Fourball battles fought

The weather over the weekend kept the numbers playing down, but it did not stop the men from finding the semifinalists in both the Walker Fourball and Roy Morris Trophies.
The Walker Fourball matches on Saturday were all quite close battles. The top seeds for the event in Kurt and Justin Karaitiana were up against the pairing of Nikayia Graham and Maurice O'Reilly, and it was the latter pairing who took the match out on the last hole to continue the demise of top seeds in this event. There have only been two occasions in the last 20 years where the top seeds have won the trophy. Their opponents in the semifinal will be Laurence Butler and Paul Haxton, who ousted fourth seeds Ray Cocks and Harley Biel.
In the bottom half of the draw, the 10th seeds in Damian Carroll and Neville Biel headed off Ivan Karaitiana and Haira Paku with a couple of holes to play. The other match was a battle, with three-time winners Brian Chappell and Bill Ousey again going to extra holes, but this time is was the pairing of Anton Coltham and Kevin May who took out the match on the 19th hole.
The Roy Morris Trophy results saw top seeds Kevin Gibbs and Ken Downing beat Daniel Towgood and Chris Paine on the 18th hole. The semifinal opponents will be Ian Grant and Kevin Hunter after they beat Graham Duckett and Shane Stewart.
In the bottom half of the draw, second seeds Byron Karaitiana and Allan Biel exited at the hands of seventh seeds Frank Martin and Mark Logan. The other match saw Rob McKelvey and Graeme Dick advance over Darryl Coley and David O'Reilly on the 18th.
Saturday's club competition was a par round. In the first group, Harley Biel and Neville Biel tied for top billing with a score of square, with Robert Tiapue taking third place on 2 down, while Damian Carroll and Darryl Coley finished on 3 down.
The second group saw Laurence Butler have the day's best score of 3 up, with Layton Kawana the runner-up on 2 up, with Maurice O'Reilly on square and Chris Paine on 3 down rounding out the prizes.
The Makes Cents nearest to the pin on the first hole went to Daniel Towgood, The Mitre 10 on the third hole went to Graham Duckett, the McAuley's transport on the sixth hole was taken out by Ian Grant, the Pak'N Save Masterton on the eighth hole went to Ivan Karaitiana, while the Alister Bruce Affordable Sheds on the 10th went to Phillip Granich, and the Dinah and Deb Keats Professionals Real Estate on the 17th went to Ken Downing. Holes in two were scored by Ian Grant and Kurt Karaitiana.
Sunday saw only two group out on the course, with the result that there was no club competition for the day.
Tuesday saw the veterans group take to the course for a stableford round. The best of the women was Janet Campbell with 35 points in the first group. Maria Lauvi was the runner-up in the group with 29, with Yvonne Allsworth filling third place. In the second group, Jocelyn Parker led the way with 34 points, which was one ahead of Irene Phelps, with a gap back to Janet Shaw and Judith O'Connor.
Blair Harvey topped the men's scoring with 36 points in the first group. Bevan Hefferen and Ian Race shared the runners-up spot on 35. In the second group, Ross Ireland also returned 35 to easily head off Roger Stenton on 30 and Ray Stringfellow on 29.
The women's nearest to the pins went to Irene Phelps on the third hole and Maria Lauvi on the sixth hole, while the men's went to Bevan Hefferen on the sixth hole and Meki Lauvi on the seventh. Holes in two were scored by Blair Harvey, Bevan Hefferen and Meki Lauvi.
This coming weekend has the men playing the semifinals of the Walker Fourball and Roy Morris Trophies on Saturday. The starting times for these matches follows at the end of the report. The women will be playing the second round of their Ross Burling Trophy on Saturday, while the club competition will be a stableford round. Sunday sees the men playing the first round of the Brockett and Captains Trophies, while the women will be playing in a LGYU round. The club competition will be a medal round.
Draw for Walker Fourball and Roy Morris Trophy Semifinals - Saturday

11.30am: M. O'Reilly & N. Graham v L. Butler & P. Haxton.
11.37am: D. Carroll & N. Biel v A. Coltham & K. May.
11.44am: M. Logan & F. Martin v R. McKelvey & G. Dick.
11.51am: K. Downing & K. Gibbs v K. Hunter & I. Grant.