Ashley Cooke (Bay of Plenty) won the CNZ Women’s GC Invitation, a new event, played at Morrinsville CC from 3-5 March.
The format of the tournament was block play, with best of three matches.
The action started on Friday morning, with Dallas Cooke (Bay of Plenty), Moya Lewis (Taranaki) and Helen Reeves (Hawkes Bay) all making impressive starts and winning their first two matches. Moya went on to win her 3rd match of the day, while Helen and Dallas played each other, with Dallas coming out on top in the third and deciding game 7-5.
On Saturday, Moya Lewis and Dallas Cooke lost their first matches of the weekend, meaning that they, Helen Reeves and Ashley Cooke were all on four wins out of five. Marion Taylor (Auckland) led the chasing pack with three wins.
The final matches of Saturday would prove crucial, with three of the five matches needing a third game. Helen Reeves lost to Vanessa Hanna (Waikato-King Country) and Moya Lewis lost to Marion Taylor. Dallas Cooke beat Catherine Martin (Taranaki) and Ashley Cooke beat local player Phyllis Young (Thames Valley) to give them both an advantage going into Sunday.
Moya found form again on Sunday, beating Dallas and Phyllis to be on six wins going into the final matches. Marion Taylor was also impressive, beating Catherine Martin and Jean Kent (Northland), while Dallas won her third deciding game against Patricia Anderton (Thames Valley). This meant three players were on six wins, trying to catch Ashley on seven wins, her only loss up to that point coming in the 2nd round on Friday.
Ashley Cooke went on to win a crucial match against Taylor, 7-5, 6-7, 7-5, to win the first ever playing of the Women’s GC Invitation. With twilight looming, it was decided for play to stop in the two other games involving Moya Lewis and Dallas Cooke, meaning that three players finished with 6 wins at the end of the weekend.
A big thank you to the tournament organisers for facilitating a great new event in the CNZ calendar.
