Poor start by Sloan team

Our Sloan team started the new season by getting outclassed by Golden Downs at Murchison on Sunday (Feb 10).

We managed only one win - by Jonathan Tuheke - and lost our other five matches to sit last on the table after the first round with just one point.

Played in hot conditions on a dry Murchison course with lots of bounce and run, we struggled to adapt to the conditions.

Peter Watson (77)  went down 4/3 to Golden Downs No 1 John Galletly who shot six birdies in an impressive 69 off the stick, while Keri Kotua (83) couldn't repeat his heroics of Saturday and succumbed 3/1 to Gary Oldham, despite eagling No 14.

Elton Netto (85) found Graham Strickett too tough in losing 4/3 and Steve Russell (85) lost to former Waahi Taakaro member Joseph Hippolite 3/2.

Lewis Wilson (85) was edged 1 up by the wily veteran Frank Ladds.

It was left to Jonathan Tuheke to prevent a clean sweep with his excellent 80 good enough for a 2 up win over Mark Nihotte.

Both Peter and Keri had the small consolation of scoring twos.

In other results (with three points for a team win), Nelson defeated Totaradale 6 1/2 to 2 1/2, Greenacres 7 downed last year's champions Tasman 2, Motueka beat Takaka 6 1/2 to 2 1/2 and Golden Down thrashed Waahi Taakaro 8 to 1.

It doesn't get any easier with the next round at Golden Downs where we play Motueka.

ends