Round one of the Simpson Cup (Men's A Grade Pennant) was played in pleasant conditions on Sunday 20 May at a revamped Thaxted Golf Club.
The home side kicked off its season in fine style, with a 4-3 win over The Vines of Reynella. Thaxted Park bottom four of Jamie Trezise 4&2, Robert Liddell 4&3, James Coulsen 4&3 and Jarrad Roxby 6&5 all had impressive wins, to lock away the match early on Sunday.
Glenelg started its season strongly, winning 6-1 against a new-look Tea Tree Gully. Glenelg’s bottom five players all secured wins, with Ben Layton’s 3&2 victory over youngster Jimmy Luo, the closest of those matches. Matthew McMahon claimed TTG’s sole point over Josh Hayes 1up, while at number one for Glenelg, Jackson Kalz defeated the ever-reliable Sudeera Botejue 2up, to close out the contest.
In the match of the round, after a tight early tussle, The Grange defeated last year’s finalists Kooyonga 5-2.
Mark Demasi hit the scoreboard first for Grange winning 7&6 over Geordie Golding and then both Brad Stenner and Nick Thompson won 1up, after being pushed all the way by Kooyonga’s James Percey and Darcy Salamon respectively.
Jordan Bishop 2&1 over Riley Marshall and Kyle Hayter 4&3 over Colin Coleman claimed Kooyonga’s two matches, but following on from their impressive interstate series form, both Liam Georgiadis 2&1 and Jack Thompson 6&4 had top order wins to secure the contest for Team Grange.
Elevated team Royal Adelaide A2 winners from last season, played out a halved contest with Southern District 3.5-3.5.
Matt Lawson won first up for Royal Adelaide 5&3, but Southern then claimed three wins, courtesy of Andy Fiebig 4&3, Steven Williams 2&1 and Chris Burns 3&2. Match four between Brad Altmann and Alex Pacifico went the distance, resulting in the only halved match of the day and with that, Southern moved to 3.5 matches with two still on course.
Royal’s top two players produced the goods though, firstly Patric Kroschel defeated Dylan Roser 2&1 and then State Captain Billy Cawthorne, proved too strong for Simon Connelly by the same margin.
Next week’s round two matches are being held at Royal Adelaide. The match of the round will be between the home side and Tea Tree Gully, with an early season victory important for both teams.The undefeated Glenelg and Thaxted Park, clash, with the winner moving into a strong position on the ladder, while Kooyonga will be looking to bounce back against Southern. To close out round two, The Grange will start favourite against The Vines.
For all results and draws > click here for the Pennant Competition main page.
For a PDF version of Simpson Cup Results > click here
Round 2 (27th May) at Royal Adelaide
1st Tee 11.15 am Royal Adelaide v Tea Tree Gully
10th Tee 11.15 am Glenelg v Thaxted Park
1st Tee 12.10 pm Kooyonga v Southern
10th Tee 12.10 pm The Vines v The Grange