Canterbury kicked off their 2025 Representative season in a pleasing fashion during the opening fixture in Ashburton on Sunday with wins to all teams across the ages and genders. With all teams featuring player(s) on debut for Canterbury at this level, it was a great opportunity for existing and new players to put their best foot forward with future season rep fixtures in mind.
In the Men’s space, the team started the fixture well in the reverse singles format with 6 of the 8 players recording victories. McGill came through with a strong 7/6 victory alongside similarly convincing 6/4 wins from Cam Grant and Scott Manyweathers. On debut was teenager Mitchell Redmayne who enjoyed his first taste of senior rep golf but was unable to overcome his opponent falling to a narrow 2/1 defeat. Onto the afternoon singles round and an identical scoreline with Canterbury again winning 6 of their 8 matches. Yuki Miya bounced back from his morning defeat to win 5/4, with Mike Toeke, Adam Winter, Cam Grant, Scott Manyweathers, and McGill all making it 2 from 2 on the day resulting in an overall 12-4 victory.
In the Women’s space, the same format was in play although with shots given at the number 7 & 8 positions given the disparities in handicap indexes. Despite this, the ladies still had a strong morning winning 6 of their 8 matches including strong wins to Zaria Bourne 5/3 and Alice Fry 5/4, the latter making her Canterbury debut. Lannie Inoue and Junie Change also getting hardfought wins 2/1 and 1Up respectively. Into the afternoon and a far closer contest with many of the matches in the balance to the end. Fry carried on her morning success with a strong 7/5 victory, with Junie Chang and Olive Tapu also winning comfortably. A 1Up win to Lexi Thomson Hall and 2/1 win to Vanessa Lim was enough to give Canterbury 5 wins to Aorangi’s 3 leading to an overall 11-5 team victory.
The Men’s Masters contest, as it always is in this fixture was a tight affair, and as it turned out in the morning matches the two provinces could not be separated with 5 wins a piece in this 10 player format. For Canterbury, Riki Borrel and Joseph Larson were both debuting for Canterbury at Master’s level alongside some other experienced players, and it was ultimately those experienced players who claimed the morning wins. Aaron Forsyth, Jason Sincock, Andrew Dufton, Alisdair Reid, and Jonathan Stieller all getting the better of their opposition. Onto the afternoon and with the team result in the balance the men rallied well with 7 of the 10 men getting wins. Larson bounced back for a strong 7/6 win while Forsyth, Dufton, Reid, and Stieller also recorded wins to make it 2 from 2 on the day for them all. Final team score 12-8.
Finally in the juniors, 4 players were set to do battle in the same format as above with shots being given again from the Canterbury players to their Aorangi opponents. Unfortunately, one of the Aorangi players withdrew on the day meaning there was now one no contest in each round. Despite this, 2 of the 3 matches in the morning round were great contests with the matches of Jono Fry and James Walker both finishing in ties. The other match, Darren Kung in his Canterbury Junior debut performed very well winning comfortably 8/7. In the afternoon match the boys were more convincing all recording wins. Shunsuke Nakamura, on his Canterbury debut prevailed 4/2 with James Walker also winning 5/4. Kung’s match was a far tighter affair this time going all the way but ultimately winning 1 Up leading to an eventual 7-1 team win.
All in all, a pleasing start for all Canterbury teams, the full results can be viewed – HERE.
The next Representative fixtures on the calendar are the Men’s Masters South Island Triangular and the NZ Boys & Girls Interprovincial tournaments, teams for which will be announced soon.
