Monday 19th January 2015
It was Grafton vs Moruya and Richmond vs Toukley in the semi finals of the NSW State Encourage Shield and Avondale vs Central West DGA and Murray DGA vs Mid North Coast DGA in the NSW Junior Pennant semi-finals at the challenging Newcastle Golf Club. The weather was threatening at the scheduled 8am tee time for the first group. Two groups hit off, but a torrential downpour quickly drowned the greens making play impossible. A delay was called and all players went inside the clubhouse.
Four hours later, the rain had eased and the quick draining Newcastle course had become playable, so at 12:45pm, we were back to the first tee for the Encourage Shield teams and we started the Junior Pennant semi-finals off the tenth. Luckily the rain stopped for the rest of the afternoon and we had results of all four games by 6pm. Avondale and Central West DGA were 3-3 so the number 1 players went back to the tenth for sudden death playoff. Avondale won it on the second hole played. The other JP semi saw Mid North Coast leading Murray DGA 3-2 with the number 2’s playing the 18th hole. MNC won the hole and the contest 4-2 over Murray DGA. In the Encourage Shield, Grafton defeated Moruya 5.5 - 0.5 in a match that was much closer than the final score indicated. Three matches went to the 16th, two to the 17th and one to the last hole. Toukley defeated Richmond 4-2 in the other match. It had been a long day.
Tuesday 20th January 2015
The rain came back overnight and it had been raining heavily since 4:30am with thunder and lightning. It looked worse that the previous day and a call to the club confirmed that there would be no play until at least 11am. This lead to some interesting discussions amongst the teams contesting the 3rd place and it was decided that they would abandon these contests, leaving just the finalists waiting to see what eventuated. At about 9am the radar showed some possible clearing of the rain and the greenkeepers advised that the greens were OK and would drain sufficiently for play by 11:00am. The finals would be played. Grafton and Toukley teed off at 10:30 and Avondale vs MNCDGA followed them, both contests off the first tee. The sun was out and the wind had blown away the rain and helped keep the mozzies away as well, making the conditions the best we had seen so far.
At the turn Toukley had four matches up with one down and one match was square. The lead was narrow but they were in a comfortable position. The back nine saw no changes and Toukley went on to win the State Encourage Shield 5-1 over a gallant Grafton.
In the Junior Pennant, Avondale had a handy lead at the turn and once again, not much changed over the back nine and they went on to win the State Junior Pennant 4.5 to 1.5
Junior Pennant Teams
Avondale GC – Chris Fan, Bella Kil, Anthony Tan, Felicity Wittenberg, Liam Smith, Joshua Hourmouzis, Matthew Connellan, Jefferson Fan, Manager – Basil Hourmouzis
Mid North Coast DGA - Jack Hickey, Zac Ion, Amelia Mehmet-Grohn, Harry Hartman, Courtney Robinson, Malcolm Ramsay Manager – Kevin Edmonds
Central West DGA - Dylan Thompson, Laura Cummings, Jayden Taylor, Lee Greirson, Zac Kelly, Anna McHugh Manager – Bruce McLean
Murray DGA - Matt Stenson, Liam Gransden, Bailey Stewart, Zac O’Collins, Jake Eisenhauer, Andrew Love. Manager – Steve Stewart
Encourage Shield Teams
Toukley GC - Dylan Moore, Blake Heyhow, Annika Boyd, Keegan Phillips, Jordan Pereira, Will Denniss Manager – Kenton Boyd
Richmond GC – Brad Ward, Jack Walden, Jack Donnelly, Jack Eisenhuth, Hayden Carver, Alexis Kirk Manager – Mark Eisenhuth
Moruya GC - Lachlan Ingram, Josh Maloney, Cody Kirkwood, Ivan Mylott, Steven Mercer, Riley Brown Manager – Ron Ingram
Grafton GC - Josh Tabjor, Willow Harris, Courtney Fuller, Cameron Pollard, Nick Fuller, Kayne Endean Manager – Matt Worthing
