By BOB PEARCE IN NAPIER
Taranaki and Northland, who won only two and a half matches between them last year at Christchurch, shared the lead after the first round of the interprovincial tournament yesterday with two wins apiece.
Level with them are Auckland, who made a great start by beating last year's
semifinalists Canterbury 3-2 in the morning and thrashing Otago 4 1/2- 1/2 in the afternoon.
Champions Bay of Plenty and beaten finalists Waikato had byes in the morning and comfortable wins in the afternoon.
Taranaki, a team of no stars, caused the major upset by downing Manawatu-Wanganui, who were semifinalists last year and are led by Eisenhower player Riki Kauika. He was well beaten by Troy Ropiha.
Northland squeezed past Poverty Bay 3-2 thanks to wins from Richard Poole and Dale Clarke, and then dismissed Aorangi, with Poole the only loser.
Auckland versus Canterbury was always going to be a tough encounter. Chris Saunoa and Logan Holzer won handily, but Eisenhower player Kevin Chun had to withstand a late surge from Brad Stuart.
A three-putt by Stuart after Chun had two shots in a bunker allowed the Aucklander off the hook and he won 2 and 1.
As the wind got up in the afternoon, the Aucklanders thrashed Otago and might have had a whitewash if Ross Valentine had not had out-of bounds trouble on the last hole.
Holzer fought back from two down to win two up, Matt Cormack survived a spectator kicking his ball to win 2 and 1, Chris Saunoa romped home 6 and 5 and Chun sank a pitch shot from 20m to finish his game 5 and 4.
The home team, Hawkes Bay, played once and delighted their fans by downing Wellington 4-1. Supravee Phatam celebrated his 16th birthday by beating Andrew Green 5 and 3.
The Bay, who have had a good season, did not lose a game as Darryn Turley and Norrie Culshaw managed halves to go with wins from Nick Radonich and Doug Holloway.
North Harbour finished the day unbeaten, but they had to fight back to halve with Southland. Steven Han salvaged a half despite a three-over seven on the 18th. In the afternoon they thrashed Tasman 5-0.
Bay of Plenty beat Southland 5-0, but will face a tougher test against Taranaki this morning.
Waikato's only loss yesterday was by No 1 Brad Shilton.
