The 2024 Pollock Cup Finals Day took place on Sunday with a modified finals day format that saw both the semi-final round and the final played on the same day. The neutral venue of Rangiora Golf Club played hosts with the course in fine condition for the occasion.
In semi-final one, defending champions Waimairi Beach took on a strong Russley outfit who had progressed through the regular season undefeated with 4 wins and one draw. The match featured many close encounters with the battle of the ones going to the last with Russley’s Alisia Ren eventually winning out over her Canterbury teammate Zaria Bourne 1up. Likewise, the match between Vanessa Lim (Russley) and Deanna Mathews (Waimairi Beach) also went the way of Russley 1up while Russley’s Emma Lewis claimed a good 2/1 win at the bottom over the experienced Lyn Robertson. Junie Chang and Alice Fry also contributed wins with just Angela Gerkin getting a point on the board for Waimairi with the final score finishing at 5-1.
In the other semi-final Christchurch took on Clearwater in the battle of the 2nd and 3rd place qualifiers respectively. It was Christchurch’s bottom of the order that got them off to a strong start with both Mel Brew and Rachel Cox winning their matches 4&3. Virgina Fass claimed a good 1up win for Clearwater alongside number 1 Lexi Thomson-Hall halving with Olive Tapu. However, with Christchurch’s Mel Newburn and Eva Yin both winning 2 up that was enough for Christchurch to prevail 4.5-1.5.
So onto the final we went with perhaps fittingly the teams who finished 1st and 2nd in the regular season making the final. There were some interesting match up’s across the board however it was Russley’s lower order that did the early damage with both Emma Lewis and Jessie Mercer winning 5&4 and 5&3 respectively. Merle Barley Salver winner Nicola Webb then claimed a strong 5&4 win for Christchurch to half the deficit however with the inform Junie Chang winning her match for Russley 3&2 over Mel Newburn and Vanessa Lim winning 4&2, Russley had an uncatchable lead. Olive Tapu did finish strong for Christchurch however winning her match at number one 2up over Canterbury teammate Alisia Ren, but the final score finished 4-2 in Russley’s favour, a first Pollock victory for the club since 2019.
Pictured below left to right: Emma Lewis, Alice Fry, Alisia Ren, Junie Chang, Vanessa Lim, Jessie Mercer, Kara Campbell, (Manager). Absent – Subin Bae
