Loss for McDonald as HBPB book semi against Waikato

Gisborne’s Tessa McDonald lost her match this morning at the women’s national interprovincial but her Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay side had already sealed a spot in the Division 2 semifinals this afternoon. Picture by Paul Rickard

Defeat at the hands of Otago dropped Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay down the leaderboard at the women’s national interprovincial this morning.

HBPB lost 3-2 to the southerners on the Waikanae course.

Gisborne’s Tessa McDonald was among those to lose. Playing at No.2 in the five-woman team, she went down 5 and 3 to Yoonae Jeong.

Veteran Janie Field, at No.3, had a 1-up while No.4 Martha Manaena triumphed 5 and 3.

The loss demoted HBPB to fourth on the Division 2 table.

The top four teams had already sealed semifinal spots heading into this morning’s final round-robin matches. It was a matter of what order that top four would be.

Despite suffering their first loss of the week, Waikato finished top on four team points and 17½ match points. Northland were second on 3½ and 14½, followed by Otago on three and 12½, and HBPB on three and 11½.

That meant HBPB were up against Waikato and Northland faced Otago in this afternoon’s semifinals.

In Division 1, top-of-the-table North Harbour faced Bay of Plenty while Manawatū Wanganui played defending champions Auckland.

Win to Brown as Tairāwhiti fall 4-1 to Otago

Tairāwhiti No.1 William Brown put another notch in his belt in his 15th men’s national interprovincial this morning.
Brown  had a 2-up win over Otago counterpart William McLauchlan and saved his side from a second consecutive whitewash on the Paraparamumu Beach course.
Tairāwhiti lost 4-1 in their penultimate round of the week-long teams’ matchplay tournament being hosted by Paraparaumu Beach and Waikanae.
No.2 Dan Collier lost 6 and 4 to Ryan Bellamy; No.3 Hukanui Brown lost 5 and 3 to Hamish Ireland; No.4 Marcus Gray lost 6 and 5 to Callum Judkins; and No.5 Shayde Skudder lost 4 and 3 to Phil Bungard.
Heading into their final round against Northland this afternoon, Tairāwhiti were bottom of the Section 1 table and needing a team win to avoid the wooden spoon.