Southbroom Golf Club called on its bomb squad for a crunch encounter against Margate CC – and boy, did they deliver.

Gavin ‘Big Fish’ Sole and Jean-Marc Bouic haven’t played much handicap league golf of late, but when some of the regulars were not available they answered the call.

And probably regretted it as rain drizzled miserably on and off on a chilly Sunday.

The two will be in action for KZN at the South African Mid-Amateur IPT at San Lameer CC next month, so this was a decent tune-up.

There are no easy games in the handicap league, but they did their part in helping Southbroom win the match 8-4 and keep the title outcome very much in hand.

In the greensomes, honours were shared, two points apiece.

Thulani Xolo and Werner Duggan lost 3/2 to Wesley Middleton and Kevin Oxenham, but Jan Nqoko and captain Grant Richards evened the score by beating John Hopley and Mike Lepan 5/4.

Cyprian Xolo and Grant Richards junior lost 1-down to Marcus Donovan and Jack Kukard and were relieved to hear that Gavin and Jean-Marc had beaten Poen Olivier and Conrad Boonzaier 2/1.

Things were more one-sided in the singles, with the two-time defending champions finding top gear.

Werner, in a rare off day, lost to Kevin 3/2 but Thulani levelled matters by beating Wesley 4/3.

Earlier in the day, he lost his head – of his driver, that is – and had to play his singles without it. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to make much difference.

Captain Grant beat Mike 4/3 and Jan beat John 8/6 to give Southbroom some breathing space.

Grant junior kept the momentum going with a hard-fought win over Jack, 1-up, and Cyprian beat Marcus 3/1.

Jean-Marc lost to the very difficult-to-beat Conrad 2/1, and the Big Fish (Gavin) rounded out a comprehensive victory with a 6/5 win over Poen.

In the other game, Selborne Park beat hosts Port Shepstone CC 7-5 to keep their chances of winning the league alive.

It will be difficult, however, as Southbroom GC now have three wins from three games.

Selborne will need to win their last two games and hope Port Shepstone can upset Southbroom in the next round.

Even in this scenario, it could still come down to match points, so it’s a tall order but not impossible.

In the greensomes last Sunday, Selborne went down 3-1.

Juan Rossouw and Coetzee van Rooy lost 2/1 to Theo van Rooyen and Sashen Govender.

Elso Chirindza and Myles Poole got Selborne’s first point with a 1-up win against Allan Clark and Kirk Larsen.

Darryl Herman and Justice Shozi lost to Johann Janse van Rensburg and Sidney Shingange 3/1.

Marno Langeveldt and Jack Lamp lost to Cameron Olivant and Noah Thomas 6/5.

Things were very different in the singles, with Selborne fighting back in grand style.

Coetzee beat Sashen 2/1 and Juan Rossouw beat Theo 6/4 to square things up.

Elson beat Allan 4/3 to see Selborne take the lead, but it was short-lived as Myles lost to Kirk 3/1.

Justice beat Sidney 3/1 to nudge Selborne ahead again, but Darryl lost to Johann 2-down.

Playing at number one, Marno beat Cameron 4/3, so it all came down to Jack’s game against Noah, which went to the 18th, with Jack triumphant 1-up.

LOG
Southbroom 3 (24)
PSCC 1 (15)
Selborne 1 (12)
Umdoni 1 (10,5)
Margate 0 (10,5)

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