The torrential rain last Saturday night seemed to spell disaster for the first round of Marquis Shield, but Sunday dawned bright and clear and by 11am all 6 Wairarapa Clubs were teeing off in this initial Match Play round for 2023.
And Masterton’s performance against Pahiatua in the Marquis Shield Handicap competition matched the wonderful conditions. Our Senior 4 lead the way with singles wins to Cliff Cleary, John Ryan and Allan Carroll and both pairings won their four-ball matches where Carl Backhouse was paired with Allan.
The intermediates didn’t go so well with Thomas Kainuku being the only Marquis winner and he teamed with Matt Sale to win their four-ball. And in the Juniors, the ever-dependable Ray Verhaart and Benny Marriot won their singles and four Ball matches. That left us with 6 singles wins out of 12 and a 4 – 2 victory in the fourball matches.
“Off the stick” was a similar story with the same players all winning their matches and Matt Sale squeezing out a halved match for Masterton to win the day 6.5 – 5.5.
That was a strong start by Masterton because Pahaitua have been near the top of this competition since they rejoined in 2020. But the victory was not the best of the day, with Carterton getting 11 victories and Mahunga chalking up 13.5 wins out of 16. Its shaping up to be a good competition this year.
Round 2 is at Eketahuna on March the 26 th when we play Martinborough.
Harry Quinn, Convenor.