Otago celebrated a near-perfect day at the New Zealand interprovincial men’s tournament with two solid wins yesterday.
A day after being beaten by Northland in the opening round, Otago beat Poverty Bay-East Coast 4-1 at the Tauranga club in the morning, and Manawatu-Whanganui 3.5-1.5 in the afternoon.
No 3 Brandon Hodgson (2 and 1) was the only Otago player to lose yesterday morning.
Inia Logan (3 and 1) and Ryan Bellamy (1-up) showed composure at the top of the order, and Parker Aluesi (6 and 5) and William McLauchlan (3 and 2) got their debut interprovincial wins at the tail.
The afternoon went nearly as swimmingly as Otago players built early leads against Manawatu-Whanganui and mostly held them.
Logan (5 and 3) and Bellamy (7 and 6) again played well, and Aluesi (4 and 2) got another confidence-boosting win.
McLauchlan squared his match and Hodgson was beaten 4 and 3.
The Otago men play Wellington this morning.
Meanwhile, reality bit for the high-flying Otago women as their bid to win a third straight game came unstuck against the class acts of the tournament.
Otago was thumped 5-0 at the Omanu club by Auckland, the odds-on favourite to win the women’s title after being sidelined last year due to the regional lockdown.
New Zealand representative Vivian Lu set the tone with a 5 and 4 win over red-hot Otago No 1 Sumin Kang.
Otago No 2 Yoonae Jeong had the closest loss, falling 3 and 2 to Rebekah Blackwell-Chin, but Tracey Storer (8 and 7), Abby Crawford (5 and 4) and surprise package Judith Yates (8 and 7) all battled against classy opposition.
Otago, which had the bye in the afternoon round, plays another formidable team in Bay of Plenty today.
