Royal Club take lead at Tannahill Shield tournament

Home team Royal team grabbed a narrow one-point lead in round one of this year’s Tannahill Shield at the par 72 Royal course on Friday.

Thanks to their clean sweep (8-0) against Karen, and a halve with Limuru, Royal embark on Saturday morning’s second round with a total of 12 points.

During their match with Karen who had their worse first round outing in years, Royal’s top pair of Dennis Saikwa and Kevin Juma beat Karen’s Wade Kilburn and Gilbert Maina 7-5 in a game which ended at the 13th hole.

This was followed by the match of Jay Sandhu and long hitting Quram Bhatti. The two won 5-4 against Jimmy Scott and Emanuel Agengo.

The other two points came from the pair of Jatinder Thethy and Joseah Kogo who beat Anthony Mogere and Paul Kaguamba 4-3 and the finally, Bo Ciera and Abner Onsomu beat Clive Davis and Anthony Murage 3-2.

The hosting team were however given a run for their money by the strong Limuru with the two eventually sharing points (4-4).

On the other hand Limuru beat Karen 7-1 for a total of 11 points.

“It’s a good start for us, I hope we can keep it this way particularly tomorrow where there are two rounds to play. Teams are very strong this year so one can not under rate any team’’ said Royal coach and resident professional Charan Thethy.

Meanwhile, the Vet Lab team which finished third last year also started well, by beating Windsor 6-2 and halved with Sigona(4-4)  for 10 points and in third place at the close of round one.

Defending champions Muthaiga tied with Mombasa and Sigona with nine points each. Muthaiga beat Western 6-2, but lost 5-3 to Mombasa who halved with Western. Western picked up six points, one better than Windsor who have made a come back after being relegated in 2016.

On Saturday, Royal take on Sigona and Mombasa  from 8.10am, while before that Vet Lab will play Western and Limuru in the first nine and at the back nine will be Muthaiga Karen and Windsor.

The third round will start at 1pm also on both first and 10th tees. This year the Tannahill which marks its 93rd is being sponsored by Jamii Telkom, Amazon Consultants, Carlsberg, Baseline Architects and Glenlivet Whisky.