The Manawatu Monsoon dominated proceedings at the interprovincial golf championships yesterday, but it couldn't shift the smiles from the faces of the Poverty Bay team.
It rained and rained some more, dampening the hopes of Waikato and North Harbour while defending champions Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and the home
team showed early form.
The Manawatu Golf Club course on the outskirts of Palmerston North was dotted with pools of water as play began late and was twice interrupted. As darkness fell last night several teams had still to complete their second rounds.
Poverty Bay were first to tee off against Northland and several hours later, thanks to wins by William Brown, Simon Jenkins and Micah Bremner, they celebrated their first victory since 2005. Bremner had also been a winner in the victory four years ago.
The perennial underdogs later lost 4-1 to Bay of Plenty, for whom Andrew Stewart reeled off eight birdies, but it didn't seem to matter too much.
Auckland's number one, Ryan Fox, was in scintillating form as the northerners beat Tasman 4-1 in the morning and battled with Hawkes Bay in the gathering gloom. Fox was five up on Hawkes Bay's Daniel Pearce at the turn after completing the nine holes in 29, seven under. He won 8 and 6.
In the morning number five Jason Mann staged a stirring comeback from three down with six to go to win one up. But he lost in the afternoon and the clash with Hawkes Bay hung on the match between Ben Wallace and former Aucklander Leighton James. On the last hole Wallace went out of bounds and conceded to give Hawkes Bay the win 3-2.
Manawatu-Wanganui won in the morning and halved with Tasman in the afternoon while Wellington shared their only match with Taranaki.
North Harbour and Waikato both lost their opening games before sitting out the afternoon round with byes. Harbour had lost to Canterbury in a quadrangular last month and they never threatened to turn the tables with teenager Tom Cardno their only winner and Kevin Budden earning a half.
Waikato ran into a birdie blitz from Hawkes Bay and only Matthew Perry and Aaron Leech salvaged halves in the 4-1 loss.
Today the match of the day sees Auckland clash with Wellington, while North Harbour meet Northland.
