Gauteng continued their relentless march in the 56th South African Women’s Inter-Provincial and Ekurhuleni crushed Gauteng North’s title hopes and Southern Cape strengthened their promotion bid at Umhlali Country Club on Thursday.
Gauteng virtually ensured a successful title defence when they mowed down Border 8 – 1.
The defending champions enjoyed a clean sweep in the foursomes and won all but one of the singles, with Siviwe Duma securing a lone point for Border when she won the 17th and 18th holes to edge out Symone Henriques 1-up.
After an 8 – 1 result against Ekurhuleni on day one, Eleonora Galletti, Chiara Contomathios, Woo-Ju Son, Ivanna Samu and Kajal Mistry pushed Gauteng into an almost unassailable lead with four points and 16 games points, but manager Sheryl Matthews says the team is far from finished.
‘We play Gauteng North in the final round and Ekurhuleni face Border,’ Matthews said. ‘We have a lot of games points in hand that it might seem highly improbably that we could lose, but anything is possible in match play and we won’t take anything for granted.
‘We are definitely not going to relax our resolve in the final round. These girls play for pride, for their union and for each other and they will fight for every hole and every point until the final putt drops.’
In the second top order match, Ekurhuleni railroaded Gauteng North 5 – 4 to give themselves an outside shot at victory, or at the very least, second place in this year’s championship.
Caitlyn Macnab and Jenefer Haw won the opening game in the foursomes 5 & 4, Casandra Hall and Sarah Bouch boosted their tally with a 4 & 2 result and Carmen Taljaard and Teagan Lubbe halved the final game to give Ekurhuleni a two point advantage heading into the singles.
Larissa du Preez whipped Haw 6 & 4 and Eugenie Clack downed Carmen Taljaard 2 & 1 to level the score, but Hall put Ekurhuleni back on attack with a 3 & 1 result. MacNab downed Marne Clack 2 & 1 and Bouch sealed their first victory when she halved against Danielle du Toit.
The bottom draw is heading into an epic battle after Gauteng B and Western Province A finished in a dead tie with four points and 11.5 games points at the top of the log.
Gauteng B pummelled Boland 6.5 – 2.5, while Western Province rode a two point lead in the foursomes to a 5.5 – 3.5 victory against Boland.
B-SECTION
Southern Cape, like Gauteng A, has been in blistering form and scored another commanding victory in their top order clash against KwaZulu-Natal on day two.
After taking both foursomes games, Ethel Ruthenberg, Sandra Winter and Azelia Meichtry piled on the points to secure a 5 – 1 result for the Garden Route side for a second successive day.
The victory moved Southern Cape to four points, two clear of Free State, Western Province B and KwaZulu-Natal. Free State defeated Western Province B 4 – 2, but they have to pull out all the stops in their final tussle against Southern Cape on Friday as they lag more than five games points behind the log leaders.
Eastern Province moved to the top of log in the bottom order, but Mpumalanga finished a close second. Eastern Province scored a clean sweep against Limpopo and Mpumalanga defeated North West 4.5 – 1.5, so both teams have four points in hand ahead of their final round clash. However, Eastern Province’s 6 – 0 victory handed the side a 2.5 games points advantage that could prove vital at the business end of the championship.
By Lali Stander
RESULTS:
A-SECTION – Division 1
Gauteng A 8 vs Border 1
Gauteng North A 4 vs Ekurhuleni 5
A-SECTION LOG – Division 1
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Gauteng A (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 16)
2 Gauteng North A (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 9)
3 Ekurhuleni (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 6)
4 Border (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 5)
A-SECTION – Division 2
Western Province A 5.5 vs Boland 3.5
Gauteng B 6.5 vs Gauteng North B 2.5
A-SECTION LOG – Division 2
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
T1 Gauteng B (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 11.5)
T1 Western Province A (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 11.5)
3 Boland (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 7.5)
4 Gauteng North B (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 5.5)
B-SECTION – Division 1
Southern Cape 5 vs KwaZulu-Natal 1
Free State 4 vs Western Province B 2
B-SECTION LOG – Division 1
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Southern Cape (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 10)
2 Free State (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 6.5)
3 Kwazulu Natal (2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 4.5)
4 Western Province B (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 3)
B-SECTION – Division 2
Eastern Province 6 vs Limpopo 0
Mpumalanga 4.5 vs North West 1.5
B-SECTION LOG – Division 2
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Eastern Province (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 11)
2 Mpumalanga (2, 2, 0, 0, 4, 8.5)
3 North West (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2.5)
4 Limpopo (2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2)
