SA State Interclub Competition – Round 5 held at Prospect 30 April, 2017

Round 5 of the Interclub competition was held at Prospect in fine and mild conditions.

In the previous round we had seen something of a comeback by second-placed Club d’Adelaide, to keep them in contention, but this time around it was championship leader Eastern Suburbs who reasserted their dominance of this season’s competition.

It may be the case that no more than two teams from a club can score points towards the championship, but when you get five teams in the top nine, including first, second and fourth, it doesn’t leave a lot of points for everyone else. The cream of the crop on the day were the highly-credentialled trio of Raja Jamaleddine, Sukrit Vaswani (fresh from his win in the Australian Open) and Craig Stewart.

With maximum points here, added to their already formidable total, ESP now have one hand firmly on the trophy. In fact, the top three positions in the championship are all but decided. So, the main interest going into the final round will be in the battle for fourth – sometimes referred to as the ‘minor premiership’.

This contest could not be any closer, with the four contenders all tied up on 15 points apiece coming into this round. Now it is Adelaide Hills who have moved into the lead. Despite only joining this season’s competition in Round 3, they have scored points each time and consequently edged their way to the front of the pack. Port Noarlunga have also progressed and currently sit in outright fifth, three points behind AHP but with a three point advantage over the rest. Nevertheless, with such small margins involved, it’s still anybody’s game with one round to go.

Results

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