The Victoria Premier side won the Wellington Women’s Interclub on Saturday coming through in the playoffs at Hutt in a last gasp effort over Naenae. Victoria and Naenae were even on 31 points going into a dramatic final round. The Victoria four of Robyn Rintoul, Nina De Munnik, Kay Carr and Nicole Toomey scored a bonus point over Naenae, however the Naenae single and pair also won bonus point victories. This meant Victoria still needed points from both the singles and pairs. Helen King in the singles fought back from 7-17 and 17-24 to win a remarkable 25-24. Sarah Taukamo and Leigh Griffin were comfortably up but had to stave off a fightback against them before Leigh ran a jack in the ditch to secure a draw and the overall championship for our club. So Victoria finished with 50 points to Naenae’s 47. Our women including reserve Yvonne Gibb will now play in the NZ National Interclub in Auckland in March at the Howick and Pakuranga clubs.
The Victoria men also performed well but were not able to break through in three close losses to the defending national champs Eastbourne. Our team of Neville Rodda in the singles, Laurie Guy and Ray Martin in the pairs, Alf De Munnik, Richard Corry, Tim Toomey and Lou Newman came in a solid second not losing a match to either of the other clubs. Victoria slightly increases its lead in the unofficial club of the year race.