Lali Stander
SOUTHERN Cape are closing in on promotion after extending their dominance at this year's South African Inter-Provincial at the Port Elizabeth Golf Club yesterday.
Having dispatched Eastern Province, Free State and Northern Cape, Border and North West Province over the first two days of the national team competition, the Garden Route were already comfortably leading the B-section log.
Having laid the foundation for another good result with a 3½ - ½ lead over Mpumalanga in the foursomes, they shifted into top gear for the singles. The gusting wind did the upcountry visitors no favours and Southern Cape collected five out of a possible eight points to hand Mpumalanga an 8½ - 3½ pounding.
Captain Staffie Barnard claimed the side's first point when he downed Anton Steenkamp 3 and 2, big-hitting Jacques Cloete wrapped his game up in record time with a 4 and 3 result and Nicholas Mitchell put them ahead with a 5 and 4 win against Jerry Steyn.
Ernie Else's nephew, Jovan Rebula, 14, downed Thys Swart, and Matthew Sutherland and Breyten Meyer both hung tough to square their matches for another valuable point. The only blemish was handed to Andrew Light, who lost 1-down to Lourens Volschenk.
Meanwhile the A-Section was thrown wide open when a resurgent Boland pounded defending champions Central Gauteng in six singles games to win 7½ - 4½. WP knocked out Gauteng North 7-5 and KZN also squeezed back into the title hunt with a narrow escape against Limpopo, taking a 6½ - 5½ victory.
Central, WP and Boland share the top spot on the log with four points each, while Gauteng North and KZN, trailing by a point each, have it all to play for today.
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