THE St Clair Saints remain in pole position with three rounds to play in the Metropolitan senior A pennant series after a resounding win over their clubmates in freezing conditions on Saturday.A 5-1 drubbing of the Devils has put the fourth-placed Devils in a perilous position — even more so with the Otago Bombers edging three points closer to them after inflicting a blow against Taieri Lakes at Balmacewen.
That result has minor ramifications for the Mosgiel side, and brings it back to the pack, while the Otago B52s move up into second after defeating Chisholm Links at the beach in freezing conditions.
At St Clair, the leaders barely spared any change for their club counterparts.
Saints No 5 Parker Aluesi continued his good form to beat Jake Bleach to set the tone.
He was soon joined by Matt Crawford and Tony Giles with wins, while at No 1 the battle between close friends Scott Mitchell and Ryan Littlejohn went the way of Mitchell to give Saints a relatively straightforward victory.
The only points for the Devils came in the form of halves from Phil Bungard and Logan Clarke.
At Balmacewen, a rejigged order proved fruitful for the Bombers in a much-needed 4.5-1.5 victory over Taieri Lakes, who were looking to edge away from the chasing pack.
With snow showers threatening to disrupt proceedings, the Bombers tail of Brandon Hodgson and Ben Patston made light work for big wins, before Lakes No 1 Matt Tautari grafted a 4/3 win over fill-in Dylan Stock to get the visitors on the board.
The rest of the matches were relatively close, with most of the visitors leading at various stages, but the hosts — as they often do — finished the better on the closing holes around their home track.
Bombers No 4 Ricky Stewart halved with Matt Lee, while No 3 Luke Murdoch played steady to finish over the top of Ryan Rosevear to clinch the result. No 2 Callum Judkins added the icing — defeating Ken Shaw on the 17th.
At Chisholm Links, it was last-chance saloon for the home side, but as expected the B52s top order proved the difference. The loss has all but extinguished hopes for finals golf for the Links unless they can pull three wins out of the bag and hope results go their way.
Despite the comfortable victory, the teams traded blows early on. B52s No 3 Andrew Hobbs thrived in the freezing conditions in typical Hobbs fashion, demolishing Jason Pegler in 13 holes.
Links No 5 Mike Bowman replied to beat Tom Gillan 4/3 before B52s captain Steve Horn had to work hard to beat Blair Liffiton on the final green.
Links stalwart Kyle Geary also won on the final green against Matt Weir to level the fixture, but that was as good as it got for the home side, with B52s No 1 Tom Lee easily accounting for Mackenzie Gibson and Chris Snow defeating Matt Heaton on the 17th.
The women’s pennant final was played in blustery conditions at St Clair yesterday.
The Taieri Lakes Wannabes claimed the title by beating Chisholm Links Blue 3-1.
MICHAEL MINTY
