Interclub season hits crunch finals day

It’s finals time for the new interclub competition, and it should be close in the men’s and women’s grades.

The interclub competition was revamped this season with a seven-week competition before Christmas, culminating in a new finals day today.

The premier men are at Takaro and the premier women are at Johnston Park. Games start at 9am and will run until about 6pm.

Division two is at Shannon and years 1-5 are at Foxton and Beach.

The men’s competition should be a great finals day, with Timhook playing singles for Takaro, Ross Ellery playing for Foxton, Brian Looker for defending champions Palmerston North and Greg Taylor for Johnston Park.

In the pairs, Pat Horgan and Dean Gilshnan of Takaro will be hard to beat.

Defending fours champions Palmerston North look strong with Brian Little at skip and Ian Monaghan at three.

The women’s competition will have a new champion, after defending champions Terrace End failed to qualify.

Johnston Park and Palmerston North loom as likely winners.

Meanwhile, in post-section play for the open singles tomorrow, the men are playing at Shannon and the women at Johnston Park .

It will be hard to stop Dean Gilshnan winning back-to-back titles but he has a hard firstround game against Tim Hook, who is in hot formafter reaching the last eight in the national singles competition.

Other players with hopes are Stephen Love, Ross Ellery and Ian Monaghan.

In the women’s section, Erika Goldsworthy will have the chance to win three in a row, but she will have to play well to beat Wellington representative Janeen Noble, who is playing out of Takaro.

Other players likely to go close are Mere Fryer, Fiona Mancer and Honey Giblett.