Morning defeat proves costly

Despite a 5-0 whitewash of rivals Taranaki, Manawatu Wanganui have just missed out on a semifinal spot at the Toro inter-provincial golf championship at the Poverty Bay club in Gisborne.

They wrapped up their round-robin matches in section one in some style yesterday afternoon, but a 4-1 defeat in the morning at the hands of Canterbury dashed their hopes of a first inter-provincial victory since 1964.

Manawatu Wanganui finished with three wins (against Northland, Poverty Bay and Taranaki), two defeats (Wellington and Canterbury) and a halved match with Hawke's Bay after four days of intense action.

That left them trailing Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington who all notched four wins by half a point. Auckland and Canterbury head into this morning's semifinals with more individual games won, pushing out the defending champions from the capital.

In section two, Bay of Plenty - with six successive wins - and Southland head into the last four.

Marton hotshot Lachie McDonald, playing at three, continued his great run of form with two more wins yesterday to bring his total to five wins from six outings.

Canterbury bt Manawatu Wanganui 4-1

Keelan Kilpatrick (C) bt Josh Munn (Manawatu) 2 and 1

Jordan Bakermans (C) bt Tyler Hodge (Levin) 5 and 4

Lachie McDonald (Marton) bt Tom Turner (C) 1 up

Mark O'Malley (C) bt Rhys Watkins (Manawatu) 3 and 2

Harry Bateman (C) bt Trent Munn (Manawatu) 3 and 2

Manawatu Wanganui bt Taranaki 5-0

Josh Munn bt Brad Hayward 5 and 3

Tyler Hodge bt Tim White 4 and 3

Lachie McDonald bt Thomas Hill 2 and 1

Rhys Watkins bt Zach Lewis 4 and 3

Trent Munn bt Murray Martin 1 up