The 2024 edition of the NZ Freyberg Masters tournament was played last week in Invercargill with the countries best men’s masters players doing battle in the annual event.
Canterbury’s team featured two players on debut at this level in Glenn Coughlan (2) and Leon Yee (Reserve) alongside the experienced players of Andrew Green (1), Aaron Forsyth (3) James Howard (4) and Jason Sincock (5.)
In round 1 the men came up against a solid Hawkes Bay side who in the end proved too strong coming away with a 3.5-1.5 victory. Andrew Green prevailed at the top of the order 1up in a seesawing match against Hawkes Bays number 1 Dough Holloway. James Howard managed another half-point for the team. In round 2 the men were looking to bounce back against Waikato who had won their opening round match, and that they did, prevailing 5-0. Howard and Coughlan claiming the biggest wins 5&4 and 4&3 respectively with Leon Yee also coming in at reserve and winning 2&1.
On day 2 the team had the BYE round in the morning before taking on Northland in the afternoon. Unfortunately, they were unable to carry on their momentum from the afternoon round on day 1 falling to Northland 3.5-1.5 in a game of close margins. Andrew Green had a convincing 6&5 win at the top but with only Aaron Forsyth managing a half they fell short collectively after both Coughlan and Sincock’s matches went to the 18th.
Onto day 3’s single round day the men knew that a series of wins from here on in was required to propel them up the table. Round 4 brought a positive start with a strong 4-1 win over Tairawhiti with Forsyth winning 5&4 as well as Sincock 2&1 at the bottom.
Day 4 saw the men take on Bay of Plenty in the morning before facing hosts Southland in the afternoon. In what turned out to be a very strong day the men prevailed 4-1 in the morning over BOP followed by a 5-0 clean sweep over the southerners. Leon Yee enjoyed a big 8&7 win in his BOP contest with Howard also winning well 5&3 while Green and Coughlan had big wins 5&3 and 5&4 over their Southland opponents in the afternoon.
So onto the 5th and final day they went with the final two matches and the team looking to carry on their form with 3 successive team wins. In the morning, they faced an Aorangi side who they had already faced twice this year prevailing on both occasions. In what was a far closer match on this occasion the Cantabs managed to win narrowly 3-2 with Green, Coughlan and Forsyth all getting the important wins at the 1, 2, and 3 positions. The final round then saw them take on Manawatu/Wanganui with the knowledge that with Hawks Bay playing Wellington in their final round that if wellington lost and we won Canterbury would sneak onto the podium for third. Canterbury did their part winning again in a close match 3-2 with Sincock winning big at the bottom 6&5 alongside Forsyth’s 5&4 before Glenn Coughlan managed to get the team home with a tense 1up win. Thankfully Hawkes Bay also did their part beating the Wellingtonians to enable Canterbury to leapfrog into third and claim a bronze medal.
Overall, after a traditional gruelling week of 8 matches in 5 days, after a shaky start the team rallied to record 5 team wins on the bounce for a strong finish. Full results can be read – HERE.
