four points from a 9.5 – 2.5 result against Border and an 8 – 4 victory over Free State & Northern Cape.
The side tops the log at five points after their 6-all draw against North West on day one.
Border, Boland and Southern Cape lag just one point behind. Border slipped into second but has a slender 1.5 games point advantage over Boland, while the Garden Route side dropped to fourth after enjoying a bye.
A-DIVISION: DAY TWO RESULTS
Ekurhuleni Golf Union 6.5 vs Eastern Province Golf Union 5.5
Limpopo Golf Union 1.5 vs Central Gauteng Golf Union 10.5
Western Province Golf Union 7.0 vs Gauteng North Golf Union 5.0
A-DIVISION LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Western Province Golf Union (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 15.5)
2 Central Gauteng Golf Union (2, 1, 1, 0, 3, 16.5)
3 Ekurhuleni Golf Union (2, 1, 1, 0, 3, 12.5)
4 Gauteng North Golf Union (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 12.0)
5 Eastern Province Golf Union (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 9.0)
6 Limpopo Golf Union (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 6.5)
B-DIVISION: DAY TWO RESULTS
KwaZulu-Natal Golf Union 9.5 vs Border Golf Union 2.5
KwaZulu-Natal Golf Union 8.0 vs Free State & Northern Cape 4.0
Border Golf Union 8.0 vs Free State & Northern Cape 4.0
Boland Golf Union 9.0 vs Mpumalanga Golf Union 3.0
B-DIVISION LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 KwaZulu-Natal Golf Union (4, 2, 1, 1, 5, 28.5)
2 Border Golf Union (4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 23.0)
3 Boland Golf Union (3, 2, 0, 1, 4, 21.5)
4 Southern Cape Golf Union (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 17.5)
5 North West Golf Union (2, 1, 1, 0, 3, 12.5)
6 Mpumalanga Golf Union (3, 0, 0, 3, 0, 9.0)
7 Free State & Northern Cape (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 8.0)
