FINAL BOUND: Alan Gordon has won through to the A grade Orange Ex-Services’ Country Club matchplay championship final. Photo: MARK LOGAN 0429mlcountry3
JAY Neville is happy to be back in an A grade club championship final.
The 28-year-old took out the Orange Ex-Services’ Country Club title in 2010 but didn’t get a chance to defend it last year when he was beaten in the semi-finals.
On Sunday Neville made sure he was back in contention with a strong 9 and 8 win over Gavin Hassan in their semi-final.
“I’m pretty happy,” Neville said.
“I was pretty consistent. I had a couple of birdies, a couple of bogeys. I just tried to keep it down the middle.”
Making the final is even more pleasing for Neville as he didn’t have a lot of time on the course prior to the championships due to work.
“I managed to play five games in the 12 months before the club championships,” he explained.
The final will only be tougher for Neville as he goes up against defending champ Alan Gordon.
Gordon downed Dave Chippendale 2 and 1 in Sunday’s other top grade semi-final.
“It will be pretty tough,” Neville said.
“We’re both down to three [handicaps] and we’re both playing some good goof. He’s pretty hard to beat in matchplay. It’ll be a bit of a social round for us and whatever the result is at the end is the result.”
Sunday’s B grade final will be contested by Kelvin Amatto and Rob Koch, while Ken Quince and Rob Marsh will line up in the C grade decider.
It wasn’t a good day for the Williamson family in the Wentworth club championship quarter-finals.
Brothers Mitch and Matt were both eliminated on Sunday.
Mitch, the top qualifier, was beaten by Travis Roweth 5 and 3, while Matt suffered a hefty 12 and 10 loss to former champion Craig Stojanovic.
It was a good day for former club champions with Michael Davis downing Dallas Kelly 5 and 3 and Craig Coles beating Nathan Button by the same margin.
This means Roweth will take on Davis in the first A grade semi-final, while the two Craigs, Stojanovic and Coles, will meet in the second match.
In A reserve, Brian McClelland continued his giant-killing ways with the 16th seed downing ninth seed Graham Walker 7 and 6.
Gary Cornish, Stan Walsh and Richard Venner also moved into the semi-finals.
In B grade, Dennis Fardell, Wayne Newton, Mario Mastronardi and Mick McGovern have earned places in the final four.
Danny Ross, Frank O’Neil, Fritz Vanderwal and Neville Seton will contest the C grade semi-finals on Sunday.
