Australia Favoured In Tasman Cup Match

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29336, 15 October 1960, Page 5

Australia Favoured In Tasman Cup Match

VVHEN the Australian and New Zealand women’s golf teams meet in the biennial Tasman Cup match at Shirley today Australia must be favoured because of the better performance of its team as a whole in the match play at the national championships at Parapara umu this week. But match play in golf is so uncertain that it would be foolhardy to make any firm prediction on this. Tied Twice Today’s--contest will have two foursomes in the morning and five singles in the afternoon. Played for since 1933, the Tasman Cup has been won seven times by Australia, three times by New Zealand and it has been tied twice. At the last meeting in 1958 at the Royal Melbourne course, Australia won without the loss of a match, buit in 1956 at New Plymouth one of the ties was registered. .The Australian team is an experienced one. Perhaps the best known to New Zealanders is Miss M." Masters (Woodlands Club, Melbourne), who at the age of 22 was a member of the Australian team in New Zealand, and won six major trophies including the championship at the na-

tional meeting—a feat " without precedent in New Zealand women’s golf. Miss Masters won the South African title in 1957 and the Australian title in 1958 when she beat Miss Nicki Campbell, of New Zealand, in the final. She won the stroke championship at Paraparaumu last Saturday. Miss P. Borthwick (Australian Club, Sydney) has been Australian champion four times. New South Wales champion five times and has appeared in international teams five times.

Miss B. Cheney (Huntingdale Club, Melbourne), runner-up in the New Zealand championship on Wednesday, is in New Zealand for the third time as a member of a Tasman Cup team. She was Australian champion in 1957 and Victorian champion in 1949 and 1956, and has a distinguished record in international golf. Mrs J. Fisher (Metropolitan Club, Melbourne) is on her first visit to New Zealand, but 21 years ago she was chosen as captain of a Tasman Cup team

which would have come to New Zealand if war had not broken out.

Miss M. Dawson (Royal Perth, Western Australia) who will be making her first appearance in international golf, won the Australian title last year. Miss G. Small (Baudesert Club, Queensland) will be making her second appearance in an international game.

Both Misses Masters and Cheney were members of the Australian team in New Zealand in 1956 when only Miss U. Wickham of this year’s New Zealand team played. But Misses Wickham, of Bay of Plenty, S. Grigg, of Christchurch, and N. Campbell, of Nelson, were in the New Zealand team in Australia, in 1958. Best The 20-year-old Miss Campbell may be considered by New Zealanders to be the best player of the two teams. She is three times winner of the Mellsop Cup (New Zealand stroke champion) and she lost only on a countback to Miss Masters this year. She was New Zealand match champion in, 1958, aged 18, run-ner-up to Miss Masters in the 1958 Australian championship, and has just won the New Zeeland title again. Her defeait of Miss Cheney avenged a 1956 win by Miss Cheney when they met in the titles at New Plymouth. Miss Campbell was beaten, 6 and 5, by Miss Masters at Melbourne in 1958, but she beat Miss Masters, 8 and 7, in the Commonwealth tournament at St. Andrew’s last year.

Miss Wickham was the 1959 New Zealand champion, and Miss Grigg won in 1957. Miss Wickham was a member of the 1956 and 1958 Tasman Cup teams and Miss Grigg was a 1958 member and also a member of the Commonwealth tournament team the next year.

The other members of the team are Mrs H. V. Mac Diarmid, of Hamilton, and the young players. Misses M. Stubbs (Waipukurau). and S. Chapman (Titirangi). Mrs Mac Diarmid has not won a New

Zeala'nd title, but she has been near the top several times—she reached the semi-finals last year. Misses Stubbs and Chapman, aged 19, have made their marks among more experienced players in New Zealand recently and this test should not disgrace them. They will be watched closely. Although New Zealanders may be concerned that only two of the team got past the first round in the national championships, whereas all the Australians did. they may feel that as a team the players will raise their standards.