Anthony Murdaca from The Grange Metropolitan Pennant Round 2 summary Tea Tree Gully remains top of the Simpson Cup ladder after a close 4-3 victory over Royal Adelaide in round two of Men’stop grade Pennant. In other matches at Flagstaff Hill GC, Kooyonga accounted for Blackwood 4.5-2.5 to remain the only other side with two outright wins. Flagstaff Hill moved into third position with a 5-2 victory over Highercombe and The Grange atoned for last week taking care of Glenelg 5.5-1.5. The Gullies were staring down the barrel of defeat after Royal Adelaide s Nathan Baulderstone and Matt Butler overcame Zak Fuller and Rudi Du Plooy 2&1 and 5&4 respectively giving Royal Adelaide the slight advantage. Ryan White pegged back a point for TTG closing out Louis Fuller 4&3 but with the Brett Crosby v Alex Curtin and Paul Wyllie v Matt Overall matches squaring, Tea Tree Gully needed games one and two to win outright. With the return of Chris Austin at number one Greg Blewett was far too strong for Tom Cooper 4&3 to continue his reign of good form. Austin then squared up against Brad Moules and repeated last year s round 7 result claiming victory again over Moules 2&1 to put TTG well on track for a finals berth. Kooyonga continued its strong early season form with a 4.5-2.5 win over Blackwood. Jordan Bishop at number 7 notched up another win defeating Daniel Wake 4&3, as did Geoff Brennan at number 5, 1up over Ben Leske. At number 6 Blackwood s Stephen Locke was victorious against John Hayes 3&2 and Michael Munn for the second week claimed half a game in his squared match against former Junior Masters Champion Will Somerfield. In for their first game, Kooyonga pair Daniel Speirs and Tim Baker were both too strong for Dylan Thomas and Nick Wake, with Speirs winning 2&1 and Baker 4&2 respectively. At number 1, Kooyonga s Charles Shaw found it too difficult to step up in place of Heath Riches and Stephen Speirs losing to Andy Humphries 6&4. On its home track, an unchanged Flagstaff Hill accounted for Highercombe 5-2. With early wins to Brad Stenner, James Coulson, David Hiern and Shane Cotton, Flagstaff Hill took a commanding lead, before Highercombe s Nick May won his number 3 match with Scott Ready 2up. Jarrad Roxby however, stamped his authority on his contest with recruit Mikhail Radibratovic 4&2 to give Flaggies 5 games. Mark Deacon managed to secure a second game for Highercombe defeating Jacob Sewell 2up, with Deacon now winning 6 from his past 7 matches. The Grange has moved to fourth with a customary performance against Glenelg. Former Victorian resident, Jake Laubsch promoted from Bonnar Cup defeated Campbell McLuckie 3&1 before Glenelg s Ben Magi squared the ledger to overcome State Junior Captain Matthew Lisk 3&1. From their though, Grange s middle order powered through its matches with Justin Crowder 6&5 over Lachlan Booth, Jack Williams 5&4 against Anthony Olsen and Anthony Murdaca 1up v Matt McGowan. Andrew Grzybowski squared his match for a second week in a row against State Captain Tom Bond, however 1 games was all Glenelg could muster with Chris Brown coming in for his first game and defeating Campbell Rawson 6&5. Next week s round two matches are held at Royal Adelaide with the host side strong favorites to claim their first win for the season, when they front Blackwood. The match of the round is split between the Kooyonga v Tea Tree Gully and The Grange v Flagstaff Hill contests. Both matches could be decided by who can handle the likely cool and wet conditions. The final match of the round sees Highercombe play Glenelg with Glenelg looking for its first full points of the season. For all results and draws, click here for the Pennant events page. Pennant Event Page Round 3 (27th May at Royal Adelaide GC) 1st Tee 9.30 am Royal Adelaide v Blackwood 1st Tee 10.25 am Kooyonga v Tea Tree Gully 1st Tee 11.20 am Grange v Flagstaff Hill 1st Tee 12.15 pm Highercombe v Glenelg
Author: