Boland, Southern Cape have early edge at SA IPT

Boland and Southern Cape emerged as the early pacesetters after the morning foursomes wrapped up in Monday’s first round of the 52nd South African Interprovincial, sponsored by Tempest Car Hire.

The Cape side edged out neighbours Western Province at Port Elizabeth Golf Club and will take a 2½ – 1½ lead into the A-Section singles this afternoon, while the Garden Route squad beat local favourites Eastern Province 4-1 and claimed a 3-1 result against Free State & Northern Cape in the B-Section.

Boland captain Phillip Spies said it was the kind of start the 2008 champions were hoping for.

“The first morning is always tricky,” he said. “It takes everyone a while to get into tournament mode. I’m glad we got a slender edge, but let’s not count our chickens yet; we still have this afternoon’s singles matches left to get through.”

Former SAGDB graduates Cedric Rooi, Mark Mahoney and Jacquin Hess put in winning performances for Boland.

Rooi and Mahoney won 2&1 and Hess combined with Karl Osche for a 4&3 victory over Delin Erasmus and WP skipper, Werner Theart. The Western Province’s only win came from Michael Loppnow and top junior Dylan Raubenheimer, who beat Anton Oosthuizen and Spies 4&3.

But Theart refused to dwell on the status quo.

“What’s done is done. The boys played well, but we are trailing. We’ll have to do better and swing things back in our favour this afternoon.”

Defending champions Central Gauteng and A-Section debutants Limpopo finished in a 2-all draw and the clash between KwaZulu-Natal and last year’s runners-up, Gauteng North, dished up the same result.

Meanwhile the Southern Cape team started as they mean to finish.

“We wanted a strong start to signal our intention to get back to the A-Section and I think we have everyone’s attention after this morning,” said team manager, John Mitchell.

The Southern Cape combination of youth and experience worked well, especially the Shaun Smith / Nicholas Mitchell partnership and between Matthew Sutherland and 14-year-old Jovan Rebula.

Smith and Mitchell beat Free State & Northern Cape 5&4 and Eastern Province 1-up while Sutherland and new cap Rebula dovetailed exceptionally well to hand Eastern Province a 6&5 thrashing and beat Free State 3&2.

“Jovan and Matthew really set the tone for the rest of the team and it will give them a lot of confidence going into this afternoon’s singles,” said Mitchell.

In the other B-Section matches, Mpumalanga leads the North West and Ekurhuleni 2½ – 1½, while North West and Ekurhuleni drew 2-2.

Click on the relevant section to get draws/results and log:
A Section
B Section

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