Battle lines drawn on day one at SA Mid-Amateur IPT

CAPE TOWN, 7 October 2019 – Central Gauteng and Gauteng North made a big statement on opening day, while Eastern Province got off to a flying start in the promotion battle of the SA Mid-Amateur Inter-Provincial Tournament at King David Mowbray Golf Club.

A-SECTION

Central Gauteng mowed down KwaZulu-Natal and Ekurhuleni in a dream start as they chase a hat-trick of titles in Cape Town, bagging to bag two big points on day one.

Central Gauteng swept to a 3.5 – 0.5 lead in their foursomes against KwaZulu-Natal and stretched their advantage in the singles to a 9.5 – 2.5 victory. Ekurhuleni proved tougher to beat in the foursomes and the two teams started the afternoon session all-square, but the defending champions bagged 4 points to singles to triumph 8 – 4.

After winning both their foursomes matches, rookie Travis Fraser and Mark Beattie stayed on course in the singles. Fraser halved against Leon Naidoo from KwaZulu-Natal and beat Clinton Scholtz from Ekurhuleni, while Beattie halved both his matches.

Rory Garton, Ryan Dreyer and Craig Kamps also scored double wins in the singles.

Neil Homann and Kevin Sharp added to Central Gauteng’s tally against KwaZulu-Natal. Bossenger gained another point against Ekurhuleni, with Sharp squaring with Rowan du Preez for another half point.

KwaZulu-Natal beat Ekurhuleni 7 – 5 in the last three-way match.

Gauteng North routed Southern Cape 9 – 3, but had to rally hard to edge out Western Province 6.5 – 5.5. The Daisies had a 3 -1 lead heading into the singles and Louis Jonck at number 8 and Gustav Verster at number 7 took their tally to 5 points.

Western Province came back with a strong assault to win 4 matches, but Alex van Heerden beat Elton James 3 & 2 to get Gauteng North their sixth point and Jacques van Tonder halved with Gerlou Roux to guarantee the win.

The host union did get past Southern Cape, beating the Garden Route side 7 – 5 to get their first points on the leaderboard.

Last year’s B-Section winners Free State will make their A-Section debut in round two after a day one bye and face the defending champions and Southern Cape, while KwaZulu-Natal take on Gauteng North. Ekurhuleni and Western Province have a bye.

B-SECTION

Eastern Province edged North West 7 – 5 and defeated Boland 7.5 – 4.5 to surge to the top of the B-Section log. The boys from Nelson Mandela Bay halved the foursomes with North West, but Rhalf Manuel, Hugo Maritz, Dillon Germshuys, Francois van Coppenhagen reeled in 4 points in the singles and Michael Bezuidenhout and Attie Burger halved their matches to seal the win.

Eastern Province dominated Boland in the foursomes and built on a 3 – 1 lead with wins from Manual, Maritz and Germshuys at number 8, 7 and 6 respectively. Van Coppenhagen won 1—up and Attie Burger halved his game against Boland number 1 Cedric Rooi.

Boland and North West squared off in the final match 6-all.

Limpopo beat Northern Cape 7.5 – 4.5, but lost 6.5 – 5.5 to Mpumalanga, who drew 6-all with Northern Cape in the other three-way match.

The log leaders and Mpumalanga will have a second round bye, while North West takes on Limpopo and Border, and Boland play Northern Cape.

A-SECTION RESULTS – ROUND 1

Central Gauteng 9.5 vs KwaZulu Natal 2.5

KwaZulu-Natal 7 vs Ekurhuleni 5

Central Gauteng 8 vs Ekurhuleni 4

Gauteng North 6 – Southern Cape 3

Gauteng North 6.5 vs Western Province 5.5

Western Province 7 vs Southern Cape 5

A-SECTION LOG – ROUND 1

(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)

1 Central Gauteng (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 17.5)

2 Gauteng North (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 15.5)

3 Western Province (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 12.5)

4 KwaZulu-Natal (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 9.5)

5 Ekurhuleni (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 9)

6 Southern Cape (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 8)

B-SECTION RESULTS – ROUND 1

North West 6 vs Boland 6

Eastern Province 7.5 vs Boland 4.5

Eastern Province 7 vs North West 5

Limpopo 7.5 vs Northern Cape 4.5

Northern Cape 6 vs Mpumalanga 6

Mpumalanga 6.5 vs Limpopo 5.5

B-SECTION LOG ROUND 1

(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)

1 Eastern Province (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 14.5)

2 Mpumalanga (2, 1, 1, 0, 3, 12.5)

3 Limpopo (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 13)

4 North West (2, 0, 1, 1, 1, 11)

T5 Northern Cape (2, 0, 1, 1, 1, 10.5)

T5 Boland (2, 0, 1, 1, 1, 10.5)