Newcomers in Canty team

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 72

Newcomers in Canty team

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

Canterbury will have one of the least experienced teams at the Government Life national inter-provincial teams’ golf tournament at Whangarei next month.

Of the five man team, the last three players are all newcomers and the Canterbury selection panel of Noel Bain (convenor), Len McKenzie and Geoff Saunders faced one of the hardest decisions for many years in determining the line-up for the matchplay event at Mount Denby from November 3 to 7.

The team, in playing order, is: Brent Paterson, John Williamson, Fred Poskitt, Mark Elley and Keith Mills. The travelling reserve is Lyndon Cron and the non-playing captain is Mr Bob Bradley. •

The selectors’ problems were compounded by the eleventh hour withdrawal of John Crawford-Smith, the Canterbury No. 3 at the South Island interprovincial tournament in Dunedin last weekend.

Crawford-Smith, who marked his Government Life debut last year with six wins from eight matches at No. 3, has accepted a new job and he will start as a salesmarf for Dominion Breweries in Timaru on Monday. Crawford-Smith, a New Zealand under 26 representative in Australia last month, did not know of the appointment until last Friday. He had an unhappy South Island tournament, with only one half from four games, but he admitted last evening that his mind was not fully on the job.

“The new position was too good an opportunity to let slip. I’m sad to drop out of the team but I haven’t been thinking golf because of being so busy at work. This time last year I remember being pumped up, thinking golf nearly all the time, but now I am only thinking how busy I’ve been at work,” said CrawfordSmith.

Paterson, the Canterbury No. 1 in 1983, 1984 and 1985, missed last year’s tournament because of New Zealand commitments. He' and Williamson, who will be playing his seventh national tournament, were assured of the top spots. The Canterbury stroke champion, Poskitt, has laboured at times in representative matches and has developed a penchant for going to the last green. But he has compiled four

wins and three halves from 10 matches and is well regarded in Canterbury golf. Elley, aged 22, had a 50 per cent record at the South Island tournament to go with the same percentage achieved in his previous four representative games this season. The Tai Tapu greenkeeper has, however, been in superb club form at No. 1 for Central Canterbury in the Woodward Cup competition. Mills, the Russley No. 2, made his Canterbury debut at the Southland Invitational earlier this year. He has dogged match play qualities and cemented his place with two wins and a half playing at No. 5 in the South Island tournament last week-end. His representative matchplay record this season stands at seven wins and one half from 10 contests.