Old Hickory team finishes in third place

Our Old Hickory team finished third on a windswept Takaka course on Thursday as Motueka continued its domination of this year's vets inter-club competition.

Just six out of 48 players scored 30 stablefords points or more as most struggled to cope with a strong northwesterly blowing across the Pohara links.

Motueka pair Reinhard Pauls and Brian Miller were joint individual top scorers with 33 stablefords each, leading their team to top place on the day with 120 points and strengthening their already imposing lead in the Club of the Year standings.

Dave Huntley was Waahi Taakaro's best player with 32 stablefords, with the other contributors being Graham Eggers (29), Peter Watson (28) and Bryan Ramsey (26).  Non counters were Grant Fergusson (26) and Ian Hanford (24). 

Our total of 115 was one shy of the combined Golden Downs-Redstone team in second place on 116, with John Andrews leading the way with 32.

Home team Takaka and Tasman tied for fourth with 112 points, followed by Nelson (111) and Totaradale (110). Greenacres made the long trip home with the popgun after managing a paltry 103 points.

Twos were scored by Peter Nolan (Greenacres), Eric Satherley (Tasman) and Bill Rooney (Nelson).

Motueka (1461) has stretched their lead in the Club of the Year race to 75 points over defending champion Waahi Taakaro (1386) with three rounds to go. Next are Takaka (1374), Nelson (1356), Tasman (1354), Totaradale (1345) and Greenacres (1303). Golden Downs-Redstone bring up the rear on 1260.

The next round is at Greenacres on October 1.