Canterbury Golf Team Expected To Do Well

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28268, 4 May 1957, Page 5

Canterbury Golf Team Expected To Do Well

/"CANTERBURY may be expected this year to improve on its moderate record in the Freybery Rose Bowl inter-provincial golf tournament, which begins at Gisborne on Thursday. Canterbury has a strong and experienced team, but the players will have to be at their best from the first morning, for Canterbury’s three earliest matches will probably be. their hardest. They are against Waikato, Manawatu-Wanganui, and Wellington.

Last year, Canterbury finished fourth equal with Auckland, and it was the highest place the province had held since it was narrowly beaten for first place by Wellington in the first contest in 1951. The 1956 record of four wins was the best Canterbury had done in the six years.

There can be no argument v about Charles's right to occupy 1 the leading position imthe Canter- c bury team. In that place even a s player of his capabilities has a s difficult task: Charles will prob- a ably begin the tournament by meeting D. L. Woon, who, if not | always as brilliant as he used to ] be, remains one of the country’s ’ most proficient and spectacular j players. The Canterbury captain, C. W. j Caldwell, at number two, has a | good Freyberg Rose Bowl record ] —first for Hawke’s Bay, then for j Canterbury in the last two years. Last year, he won three and j halved one of his six matches. I When number one for Hawke’s j Bay Caldwell beat some of the | best in the country with his relaxed and stylish gol*, and there | will not be many better seconds i in the tournament. Best Player Canterbury’s best player at the j ’ast two tournaments has un- ■: doubtedly been R. E. Clements, a ; strong player for the third posi- j tion. In both the 1955 and 1956 tournaments, Clements won. five I of his six games. A player of his erratic genius can hardly be ’’elied upon to reproduce quite ( such success, but he should again j do well. Fourth player for Canterbury | is K. D. Foxton, who will be playing in his second tournament, i Last year, he’ won four games, a < notable beginning. He is a good < match player, who should also ; hold his own. The most experienced tournament player in the team is M. W. Stanley, who has not before been as low as fifth in the team. Stanley has played in all the tournaments except the first, and he has a very fine record in them. Of a possible 30 points, he has scored 20 for Canterbury, an excellent effort when it is remembered that most of his games were played against players in top places. His : greatest success was in 1954, when i he won five games. | Newcomer J. G. Scott, playing his first i tournament, will be sixth for I Canterbury. He lacks experience | and he is not a consistent player, - but he is one of undoubted talent. The tournament should help bring his game on considerably. If the selection of the Canterbury team was not difficult, the order of playing must have pre--1 sented its problems. If the Woodward Cup matches are taken as a basis, there is an extraordinary . evenness about the claims of the players, except for those of Stan- • ley, whose inter-club record is clearly the best. In the four seasons from 1952 i to 1956 inclusive, Stanley won 16 , and halved two of the 20 Wood-

ward Cup matches he played. This remarkable record of 85 per cent, success leaves the others some distance behind. On the same percentage basis, the figures are: Foxton 69, Scott 67. Clements

66, and Caldwell 65, Caldwell having played only 13 matches in that period. Charles has just begun playing in the cup games. Canterbury might not win the tournament at Gisborne, but it should come close to it, and do something to challenge the North Island’s golfing supremacy.