Organiser Jonathan Lean, Captain Richard Westergreen-Thorne, Millbrook Vice Captain Ian Potter and Millbrook Captain Martin Howell on the Carthagena 1st Tee.
Organiser Jonathan Lean reports
This was the first home match that I had organised, so I was keen that everything went smoothly. Trying to keep ahead of the game, I prepared the score cards on the Friday before the match on Tuesday 28th May. Murphy’s Law kicked in though and, on the Saturday, Millbrook Captain Martin Howell sent me the updated Millbrook team. The good news was that the team was unchanged in terms of personnel. The bad news was that every Millbrook team member’s HI had changed except one. Tippex to the rescue!
On the morning of the match, I arrived at the club at 7.30am only to find our intrepid captain already warming up in the nets. Trying to get some practice in not having played for 3 weeks, he explained. Such dedication!
After the usual introductions, we set off in cloudy but dry conditions. This was not to last though and the whole round was punctuated by brollies up and down, waterproofs on and off and a challenging swirling wind. These are my excuses, and I am sticking to them!
The opening match (organiser and captain) did not start to plan, losing the first 2 holes to net pars. We stopped the rot briefly by halving the third and then managed a birdie on the 4th to pull back to 1 down. This was a brief respite though as Millbrook won the 5th to get back to 2 up where they stayed to the turn. There was no let up as our opponents played very well to eventually triumph 4 & 2. The rain had let up by then so we played the 17th and 18th, both of which captain Richard played immaculately. Too little to late though. Perhaps he was showing off to club captain Justin Thomas who walked in with us for these last 2 holes.
As the results trickled in things started to look up as matches 2 and 3 went our way and match 4 was halved. 2½ - 1½ after 4 matches. Could this be 2 wins in a row? Sadly we then lost 3 of the last 4 matches to eventually go down 3½ - 4½ overall.
An excellent lunch of chicken and vegetables followed by chocolate tart eased the disappointment somewhat.
The course was in excellent condition and compliments abounded from the Millbrook team. Their captain, Martin Howell confided that this match against JOG was the most over-subscribed in their calendar
Nearest the pin on the 8th for JOG was Nick Schumann. His was the only name on the sheet even though he was in the 6th match out. None of the JOG players managed to hit the green in the first 5 matches!
Overall results as follows.
Richard Westergreen-Thorne and Jonathan Lean lost 4 & 2
Phil Armstrong and Andy Lawrence won 2 & 1
Jack Shepherd and Chris Roy won 1 up.
Fred Williams and Gerry Degaute halved their match
Oz Osman and Gavin Little lost 5 & 4
Nick Schumann and Alban Macdonald lost 2 & 1
Barry Donovan and Neil Pinnington won 3 & 2
Michael Newstead and Graham Gadsden lost 2 & 1.
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