Form Guide For Freyberg Games

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30739, 1 May 1965, Page 11

Form Guide For Freyberg Games

A PREVIEW of form for the Freyberg Rosebowl tournament at Waitikiri late next week will be provided by events at the Canterbury-Wellington encounter at the Templeton Country Golf Club tomorrow. Both teams have a hard core of experience with a dash of youth and both will be among the fancied sides in the stern three-day test at Waitikiri. Last year Canterbury beat Wellington, 9-7, en route to the rosebowl tournament, in which they finished fourth equal.

The chief interest in tomorrow’s match will be the meeting of R. C. Murray (Canterbury) and his fellow New Zealand representative, J. D. Durry (Wellington). Durry won the 1963 national amateur title by beating Murray in the final but the Canterbury captain thrashed his rival, 6 and 5, in an 18hole encounter at Hutt last year. Victory in this match will carry an important psychological advantage for the Freyberg contest. The Wellington side contains the 1961 international, I. D. Woodbury, the Bledis-

loe Cup holder, P. R. Rankin, and the 51-year-old W. G. Home, whose omission from the rosebowl team has aroused a storm of wrath in Wellington. R. W. Wilkinson has served Wellington most reliably as a middle order player, K. E. Carter is noted for his tenacity, and B. R. Boon and R. H. M. Knight are players capable of fine feats on occasions.

Canterbury, however, should be equally well served by its six rosebowl players, the experienced M. W. Stanley and the promising J. F. Logie. There will be particular interest in Stanley’s match with Horne and in the game between Caldwell and Woodbury, semi-final rivals in the 1960 amateur championship. Templeton will provide a searching test of players’ ability but there is no guarantee that Canterbury will have an advantage through playing on a home course. Some members of the Canterbury side did not handle all the holes with aplomb during the last Woodward Cup rounds there last month.