Home Match v East Herts Stags - 18th June 2019

A highways detour taking some of East Herts Stags on the tourist route through the lanes of South West Cambridgeshire caused a little panic for the East Herts captain in the thought that JOG Seniors may, in some cases, be playing 2 against 1 but all of The Stags did make it to the first tee even if a little late.

Thanks to a week of almost continuous rain the Carthagena course was looking and playing better than looked possible at the beginning of June.

From the teams’ handicaps this  always looked an uphill task and so it proved to be. Unfortunately I reverted to type in playing the supporting role having to depend upon my partner to keep us in the match. I did, however, get us off to a good start thanks to our opponents missing the first two greens and also their puts but then I went downhill until the last 2 holes. We were 3 down with 3 to play but the Captain came good by winning the notorious 16^th. This caused my survival instinct to kick in parring the 17^th & 18^th to half the match.

As expected, the other matches proved to be tough asks for the JOG team with, as an example, Jack Shepherd having g to give his opponents 7 and 14 shots the results were mixed but went in favour of East Herts –

David Gauge / Malcolm Lee                                            half

Colin Newbury / Jim Peacock                                          lost  4 & 3
Neil Pinnington / Bill Walker                                           won 3 & 1
Terry McSweeney / Richard Westergreen-Thorne     won 1up
Fred Williams / Jim Kerr                                                   lost  1 down
Gerry Degaute / David Lincoln                                        lost  3 & 1
Ray Smart / Barry Donovan                                             lost  4 & 3

David Crosby / Jack Shepherd                                         lost  3 & 2

    

Hence team result:-                   Jog Snrs 2.5,  East Herts Stags 5.5

Lunch was Pork Escalope ( Schnitzel! ) followed by Seasonal Crumble ( apple!) with custard

Malcolm Lee

Organiser

Senior Section Championship Trophy - 11th June 2019

Although called the Senior Section Championship Trophy, we were playing for two trophies, the Rex Cleaver for the best nett score and the Bessant East Scratch Trophy for the best gross score.

Well, what can be said about the weather? Damp, wet, soaking....yes all three. Upon arrival at about 7.30am the rain was falling very steadily but I was not too worried from a selfish point of view, I didn't tee off for about three hours!!

The players arrived and a lot were thinking the competition might have been called off. An old message on the club phone system said the course was open but with temporary greens, this was later revealed to be a message from last February. Most questioned their sanity when paying their match fee and buying the raffle tickets but the latter did make about £185.00 towards David's charity.

Most groups seemed to make quite good progress, the first group off the 10th were round to the 1st before my group (being the last) had started play, but they were a bit early. The rain continued to fall.

The Senior's Captain said in his remarks after the game that he had to start from the 10th (again) and managed a fine eight, a score that he would repeat on the 7th. The highest score by one player on any hole was 13 and the lowest was 3, only 2 birdies and 121 Pars were achieved throughout the entire competition, so well done to those that got these scores in such difficult conditions.

The winner of the Rex Cleaver with the lowest nett score of 75 was Steve Clark (off 16) closely followed by Bill Burrows in second place with 76 (off 21) on countback from Graham Berry in third place also on 76 (off 20).

Nett Winner Steve Clark

Second Bill Burrows

The winner of the Bessant East with the best Gross score of 85 (off 8) was Malcolm Falconer, that was not the only thing he won, Malcolm also won the Nearest the Pin on the 16th.

Everyone was pleased to arrive back in the clubhouse so that they could dry off and enjoy suitable rehydration of some sort.

Algy Grimes
Organiser

Home Match v Leighton Buzzard - 4th June 2019

Game 1 set the tone of the overall match in that it was halved, albeit only two of the eighteen holes were actually halved and neither team got more than two up at any time.  There were three birdies and one eagle (modesty prevents me from saying who grabbed the eagle).

After the first 4 Games JOG were 2 up with 2 wins and 2 halves. LB then won 2 of the next 3 meaning JOG was 1 up with one game to be completed. The final game was halved to produce a final outcome of JOG 4.5 and LB 3.5.

With all the players relaxing post match in the clubhouse the LB vice captain produced his rather damaged ball which it was alleged had been 'run over' by one of our green keepers on the 10th. Our lads had sportingly allowed him to replay his shot and he reciprocated by then missing his putt on the hole. Our captain has graciously offered to repair the ball and return it at the away leg.

Whilst mentioning Captain Dave it is worth noting he put us 1 up on the first with a net birdie and secured the half with a solid par on the last.  

Gerry Degaute
Organiser