John O'Gaunt Senior Captain Richard Westergreen-Thorne and organiser Algy Grimes with their Cambridge Country Club opponents on the first tee
Organiser Algy Grimes reports
With the drizzle falling outside we had 32 very keen golfers gather in the clubhouse to enjoy coffee and biscuits prior to the usual introductions. Whilst announcing the JOG team, Richard Westergreen-Thorne welcomed three members playing their first inter-club match. They were Paul Life, Stephen Mathers and David Trotter and when I asked them after the round they were all very pleased with how the morning had gone.
Looking at the team sheet and the shot allowance for the two teams it showed that JOG had 46 shots and CCC had 158, that is a difference of 112! I did mention this to the visiting Captain on more than one occasion on the way round the course.
With myself and Captain Richard leading the way we lost the first hole to a par by a 29 handicapper - Richard's putt was too hard to go in! With their Captain having a shot on the next two holes we soon found ourselves three down, albeit playing bogey golf.
Fortunes changed on the 4th, their nearest the pin. Neither of them hit the green, but yours truly did and managed a birdie to win that hole. Then two down we also had shots on the next two holes and managed to bring it back to all square, then a loss, win, loss so we were one down at the turn.
Hole 10 beckoned and with everyone getting a bogey, we lost it to yet another shot for CCC. Surprisingly we then managed to halve four holes on the trot, fighting off more shots against us. However we succumbed on the 15th to go dormy three, then only being able to half 16 we lost 3 & 2. At this point Richard was nearest the pin on the 16th, but with Jonathan Lean behind us, he did say he would only remain there for about 5 minutes. Sure enough we saw Jonathan tee off and watched his shot majestically land on the green and roll up closer to the pin to claim the bottle of wine.
As the scores came in we found ourselves losing 4 - 0. We won the fifth with our pair overcoming a shot deficit of 21, very impressive, so for a moment we were dreaming of halving the match. However the next was only halved so we knew we had lost the match. The 7th was lost but the 8th was another win for JOG, which was also impressive because we overcame 12 shot disadvantage.
A fine meal of Gammon steak and egg on bubble and squeak, followed by sticky toffee pudding was enjoyed by all. Richard's joke was one of the longest I have heard following a match and featured a 'cycle path', you have to hear the joke to get it, if you have a number of minutes to spare ask Richard to tell it again!
The results were;
Richard Westergreen-Thorne & Algy Grimes - Lost 3 & 2
Jonathan Lean & Fred Williams - Lost 2 down
Nigel Underwood & Rob Ebsworth - Lost 5 & 4
Trevor Darrington & Graham Gadsden - Lost 3 & 1
Paul Clark & Jack Shepherd - WON 5 & 4
David Trotter & Tony Lloyd - Halved
Stephen Mathers & Alban Macdonald - Lost 2 & 1
Paul Jones & Paul Life - WON 3 & 2
Overall a loss 5½ - 2½
An uphill task awaits us in the return match in July to try and win the scroll, although we have never won it yet!
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