Trouble selecting menu item using AppleScript

Question

Now that iWork Numbers 3.2 has added the ability to hide columns and rows via the menubar, I'm trying to make it work in an Applescript using system Events and the click menu item command, but no dice.  Any ideas?
tell application id "com.apple.iWork.Numbers"
  activate
          tell table 1 of the active sheet of document 1
                    --select the range
                    set thisRangeName to "A:B"
                    set the selection range to range thisRangeName
                    --hide the cells
                    tell application "System Events"
                              tell application process "Numbers"
                                   --this causes an error
                                  click menu item "Hide 2 Columns" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Table" of menu bar 1
                                   --this doesn't seem to do anything
                                   click menu item 18 of menu 1 of menu bar item "Table" of menu bar 1
                              end tell
                    end tell
          end tell
end tell

Answer 1

I finally settled on this solution:
tell application id "com.apple.iWork.Numbers"
     activate
     tell table 1 of the active sheet of document 1
          set thisRangeName to "A:B"
          set the selection range to range thisRangeName
     end tell
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Numbers"
     click menu bar item "Table" of menu bar 1
     keystroke "Hi"
     delay 0.5
     keystroke return
end tell
I would be curious to know if anyone has found a more elegant solution.