Balmoral again fielded 2 teams in the the Auckland Centre 2017 Junior Interclub Championships.
Balmoral Gold | Balmoral Maroon | |
Singles | Scott Harrison | Chris Watkin |
Pairs | Artem Chesnokov & Richard Seifert | Paul Jerrom & Graham Farley |
Triples | Odie Walter, Allan Moyle & Tessa Farley | Chelsea Farley, Ian Hughes & Linda Farley |
The Balmoral Gold team drew home green advantage and were able to close out the section play on Saturday with eight wins from nine and a very healthy points differential.
The Balmoral Maroon team ventured to St Heliers for their section play and picked up 3 wins and draw but did not progress to Finals day on Sunday .
Balmoral Gold drew the early quarter-final game on Sunday against the winning team from the St Heliers section, Blockhouse Bay Blue. Scott quickly got on top in his singles game, with both the Pairs and the Triples matches being very close. However the Balmoral team got up to win in the Triples which drew the concession from Blockhouse Bay in the Pairs.
The semi-final against Pringle Park was similar, with Scott again leading out and finishing his match quickly giving Balmoral the early advantage. Again the Pairs and Triples were drawn into tight, hard fought matches. The Triples team wobbled a bit mid game but managed to pull ahead in the critical last ends to win and secure a spot in the final in advance of the Pairs match finishing up.
The Final opponents were Onehunga Districts, who had against most predictions won out over the home club, Pt Chevalier in the other semi final. In the final Balmoral took early leads in all three disciplines and were not headed off as the games played out to give Balmoral the the 2017 Junior Interclub title.
2017 Junior Interclub Champions for L to R: Artem Chesnokov, Scott Harrison, Odie Walter, Allan Moyle, Tessa Farley, Steve Kirwan (Manager) & Richard Seifert
A great effort by all those involved including our Maroon teammates who kept up the pressure and banter in practices in the lead to the weekend and it's excellent marker for the club, which has been growing and developing its Junior ranks.
Thanks to those who came and supported and of course huge from all the players to the support and guidance of Steve Kirwan and Terry Barrett as Managers for the teams over the weekend.