Sloan team keeps climbing

Our Sloan Trophy team won their third match on the trot to climb to fifth in the standings with one round remaining.

On a wet Sunday (July 25) at Nelson, the lads  got the better of Takaka by 7-2 to continue their late season revival.

Our juniors got us off to the perfect start, with Warwick King - on just a couple of hours sleep - coming through on the back nine to win 2/1 after being all square at the turn. No 5 Andrew Craig played some good golf to be three up after the front nine before slamming the door shut early for a 5/4 victory.

Steve Russell found the going tough to be four down at the midway point and couldn't recover in going down 5/3, but No 3 Peter Green restored our margin with a gutsy 1 up win. Peter - who shot an excellent 80 off the stick - stormed back from being four down with eight to play to win five of the next six holes and square the last two to cap an amazing fightback.

Keri Kotua - who shot an 82 - showed all his matchplay smarts in staying patient after being one down with seven to play to win three of the next four holes and then hold steady for a 2/1 victory.

Our No 1 Andy Isle couldn't find his best stuff and was never ahead in his match. Two down at the turn, he got it back to all square with three to play but two bogies saw him go down 2/1.

The win saw us climb a spot to fifth.

In other results, Golden Downs cemented second place by defeating Tasman 7-2, Murchison shocked Greenacres 8-1 and Motueka stayed on track for another title by overcoming Totaradale 6.5-2.5.

So with one round to go, Motueka would require a meltdown of massive proportions to not be crowned champions. With 55 points, it has a eight point lead over Golden Downs (47). They are followed by Totaradale (38.5), Greenacres (35.5), Waahi Taakaro (29.5), Murchison (27), Takaka (27), Tasman (19) and Nelson (9.5).

The final round is at Totaradale on August  8 when we play Tasman.