No joy for Bay boys

THE one that got away.
Home team hopes of the perfect start to the Toro men’s interprovincial fell agonisingly short at the Poverty Bay golf course yesterday.
Poverty Bay-East Coast lost 3-2 to a rookie Hawke’s Bay side in the morning round, then were outclassed 4-1 by defending champions Wellington in the afternoon.
No. 2 William Brown and No. 3 Steve Donnelly won their matches against Hawke’s Bay.
Waikohu teenager Brown was rock-solid in beating Sam Penrice 2 and 1, while Auckland-based Donnelly was two under the card when he shook hands with Matt Mouat on the 15th.
No. 1 Simon Jenkins lost 2 and 1 to Ben Swinburne — the only Hawke’s Bay player with national interprovincial experience — and No. 4 Andrew Higham lost on the 17th to Kieran Goodall.
The key match was between team anchors Dion Milner, of Tolaga Bay, and Paul Malcolm.
There was little between the pair throughout this battle of the No. 5s but it was advantage Milner when he chipped in on the 16th for birdie to go 1-up.
Malcolm hit back instantly to win the 17th. When Milner hit his drive into deep rough on the 18th, his opponent was in the box seat, only to leave his second shot short of the green.
Milner, unable to ground his club out of fear of the ball moving, pulled his second into the left-hand bunker, then blasted out past the pin and just off the green.
It was his last shot of the day. Malcolm coolly chipped in for birdie and victory, leaving the man known as “Coastie” to reflect on what could have been – drives out of bounds on the 13th and 14th coming back to haunt him.
Gisborne Boys’ High School student Sheridan Rangihuna made his national interprovincial debut in the afternoon against Wellington but it was not one he will remember fondly.
Rangihuna replaced Milner and was given a 4 and 3 lesson in no-frills matchplay by 49-year-old Peter Brinsdon, who last played at the national interprovincial as a member of the 1998 Southland team.
Poverty Bay senior club champion Higham was furious at losing in the morning but channelled that anger into positive energy against Wellington’s Marc Jennings to win 3 and 2.
A superb 40-metre third shot from rough under a tree to within a few inches of the cup on the fifth hole (their 14th as they started on 10) summed up Higham’s emphatic afternoon reply.
Donnelly put his 5 and 4 pasting by Adam Church down to his own “stupid mistakes”, although the victor was in red figures when he won.
Brown drove the first hole (the 290-metre 10th) against Thomas Spearman-Burn and the pair halved in birdies to get their match off to an explosive start.
Spearman-Burn took control to be 3-up after nine holes and, despite a second-nine fighting effort from Brown, the match ended on the 17th.
Ben Campbell, a member of the New Zealand team who were fourth in the Eisenhower Trophy world teams’ amateur championship last year, was a class above Jenkins, trouncing him 6 and 5.
Team captain Church and Campbell are survivors from last year’s national interprovincial-winning squad — Wellington’s record 13th win.
PBEC faced Taranaki and Auckland today.
The ’Naki beat Canterbury 3-2 in their only round yesterday. Auckland were upset 3-2 by Northland.