Boland win country districts tourney
WHILE Boland beat Ekurhuleni to savour A section victory in the SA Country Districts golf tournament, Border popped the corks on a triumphant promotion campaign at the Fish River Sun Country Club at the weekend.
Ekurhuleni crumbled under a vicious singles assault and went down 8-4 to Boland, while Border defeated Southern Cape 7-5 to earn their way into the A section of next year's championship.
Boland and Ekurhuleni were tied 2-2 after the foursomes, and Ekurhuleni led 4-3 after the first three singles before Boland's charges tightened the screws.
Peter Willemse turned the tide when he beat Teagan Moore 1-up and Riaan Gerber put Boland in the lead when he defeated Brendan Flynn 3/2.
Anton Pieters stretched the lead to 6-4 with a 2/1 result against Donovan Grobler, and Jaco Spies drove home the advantage when he thumped Jason Thalrose 7/6. Meyer Pauw drove home the victory when he downed Burt Gildenhuys 6/5.
Not to be outdone, North West denied Ekurhuleni the runner-up spot after whipping Mpumalanga 8½-3½ to vault into second in the final standings with six points.
Mpumalanga finished in fourth on two points, ensuring the wooden spoon went to Free State.
Meanwhile, Hartland Wilson and his Border team will celebrate their hard-fought promotion for days to come.
"Every win in this competition has been special, and every loss has been an inspiration to do better and it took a team effort to pull it off."
Border trailed 3-1 going into the singles, but Charl Stotter, Basil Frewen, Jaco Marais, Hansie Diedericks, Rikus Smit and Conrad Gordon-Grant raked in six straight victories in the singles to push Southern Cape into a corner.
Although Daniel Gouws battled bravely to beat Abie Simons 4/3 and Henk Geldenhuys won the last game against Fellow Ngantweni 2/1, it was all too little, too late for the Garden Route boys.
Eastern Province finished fourth in the B division.
In the other matches, KwaZulu-Natal secured second place in the final standings with a 7½-4½ result against Northern Cape, while Limpopo downed Western Province 6½-5½.
