Seniors v Bedford and County at home Sep 22 2026

 

Captain David Barlow and organiser Paul Jones with their opponents on the first tee

Organiser Paul Jones reports

I was wondering what else could go wrong when I stood on the first tee.  I hadn’t got up as early as I intended, so I left home without any breakfast or a coffee.  I then drove slightly faster than usual making good time until I reached the junction on the A603 just before the Sandy roundabout and got held up.  I had already made a mistake by not taking 16 scorecards home to apply the labels so I rushed into the pro shop and picked 16 JOG scorecards and was busily sticking the labels on them when Gavin arrived and pointed out, we were on Carthagena.  I started removing the labels while Gavin went to get the correct scorecard.

When I was e-mailing the Beds & County organiser I had apologised in advance for the poor (compared to normal) condition of our Carthagena course and I stuck my neck on the line and said that in order to compensate them I promised that I had sorted out the weather and that they would get a good meal.  Fortunately, neither disappointed and I think everyone finished their round in glorious autumnal sunshine just wearing their club shirts on the top half of their bodies and I was happy that I had chosen shorts.

The JOG team were receiving 16 shots from our opponents and the average Handicap Index for the Bedford and County players was 17.4. and ours was 18.4.  As always, I tried to arrange the matches where at least two players in each match were very closely matched.  Due to the Bedford & County pairings, and how I faced our guys up to them, only Tony Lloyd was getting over 10 shots which proved crucial in his and Richard Westergreen-Thorne’s match.

So back to what else could go wrong, on the first tee with our opponents safely away up stepped our illustrious captain (he likes to go first) and he hooks his ball out of bounds left but a forgiving tree ushered his ball back into play.  It wasn’t on the right side of the fairway where David had us looking for 2 minutes 58 seconds but about 6 yards from the trees on the left.  Surely, he didn’t have a pair of those infamous trousers with a hole in the pocket.  Mind you if he put his fiery orange  multi-coloured ball in his pocket, it would burn a hole through the pocket lining.

I hit my tee shot just off the right-hand side of the fairway but there was a stick behind the ball that I couldn’t move without disturbing the ball.  I had a shot so I thought I should be able to at least halve the whole.  I then proceeded to “duff” a couple of shots and eventually appeared on the green about six shots later thinking “I’ve really messed up this hole.  Fortunately, our Captain got down in five and won a hard-earned half. On the 2^nd, I found the green while David had some bunker practice but I could only three putt after missing a short second putt to win the hole.

Confidence drained, I then watched while David birdied the 3rd and he parred the 4^th.  I stepped up with a par on the 5^th (who needs a shot, I joked, but obviously not out loud, as I am a very humble guy) and we found ourselves three up.

Quite unusually all four players found the putting surface with our tee shots on the sixth hole, their Captain winning the nearest the pin in the process, but no one could hole their birdie putt so the hole was halved.

One of the two B&C players (both had shots) halved the 7^th with my 5 nett 4 and on the 8^th another JOG win was achieved thanks to David producing a superb chip to get us a half after we had both failed to find the nearest the pin green. 

The 9^th proved to be the final nail in the Bedford & County coffin.  I had a shot and found myself about 8 yards short of the green in two shots.  I pulled out the “percentage option” Texas wedge thinking just get it on the green inside our opponent’s ball, which was at least 6 yards away, then I would probably have two putts for no worse than a half. I hit such a poor putt, it just about found the putting surface, that it was still my turn.  I don’t think that I am exaggerating but I then rolled in my putt from about 20 feet and we were five up.

The next four holes were halved in a fairly uneventful fashion, so we shook hands on the 14^th green.  We carried on playing the course and to be fair it is a good job we wrapped it up early and our opponents started to play better eventually recording a birdie on the last hole. 

As we approached the 18^th tee, match 2, was just leaving the 15^th tee.  Dave Wood and Gavin Little were the JOG players and their match had just finished on the 14^th green with the same 5 & 4 result, but this time in Bedford & County’s favour.  We didn’t have the heart to tell them off for slow play as during the match Mr Wood had rung the Samaritans saying that he couldn’t hit a golf ball and they hung up on him. I found the action of The Samaritans very dismissive, don’t they know how serious golf is?  I believe that Dave is still seeking counselling, so if anyone knows someone with a bit more understanding, please talk to Dave.

This time we watched all three Godfather films while we waited for all the other matches to complete, Dave even had time to wash his hair, and then the results came in.  After six matches both sides had three wins. I’m not sure whether match 8 or match 4 was the next in (one of them had already recorded a win) but after both those match results were known it was 4 wins to 3 in the home team’s favour.

Our fate rested in the hands of “two shot” Tony Lloyd and his partner, one of our later additions Richard Westergreen-Thorne.  Apparently, they were dormie 3 down but managed to win the last three holes to get JOG the crucial half point needed to secure a home win.

On behalf of the captain, the matches organiser (Algy) and myself, a big thankyou to the guys who stepped in at various points to replace the guys who for various reasons had to withdraw.  All of them, Graham Lewis, Tony Lloyd, Richard WT and Algy made a telling contribution to our win.

One question you might like to ask Peter Imray when you next see him is “what is it like getting six shots in a match” as I’m sure that hasn’t happened in quite a while.  He certainly didn’t waste them! and he won the JOG nearest the pin award.

As mentioned earlier we had a lovely meal (I was confident enough in our catering staff to have promised this in advance to our opponents) although one or two were critical of my choice of dessert.  I advised them that it was my prerogative as match organiser and if they didn’t like it, they could donate theirs to me.  I did not receive any donations so they couldn’t have minded that much. It was left to the captains to wrap things up and announce the slender JOG win in our last home match of the season.

The individual match results were as follows: -

 

1	David Barlow	Won 5 & 4
	Paul Jones
2	Dave Wood	Lost 5 & 4
	Gavin Little
3	Richard Cobb	Lost 3 & 2
	Jeff Thompson
4	Peter Imray	Won 4 & 3
	Graham Gadsden
5	Tony Lloyd	Tied
	Richard Westergreen-Thorne
6	Mehmet Osman	Won 3 & 1
	Graham Lewis
7	Michael Newstead	Lost 3 & 1
	Paul Dobson
8	Terry  Domagala	Won 3 & 1
	Algy Grimes