RUSSELL GRACE CUP Auckland First, By Half A Point

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31983, 9 May 1969, Page 13

RUSSELL GRACE CUP Auckland First, By Half A Point

Auckland, one of the pre-toumament favourites, won the Russell Grace Cup yesterday, but the leader after five rounds, Manawatu-Wanganui, was the moral victor when the women’s inter-provincial golf championship ended at the Brandon course, Ashburton.

Auckland finished half a point ahead of Canterbury, but ManawatuWanganui was the only unbeaten team during the three days of play, including a 3-2 victory over Auckland.

However, under the present tournament rules, the cup is taken by the team with the greatest number of individual wins or with the best winning average.

Manawatu-Wanganui, the overnight leader, did tremendously well to beat its closest rival at that stage, Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay, 3J-1L However, it failed to defeat Wai-kato-King Country as handsomely as expected in the afternoon, winning only 3-2. Its No. 1. Mrs D. A. Whitehead, was the only top player to have won all her matches after the fifth round, but she blemished her record by being held to a half by Mrs R. Middleton (Waikato-King Country) in the afternoon. Canterbury, which lost only half a point all day, against the title-holder, Wellington, was now a slightly embarrassed tournament leader. Auckland then needed to

.[beat Bay of Plenty-Thames I Valley 5-0 to take the cup '[for the second time in three years and it succeeded with a great flourish. Only one match went past the sixteenth green. The final averages were: Auckland, 3.66, Canterbury 3.58, Manawatu-Wanganui 3.50, Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay 3.30, 'Veilington and South Canterbury 2.66, Wai-kato-King Country 2.33, Bay of Plenty-Thames Valley 2.16, Taranaki 1.90. Otago 1.80, Southland 1.66, Northland I. Nelson-West Coast-Marl-borough .90. Final points gained, with Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay, Nelson-West Coast-Marlbor-ough, Northland, Taranaki, Otago and Southland playing only five games, were: Auckland 22, Canterbury 21J, Manawatu - Wanganui 21, Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay 19.8, South Canterbury and Wellington 16, Waikato-King Country 14, Bay of PlentyThames Valley 13, Taranaki 11. Otago 10.8, Southland 10.2, Northland 8.5, NelsonWest Coast-Marlborough 5.4. Canterbury achieved everything that was expected of it in the morning when it beat Nelson-West Cofist-Marlbor-ough, 5-0, but it surprised by the margin of its victory over Wellington. Four of the matches were won with considerable determination and Miss J. Davidson, who did not have the happiest of baptisms in Russell Grace golf, took the eighteenth hole to square her match against Miss H. Ballantyne. VICTORY REPEATED

The Canterbury title-holder. Miss M. Ensor, who had defeated Miss J. Hanratty (Wellington) in the semi-finals of the Canterbury match-play championship, beat her again, by 1 up, but at the last three holes she only just managed to hold her narrow lead. After losing her first three matches, Mrs V. LangdaleHunt justified her selection by winning the next three. Misses C. Sullivan and S. Boag did wonderfully well to come through the tournament unbeaten and Miss Sullivan’s ideal temperament was rewarded later when she was named captain of the south-

ern team to play in the matches at Palmerston North against the central and northern teams in September. In her first tournament, the 20-year-old South Canterbury No. 3, Miss S. Ritchie, won all her matches. This was a splendid effort and many times she was forced to summon every effort to keep her record intact. South Canterbury played well yesterday to gain fifth place on the rounds average, ahead of Wellington. LOST 3 UP LEAD

Miss Ensor showed considerable fortitude in her match with Miss Hanratty. She was two up after six and won a further hole at the eighth. However, some indifferent putting saw her lead whittled away to all square when Miss Hanratty sank a 20-foot birdie putt at the thirteenth. The next was halved but Miss Ensor went to a crucial 1 up lead when Miss Hanratty three-putted the fifteenth. At the sixteenth, Miss Hanratty had a great opporunity to win back a hole but her “rickety” putt just stayed out and Miss Ensor was able to get a half. After Miss Ensor was through the seventeenth green with her third shot, she calmly holed an eight-foot putt to keep her lead.. Her second at the eighteenth was well short but Miss Hanratty, for the second time in as many holes, was unable to sink a putt of reasonable length.