The Bissett Shield and Presidents played at home in the morning.  The Bissett defeated The Grange 5-3 with really good wins to Connor Barker, Andrew Meng, Bradley Heaven and Thai Leng.  Rakesh Patel was all square on the final hole and his second into the 18th set up a long eagle put which he holed to complete the 5-3 win.  Great to see Brad Heaven back at the club and playing Pennants again after a break of nearly 20 years!  They finished comfortably 3rd behind Titirangi & Royal Auckland and will play Royal Auckland on Sunday at Pukekohe for a place in the final.  A very solid season with 4 wins and 3 draws - the only unbeaten team.  Titirangi (winners) had 2 losses, while Royal Auckland (2nd) had 1 loss.  Our match against Royal Auckland was drawn 4-4 at The Grange.

 

The Presidents team lost 1.5-6.5 to Windross Farm.  The team has struggled this year with player unavailability and the needs of the Bissett team inevitably taking precedence.  We have used the chance to give some of our juniors a chance to step up and it is great to see Robby Turnbull, Josh Brazendale, and Jaime Lansi  prove they will be top players in the years to come.  We finished on 21pts - 2pts behind Clarks Beach at the bottom of the table, however with the joining of Royal Auckland and The Grange there is a chance that there will be no relegation this year.

 

The Vice Captains team had a bye in their final round and had to watch nervously to see if Whitford Park could overtake them for a semi-final place.  At the end of the day Wattle Downs secured direct passage to the final (33pts), Titirangi on 28.5pts finished 2nd and Whitford's 4.5-3.5 win over Titirangi was just 0.5pt short of also making the semi-final.  Remuera will now play Titirangi at Pakuranga on Sunday to secure a final match against Wattle Downs.

 

Our Inter Club Division 3 team was out at Waiuku needing a big win to make the semi-finals.  They did the first part beating Wattle Downs 6.5-1.5.  This result left them tied with Windross Farm on 31pts, only 0.5pt behind The Grange who were 2nd.  As the round robin match with Windross Farm was a 4-4 draw, this meant a sudden death play-off at Waiuku.  Dave Spangenberg was our chosen player and on the day it took 7 holes to resolve with Dave losing out.  It looked like disappointment for the team, until Windross Farm informed Auckland Golf on Monday morning that their player had declared an incorrect handicap (16, should have been 15).  This meant that Dave actually won the play-off on the first hole!  It is reported that Dave has been fined for over-dramatizing the sudden death play-off.  Great to see the spirit of Pennant golf at Windross Farm - when they realised the error they contacted AGI and conceded the match - thanks, Windross.

 

Finally the Inter Club Division 2 team played at Remuera on Sunday afternoon and it became clear as the afternoon wore on that these matches were not going to get finished before sunset.  With many of the matches in good position and some already won, it was disappointing to have the round abandoned - they will be doing it all again on Sunday morning at Remuera - good luck, guys.