Sloan team records third straight win.

Our Sloan team is up into fourth place after a hard-fought win over Murchison on Sunday (July 7).

It was our third straight win and propels us within striking distance of third place, which is a real turnaround after we were dead last after four rounds. The 6 1/2 to 2 1/2 victory in windy conditions at Greenacres was tighter than the final margin suggests, with two matches decided on the final hole.

Our juniors again got us off to a good start, with Lewis Wilson holding on for a 2/1 win after being three up at the turn and Warwick King rallying from two down after nine holes to win the last to square his match.

Elton Netto also came from one down at the halfway stage to win five holes in a row to bury his rival 4/3, although the news wasn't so good for his fellow intermediate Paul Tunnicliff who was well beaten 5/4.

No 2 Keri Kotua was two up early on but had surrendered that advantage by the turn. However, he hung tough to win the final hole and his match 1 up.

Some missed short putts proved costly for our No 1 Andy Isle who couldn't recover from being three down after nine holes, eventually losing 2 down.

In other results Golden Downs downed Totaradale 7-2, Nelson was too strong for Takaka 7 1/2 to 1 1/2 and Motueka dominated Tasman 7 1/2 to 1 1/2.

It means that Motueka has increased its lead at the top of the table to 9 1/2 points over Golden Downs with these two set to tussle for the trophy over the two remaining rounds, one of which is at Motueka so the home team will have the bye.

The points table after seven rounds is: Motueka 46 1/2, Golden Downs 37, Greenacres 30, Waahi Taakaro 28 1/2, Nelson 26, Tasman 26, Murchison 22, Takaka 18 and Totaradale 15.5.

The next round is at Motueka on July 28 where we play Totaradale.

The last round is at Nelson on August 11 where we play Tasman.

ends