JOHANNESBURG, 16 April 2014 – Ekurhuleni and Central Gauteng will take centre stage in today’s final round as the two teams pursue glory in the South African U-23 Inter-Provincial at Country Club Johannesburg.

Central Gauteng beat Western Province 7 – 5 to protect their lead in the standings, but the side came under huge pressure from Ekurhuleni, who beat Gauteng North 6.5 – 5.5 to match their score.

Both teams head into their final matches with seven points, with Central Gauteng marginally ahead with 32 games points against Ekurhuleni’s 31.

Central Gauteng will aim for a solid result in the final showdown against Gauteng North, while Ekurhuleni will be pushing for a win and games points in their last hoorah against KwaZulu-Natal.

Gauteng North, with five points and 28.5 games points in hand, are not completely out of the running, either, and victory against Central Gauteng could still see the Daisies pull off a successful title defence in the final edition of the national under-23 team championship.

Ekurhuleni has performed admirably without South Africa’s number one ranked Tristen Strydom, who is competing in the Africa Zone VI Golf Championship, injured Paul Boshoff and top ranked Kyle McClatchie and Jason Froneman.

But the eight-man side will have to pull out all the stops to fend off KwaZulu-Natal.

The coastal side will be targeting back-to-back success after handing a North West a 9.5 – 2.5 drubbing to score their first victory in the championship on Thursday.

Two crucial points for the victory lifted KwaZulu-Natal from the last place in the log and the men in black will be gunning for glory against Ekurhuleni to avoid the wooden spoon.

B-SECTION
Southern Cape kept their promotion battle on track with a 7.5 – 4.5 victory against Limpopo.

The Garden Route side lead the log with seven points and will carry a two point lead over Free State into their final round match against Mpumalanga.

Free State defeated Boland 6.5 – 5.5 in round four to overhaul their opponents for second place in the standings, while Eastern Province beat Mpumalanga by the same margin.

A-SECTION LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Central Gauteng (4, 3, 1, 0, 7, 32.0)
2 Ekurhuleni (4, 3, 1, 0, 7, 31.0)
3 Gauteng North (4, 2, 1, 1, 5, 28.5)
4 Western Province (4, 1, 1, 2, 3, 21.0)
5 KwaZulu-Natal (4, 1, 0, 3, 2, 23.5)
6 North West (4, 0, 0, 4, 0, 8.0)

B-SECTION LOG
(Pos-Union-Played-Won-Drawn-Lost-Points-Matches won)
1 Southern Cape (4, 3, 1, 0, 7, 30.5)
2 Free State (4, 1, 3, 0, 5, 24.5)
3 Boland (4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 24.5)
4 Eastern Province (4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 23.5)
5 Mpumalanga (4, 1, 1, 2, 3, 23.0)
6 Limpopo (4, 0, 1, 3, 1, 18.0)

PHOTO – JP Cooper from Gauteng North; credit Catherine Kotze / SASPA
To view live scoring from the South African U-23 Inter-Provincial, visit www.saga.co.za and look for the link down the right of the home page.