Pressure mounts at SA Junior IPT
It’s do or die time at Bellville Golf Club for defending champions Gauteng North and 2011 winners Western Province after Central Gauteng took control of the A-Division on Thursday, while the promotion battle at this year’s South African Junior Inter-Provincial is down to the final match between Southern Cape and North West.
The host union took a 3 – 1 lead into the singles, but Karabo Mokoena, Dylan Naidoo, Rupert Kaminsky, Dean Martin, David Meyers and Darin de Smidt claimed six games to give Central a 7 – 5 victory against Province and vault the team to the top of the log.
Meanwhile the foursomes between Gauteng North and Eastern Province ended in a draw, but Juan Pierre Coopier, Albert Venter, Keegan de Lange and Rosswell Sinclair reeled in four singles, while halves from Adriel Poonan and Stefan Wears-Taylor secured a 7 – 5 victory for the defending champions.
Northerns and Province are tied at six all, but the Cape side has the benefit of a five and a half games point difference and this slight advantage could prove crucial on Friday.
As always at this time in the championship, permutations and speculation rule the day.
If Gauteng North downs Central in the final round and Province beats Ekurhuleni, game points could make all the difference.
However, the highly motivated Central Gauteng squad is sitting pretty on seven points and bound to bring everything to the final battle while Ekurhuleni, inspired by a comprehensive 7.5 – 4.5 victory over Limpopo on day four, will throw everything at Province on the final day.
In the B-Section, KwaZulu-Natal hardly enjoyed a 24-hour stay at the top before the side was summarily relegated to third on the log by Southern Cape and North West, who went to battle and emerged with eight points each.
North West missed a huge opportunity to pull ahead of the pack when they drew 6-all with Border, but the Garden Route side enjoyed an 8 – 4 victory over Free State & Northern Cape and whipped Boland 8.5 – 3.5 to vault to the top of the standings. In the final match on the day, Boland defeated Free State & Northern Cape 8 – 4 to move to fourth on the log.
Southern Cape will also take a slight advantage into the final round with a 3.5 lead in game points over North West, but the battle for promotion will definitely go down the wire when these two feisty teams go head-to-head on Friday.
Of course, should Southern Cape and North West end up tied, KwaZulu-Natal could be the proverbial third dog that runs away with the bone.
The coastal side have seven points in hand and, if they can get past Mpumalanga, the boys in black could earn their promotion in splendid fashion.
A-DIVISION: DAY FOUR RESULTS
Gauteng North Golf Union 7.0 vs Eastern Province Golf Union 5.0
Ekurhuleni Golf Union 7.5 vs Limpopo Golf Union 4.5
Central Gauteng Golf Union 7.0 vs Western Province Golf Union 5.0
A-DIVISION LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Central Gauteng Golf Union (4, 3, 1, 0, 7, 31.0)
2 Western Province Golf Union (4, 3, 0, 1, 6, 30.5)
3 Gauteng North Golf Union (4, 3, 0, 1, 6, 26.0)
4 Ekurhuleni Golf Union (4, 2, 1, 1, 5, 25.0)
5 Eastern Province Golf Union (4, 0, 0, 4, 0, 18.5)
6 Limpopo Golf Union (4, 0, 0, 4, 0, 13.0)
B-DIVISION: DAY FOUR RESULTS
Boland Golf Union 3.5 vs Southern Cape Golf Union 8.5
Southern Cape Golf Union 8.0 vs Free State & Northern Cape 4.0
Boland Golf Union 8.0 vs Free State & Northern Cape 4.0
North West Golf Union 6.0 vs Border Golf Union 6.0
B-DIVISION LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Southern Cape Golf Union (5, 4, 0, 1, 8, 39.5)
2 North West Golf Union (5, 3, 2, 0, 8, 36.0)
3 KwaZulu Natal Golf Union (5, 3, 1, 1, 7, 35.0)
4 Boland Golf Union (5, 3, 0, 2, 6, 33.0)
5 Border Golf Union (5, 2, 1, 2, 5, 29.0)
6 Free State & Northern Cape (6, 1, 0, 5, 2, 25.5)
7 Mpumalanga Golf Union (5, 0, 0, 5, 0, 18.0)