BENONI, 14 April 2015 – Western Province won both their opening matches on Tuesday, but Central Gauteng raked in the games points to lead the defending champions in the A-Section on day one of the 27th INDWE SA Senior Amateur Inter-Provincial in Benoni.
Central Gauteng scored a comprehensive 8 – 4 victory over Southern Cape at Ebotse Links Golf Club and collected 8.5 points in their match against Ekurhuleni to top the standings with four points and 16.5 game points.
Province matched their four points with a 7.5 – 4.5 victory over Gauteng North, but the narrow 6.5 – 5.5 result against North West dropped the side to second on 14 games points.
Meanwhile Gauteng North rallied to beat North West 6.5 – 5.5 to move to third with two points and 11 games points. The Daisies are one games point clear of KwaZulu-Natal, who whipped Mpumalanga 10 – 2 in their opening gambit.
Phillip Grant, Alex Pillay, Grant Lister-James, Brian Dougherty, Lynton Beckett, Kevin Curren and Morgan Phillips piled on the points for KZN in the Singles after the team won three of their Foursomes matches in the morning.
Host union Ekurhuleni will be smarting after the loss to neighbours Central Gauteng, but the eight-man side managed to salvage their opening round with a 6-all draw against Southern Cape. The local heroes are sixth and lag one games point behind the Garden Route team, who edged into fifth with 10 games points.
Western Province’s Super Seniors racked up four points against Boland to get their hunt for a fifth successive title off to a solid start.
Ivan Palframan and Tim Hewan combined to claim their Foursomes match and Mark Hair partnered Herman September to victory to take a 2 – 0 lead into the Singles.
Palframan lost 5 & 4 to Francois Bruwer, but Hewan, Hair and September added three points to push Province in pole position.
Central Gauteng beat Ekurhuleni 4 – 2, while the battle between Gauteng North and KwaZulu-Natal ended in a 3-all draw.
B-SECTION
Over at Benoni Country Club, Eastern Province handed Border a 10 – 2 drubbing to get their B-Section promotion battle off to a roaring start.
Kevin Weyer beat George Koen 4 & 3 and Tebello Simon defeated Willie Prins 2-up to avoid a clean sweep for Border.
Northern Cape, making their debut in the country’s biggest senior team event, halved with Free State, while the match between Boland and Limpopo also ended in a 6-all draw.
The Southern Cape Super Seniors triumphed in both their matches to top the log with four points and 11.5 game points. Southern Cape scored a clean sweep against Free State and took Northern Cape 5.5 – 0.5.
Mpumalanga also beat Border 4 – 2 for two points and moved to second in the standings, one point ahead of Northern Cape.
PHOTO – Williams Skinner won both his Singles to help Gauteng North to third in the Senior A-Division log in the first round of the 27th INDWE SA Senior Amateur Inter-Provincial; credit Catherine Kotze / SASPA