Hard fight for Russley club

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33579, 6 July 1974, Page 4

Hard fight for Russley club

(By

G. S. SKELLERN)

For the first time in nearly a decade, Russley is holding a back seat in the Woodward Cup inter - club golf competition. And -its clash with the present leader, Christchurch, to decide this year’s winner will be the highlight of the final round tomorrow.

Russley has inexorably won the trophy for the last nine years, but the successful team faltered in its bid for the tenth successive victory by halving with Harewood in the penultimate round last month. The present table shows Russley in the unusual position of second placing, a half-point behind Christchurch, which has yet to lose a match this season. The pressure has definitely been applied to Russley —' which has selected its strongest team for the contest — as Christchurch has an advantage of individual match totals and Russley must win the

majority of the eight match-play games to secure the cup. Last year, Christchurch beat its strongest rival in

the final round at Shirley, but some of the steam had been taken out of the match as Russley had already won the cup. This year there will be needle matches throughout the playing order and Rus-

sley has the advantage of playing on its home course. “Although the home course will favour us a little, I don’t think it will matter for the overall result,” said the Russley captain, T. M. Stout. Christchurch will field the same team which gained its sixth successive victory against Rangiora last month. The two Freyberg Rosebowl players, G. C. Saunders and J. W. A. Whitaker, will be followed by the experienced golfers, A. W. Robinson, M. R. Blank, W. I. Tucker, J. A. Orr, and the highly-promis-ing juniors, S. S. Robinson and S. G. Rutherford. Russley can boast a similarly balanced team with P. E. .Hartstone, B. C. Taylor and E. H. M. Richards, .all Freyberg golfers; J. M. Angus, one of Canterbury’s

most studious plavers, Stout, A. K. Hynd, G. L. Urlwin and B. J'. Cotton, all sound match-play exponents.

During the six rounds Russley has been suspect at the bottom of the playing order and two changes have been made for the important clash. Urlwin, who has just returned from a month-long overseas tour, and Cotton, replace M. W. Strange and G. N. Martin, who both lost their matches against Harewood. Stout said that six golfers were vying for the last two positions and “it was a very hard job to make the final selection.” Cotton, who has gained two wins from three matches, has been in good form in club competitions, and Urlwin has all the attributes of a fine golfer, having been on the fringe of Freyberg selection. At the top of the Christchurch list, the South Island representative, Saunders, who often plays well at Russley, will have to contend with the brillance of his representative teammate, Hartstone, who has been showing outstanding form recently, and has easily won his five inter-cltib matches. Hartstdne will be looking for a good win over Saunders to further enhance his prospects of being chosen in the New Zealand team this year. ' Whitaker is one of six unbeaten players this sea-

son, but he will have a wily opponent in the Canterbury captain, Taylor. The veterans of inter-club play, A. W. Robinson and Blank, are also unbeaten

and they will add solidarity to the Christchurch middle. Robinson, who became a “centurion” in the fifth round, will be playing his 102nd interclub match.

Richards, who was the Canterbury Freyberg reserve this year, will soon join Robinson and 12 other golfers who have played 100 games. He will be playing his 97th match against S. S. Robinson, and is certain to beat the 100 mark next year.

Blank has perfected an outstanding record in the inter-club competition and his match on Sunday will take his grand total to 162 matches, four behind J. W. Jackson (Waitikiri). Other golfers who have played more than 100 games are F. W. Roberts (Avondale), 151; J, P. Devine (Waitikiri), 138; R. K. Atkinson (Russley), 111; I. B. Cromb (Christchurch), 109; C. J. Ward (Christchurch), 107; M. W. Stanley (Kaiapoi), and R. E.' Clements (Templeton), 104; and J. J. Gosset (Christ-! church), 101. The remaining players who will be attempting to preserve their unbeaten records are R. P. Newburn (Templeton), who has won his four matches, J. L. Allin (Rangiora), and C. D. Stokes (Waitikiri). The points position with one round to play is: Christchurch 6, Russley s|, Waitikiri 4, Rangiora and Templeton 2|, Avondale 2, Waimairi Beach 1, Harewood |. ,