Wellington vs Auckland

The Wellington team to play Auckland at the Taupo Golf Club on August 23rd is as follows:

Match Report

The weekend of 23rd and 24th August saw the annual Wellington vs Auckland fixture hosted by the Taupo Golf Club, and played on their Centennial course.

A frosty start to Saturday turned in to a clear cool day, with a little breeze from the south reminding all that winter was still with us.

With the Senior Men’s and Women’s teams having beaten Auckland in this fixture last year, expectations were high for a repeat performance despite a few new faces in the squads.

The teams consisted of 8 Senior Men, 4 Women and 6 Junior Boys, playing foursomes Saturday morning, reverse singles in the afternoon, and singles on Sunday morning in match play format.

Each division was playing for their own trophy, with history showing that Auckland were ahead by 25 wins to 17 with 3 draws over the 45 years that records are available for the Men’s trophy.

Saturday morning didn’t follow the script, as the foursomes combinations struggled against a strong Auckland team, to leave us trailing by 7 matches to 2 overall going in to the reverse singles. Although the Men managed to be level after the morning matches with 2 each, a clean sweep of the Women and Junior Boys got Auckland off to a flying start in the event.

The afternoon matches were also tough for the Wellington squads, with Auckland again showing good depth to win 12.5 of the 18 points on offer.

Good wins to Brady Bernard in the Junior Boys, Te Rongopai Clay in the Women’s, Adam Church, Hayden Ring and Thomas Spearman-Burn in the Men’s, and a half to David van Drimmelen were the only good news for Wellington in the afternoon outings.

It was hoped that a good All Black victory over the Aussies on Saturday night may provide the inspiration for better results in the Sunday singles, with the Women and Junior Boys needing to win all of their matches to tie the fixtures against their Auckland counterparts.

Another frosty morning which saw a delayed start on Sunday did not help the cause, and the Auckland team kept their foot down to clean up the titles in all divisions and comfortably win the fixture 34-11 overall.

Another clean sweep of the Women and Junior Boys was softened by wins from Brad Rowland, Johnathan Cane and Thomas Spearman-Burn, and a half point by Brayden Mazey in the Men’s matches.

The final scoreboard was 8.5-11.5 for the Men, 1-9 for the Women, and 1.5-13.5 for the Junior Boys.

Wellington’s next outing is the traditional Shand Cup, Shand Salver and Sybil Green fixtures vs Hawkes Bay, Manawatu/Wanganui and Taranaki in the Hawkes Bay on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th October, when 10 Senior Men, 4 Junior Boys and 6 Women attempt to emulate their successful result from last year once again.