Taieri Lakes has moved to the top of the Metropolitan senior A pennant series after defeating Island Park while Chisholm Links and Otago B52s shared the points with a 3-3 draw at Balmacewen on Saturday.
The leaderboard is not a true reflection of competition as the Otago Bombers are to begin their season due to scheduling issues that will need to looked at in the future while St Clair and the B52s have also been affected with games in hand.
At Taieri Lakes, the home side was always in command and a whitewash was on the cards.
Lakes stalwarts Brett Kennelly and Mark Andrews made a surprise appearance at the tail and started things in style. Kennelly defeated Brent Butler while Andrews scraped past Mike Wray on the 17th.
Lakes No2 Hayden Robertson easily accounted for Park captain Monty Wong and Ken Shaw’s steady play was too much for Joseph Hancock in the battle of the top players.
The Park middle order managed to salvage both games in scrappy contests, Chris Snow and Michael Minty accounting for Ryan Rosevear and Matt Lee respectively on the final green but the 4-2 result for the home side was already in the bag.
A 3-3 draw normally means tight individual tussles but that was not the case as only one match between the B52s and Chisholm Links at Balmacewen made it to the 17th green.
The games were shared at the tail with B52s Matt Weir defeating Mackenzie Gibson while former professional Mike Weastell replied for the Links defeating Steve Horn.
Both middle-order games went to the home side, Henry Hodgson defeating Mike Bowman while former Island Park player Andrew Hobbs won his first match for the Otago club against Sean Geary.
But the top Links pairing of Matt Tautari, playing his first game for the Links, and the well-performed Jason Pegler finished the stronger over rivals Paul Hubbard and Will McLauchlan respectively to square the fixture.
- Michael Minty
