Sloan team topples Motueka

Our Sloan Trophy team made it three wins in a row with a memorable victory over competition frontrunner Motueka at Murchison on Sunday.

The 7.5 to 1.5 win made the race to secure the silverware very interesting with two rounds remaining by trimming Motueka's lead to just 2.5 points over Golden Downs, while we are only 0.5 points off going third.

Our rare win over Motueka started with our juniors, with Mike Murphy always ahead in prevailing 2/1, while Lewis Wilson - one up after 9 in a seesawing battle - won his last hole for a matching 2/1 victory.

No 4 Geoff Halkett started well to be three up after four before being pegged back to all square at the turn. However, he rebuilt an unbeatable two-up lead with two to play only to loss the last two for a half.

Our other intermediate, Dean Goodman, was one in front at the halfway mark in what was a tight tussle before edging to a 2/1 win to secure the team win.

No 2 and captain Keri Kotua found the going tougher after being three down after nine and couldn't make inroads to go down 3/2.

But our No 1 Peter Green earned another valuable point with a brilliant win over the well-performed Andy Tasker. Back to back birdies saw him 1 up at the midway point before he finished with another - his fifth - for an impressive 3/1 triumph.

In other matches, Golden Downs thumped Greenacres 8-1 to stay very much in trophy contention. Nelson dealt to a depleted Tasman 9-0, while Totaradale revived their hopes with a 7-2 win over Takaka.

So with two rounds to go, Motueka (44.5 points) - who are still to have the bye - lead narrowly from Golden Downs (42). Totaradale (31) hang onto third just ahead of Waahi Taakaro (30.5). Nelson (29) and Greenacres (25.5) remain in the hunt for the minor placings. Takaka (17.5), Tasman (14.5) and Murchison (14.5) are in a fight to avoid the wooden spoon.

The next round is at Takaka where we play Murchison on a date to be confirmed, while the final round will be at Motueka where we are up against Greenacres.