More pain for our Sloan team

Our Sloan Trophy season went from bad to worse  on Sunday (July 7) as Takaka blew us away 8-1 on a windswept Greenacres course.

It was our fifth loss in seven rounds and leaves us marooned in eighth place.

Things didn't start well with the usually reliable Lewis Wilson finding the going tough, with our No 6 being well beaten 5/3 on a day where not much seemed to go right.

His fellow junior Mark Clucas started okay and was one up after four holes, but then lost two in a row to fall behind. Like many he struggled to get the pace of the greens in the gusty conditions, but won enough holes to go to the last all square. Unfortunately, he found a bunker with his approach shot and made a mess getting out, gifting the match to his opponent who won 1 up with a bogey.

Bryce Vincent had to give his rival six shots which was always going to difficult to overcome and so it proved. Three down after three holes ballooned out to five down before he battled back to cut the lead to two. However, that was as good as it got as Bryce succumbed 5/4 to a player who did well to finish two under his handicap.

Our No 3 Dean Goodman also had to give five shots away which proved too much of a hurdle against an opponent who played to his handicap. Dean started slowly and was four down after the opening nine, although he cut the lead to two before it ended in a 4/3 defeat.

With the late withdraw of Pete Green due to hip injury, Keri Kotua stepped in to the No 2 slot. Despite starting with a three shot deficit, Keri played consistently to build an early lead and kept the pressure on to coast to a comfortable 5/4 win. 

James Campion had a day on the putting green he would rather forget, three-putting the first hole and missing a number of short birdie putts. He also had issues with his approach shots. Despite short game problems, he was only two down with six holes to go and got it back to even by winning the next two with a par and a birdie. But he dropped a shot at the next to fall behind and then let slip chances on the final two holes as his putter again let him down to lose 1-down at the last.

In other matches, Golden Downs extended its competition lead with an equally dominant 8-1 victory over winless Tasman, while Motueka kept the pressure on with an important 7-2 win over Totaradale. Murchison continued its good run with a 6.5-2.5 win over Nelson.

So after seven rounds with two to go, Golden Downs leads with 50 points, with Motueka (45) and Takaka (37) still within reach, although both Motueka and Golden Downs are still to have their bye.

Totaradale (34)  falls to fourth and is followed by Murchison (27.5), Greenacres (19), Nelson (17) and Waahi Taakaro (15.5). Tasman remains well adrift in last place with 7.5 points.

The next round is at Motueka on July 21 when we play Tasman.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Pete Green who has been selected as No 1 in the Nelson team to play in the upcoming quadrangular tournament between Westcoast and Marlborough at Nelson on July 27 and 28. The team was selected from Sloan players with a handicap range of 6.0 to 22.