The Bissett Shield team had a desperately disappointing morning at Akarana on Sunday against Howick, losing 1.5 - 6.5.
Rob Briscoe's weekend had started badly with a bike crash on the Coromandel resulting in a broken wrist & arm and on Sunday morning the team stumbled badly. Team and results were:
Eugene Smith secured a half after being 3 up with 3 to play. James Eng, lost 2 and 1 to a reserve as his scheduled opponent had to pull out after an injury the day before.
Ciaran Molloy in his debut match, lost 1 down after being 2 up with 5 to play. Scott Robertson lost 2 and 1 despite being up most of his match and then bogeyed the last 2 holes.
· Mathew Weir lost 2/1, and Brent Fabish on his old home course lost 1 down after going 4 up with 5 to play and lost all 5 holes.
· Thai Leng produced the only win of the day - 3 and 2, and James Ashwin may have suffered from debut match nerves losing 5 and 4, after being +12 over the first nine holes. Yesterday in this report the score of +12 on the first nine holes was incorrectly attributed to James Eng - it was in fact James Ashwin. My sincere apologies to James Eng and my deepest sympathies to James Ashwin. (John Sims)
"Nothing more needs to be said. I am proud to lead this team but they clearly understand that yesterday they did not perform to my expectations. We are now in 6th place and need to pull up our socks for the remaining matches." (Rob Briscoe).
Other results:
Royal Auckland 7 Pukekohe 1
Titirangi 4.5 Maungakiekie 3.5
Akarana 5 Manukau 3
Points:
Royal Auckland 20
Akarana 18.5
Titirangi 16.5
Maungakiekie 16
Manukau 15
REMUERA 14.5
Howick 14
Pukekohe 13.5
The team has a week off this weekend to lick their wounds and re-focus. The next round is at Pukekohe and a better performance is critical:
Remuera vs Akarana
Royal Auckland vs Howick
Titirangi vs Pukekohe
Manukau vs Maungakiekie.