Round 5 was held at Adelaide in fine and warm conditions.
With just one more round to go, the results of the competition this season continue to be a bit predictable and repetitive. To no-one’s surprise, the Round 5 winners were ESP’s Pierre Geslin, Ha Nguyen & Van Nguyen. That makes it four out of five this season for Ha and Van.
In second place was another ESP team, comprising Deb Rodda, Anna O’Connor & Tory McBride. This is the third time in a row that ESP have taken the maximum possible haul of 54 championship points, with their best two teams on the day finishing first and second. That has only happened once before, in the 2016 season. Also noteworthy is the fact that it was the first time an all-female team has appeared on the podium since 2020.
Continuing with the theme of repetition, the third placed team also claimed their own little piece of Interclub history. Previously, no player had ever won three consecutive bronze medals. But that is what the Adelaide Hills trio of Mike Read, Peter Davies & Brian Tuckfield have now done. Only twice before have we seen the same team win even two in a row, the most recent being in 2009. Interestingly, that was another team featuring Brian Tuckfield.
As for the premiership table, it was also more of the same. There were no changes of position and, in terms of championship points earned by the clubs, the order of merit was exactly the same as in Round 4. For the third time in a row, the Hills club gained a little ground on second-placed Adelaide. But it would still take something remarkable for them to overcome the remaining deficit in the final round. Similarly, Gawler moved closer again to FAB. However, in this case, the battle for ‘not last’ remains very much alive, with just three points separating the two. (Both of these clubs would do well to field more than one team in Rd 6.) Meanwhile, ESP’s unassailable lead at the top of the table just continues to grow.
Thanks to Club d’Adelaide for hosting the event.
Download a full report of scores (PDF): Scores-2025-26-Round-5.pdf