Home players wind up third at Karen Club

Host Kenya Tuesday finished in third place behind Zambia and Zimbabwe after the close of the first test match of the Gilberson and Page Trophy tournament at the par 72 Karen Country Club course.

During the morning’s foursomes, the pair of Agnes Nyakio and Mercy Nyanchama beat Zambia 6-5 and Zimbabwe 3-1.

However, the second pair of Esther Chumo and Margaret Njoki went down to both Zambia and Zimbabwe 6-5 and 8-6 while in the last match, Joyce Wanjiru and Wanjiru Karume won 4-3 against the Zambian pair but lost to Zimbabwe 3-2 for Kenya’s six points against the defending champions Zimbabwe’s 10.

Zambia finished the foursomes with only two points, although the Zambians put up a strong fight to register 13 points in the afternoon’s singles where Kenya only managed eight points and Zimbabwe collected a total of 15, to lead the first test match with a total of 25 points.

Zambia was placed second on 15 just one point better than the hosts Kenya who now have a tough encounter ahead of them in Friday’s second test match at Sigona Golf Club. During the singles, Chumo won both two matches against Zambia (7-5) and Zimbabwe 6-4.

Then the team captain Karume lost to Zambia 2-1 and halved with Zimbabwe.

Joyce Wanjiru meanwhile halved with Zambia but went down to Zimbabwe. This match was followed by that of Agnes Nyakio who won 3-2 against Zambia but went down to Zimbabwe by a similar margin while in the last match, Mercy Nyanchama was beaten by both Zambia and Zimbabwe with scores of 6-5 each.

The three teams will take a break on Wednesday, and move to Sigona on Thursday morning for the official practice round in readiness for the final test match on Friday.