Men’s Pennants Finals day went ahead on Sunday with 4 of our 5 teams in semi final matches. The stand-out performances came from Championship 1 and Inter Club 3 – both winning their semi-finals in the morning and then the final in the afternoon!

The Championship 1 team were at Titirangi against Windross Farm. Wins to Logan Driver, Karl Jorgensen, James Kim and Roger Hudson meant that Manu Taylor’s half was enough to take us into the Final. We met Whitford Park again in the Final as we played in the same section, and we knew it would be close as those matches were both won by the home team narrowly. Wins again to Logan, James & Karl gave us a great start in the early matches. With Roger and Kahu Tataurangi adding to them, and Andrew Meng’s half we were well & truly over the line.
We had a really great core of players this year who all contributed, led by Manu Taylor – Kahu Tataurangi, James Kim, Andrew Meng and Andrew Hipkiss, Robby Turnbull, Roger Hudson, Jaime Lansi, Logan Driver, Karl Jorgensen, Matt Evans and Brett Geyer.

The Inter Club 3 team was largely a new team – managed (loosely speaking) by Paul Hurtley & Mike Hyams, but captained (properly) by Peter McCormack! They started somewhat shakily back in early February but got stronger & stronger. Their semi-final was against RAGGC at Formosa and the early matches struggled, putting the pressure on the top of the order. In the end good wins to Eamon Wairepo, David Annan & Cameron Pocock, plus Peter McCormack’s 1up win resulted in a 4-4 draw. Eamon was chosen to play in the play-off and he duly delivered a par 4 to win the first hole! Great performance this year from Eamon – new to Inter Club golf and just turned 13!

In the final they played Pukekohe and Mike Hyams got them away to a fast start with a win at No.8. Kailesh Patel turned his match around from 4down to win on the last hole, and Cameron Pocock backed his morning win with another one in the afternoon. David Annan’s fighting half meant the team only needed 1 more win to take the trophy. Peter McCormack secured this with a 3/2 win and Eamon birdied 15 & 16, and his par on 18 gave him another half. Overall a 5-3 win – a great effort from a team with great spirit and support for each other! Well done, guys.

The Bissett Shield team lost 2-6 to a very strong Titirangi at Maungakiekie in the semi-final, with the only wins coming from Nathan Smith & Robby Turnbull. Titirangi went on to beat Akarana in the Final to make it back-to-back wins for them.

Our Inter Club 2 team, led by Igor Ivanov, just missed out – losing 2.5/5.5 to Pakuranga at Akarana. Grant Harford & Alex Ivanov won their matches, and Darren Soo got the half. Narrow losses to John Etzine & Igor Ivanov were the difference between winning & losing. Good season though guys!

The Championship 2 team also lost their play off match at Howick, going down 3.5/4.5 to Pakuranga. Good wins to Finlay McKechnie, Ian Braddock & Daniel Mar plus Brett Geyer’s half was all they could post to finish 6th.

An excellent season from all the teams – making semi-finals or just missing out. In contention throughout the round-robin and great to see some new players stepping up to Inter Club golf. So promising to see many of young players proving themselves at this level too – Nathan Smith, Robby Turnbull, Daniel Freeman, Finlay McKechnie, Eamon Wairepo, and William Kelly. The first 3 all played Bissett Shield and Finlay & Eamon can’t be far off in coming years too!