JoG Seniors at home to St Neots June 21 2023

Match organiser Ian Riches reports

The home match against St Neots is always a very friendly occasion given the close proximity of the two clubs. Some members of SNGC live in Potton and likewise some JOG members live nearer St Neots than our club, so there is a strong affinity between the two clubs and the match is always played in very good spirits.

In the week prior to the match both clubs had had their fair share of difficulties in assembling a team. On the day, the JOG team comprised of four substitute players due to various withdrawals. A special note of thanks must be given to Malcolm Lee for taking part following a call from our Captain at 7.30am to replace a casualty from Covid.

The St Neots captain also realised he had caught Covid late evening prior to the match and then found his reserve player also had the wretched disease. Nevertheless, on a very warm and sunny day we had 32 players eager to play golf.

The work undertaken by our greens staff during the winter and the preparation of the course for two England Golf events the week before meant the JOG course was in fantastic condition. Did this provide the home team with an advantage? That’s difficult to say, but it certainly resulted in lots of complimentary comments from SNGC members. Grimes and Riches achieved an easy victory of 5&4 but it was nip and tuck for many of the other games, with one draw and three other wins. Despite SNGC having a 20-shot advantage, JOG therefore achieved an overall victory of 4½ v 3½.