Seniors Vice Captain David Barlow and organiser Algy Grimes with their Aspley Guise opponents
Organiser Algy Grimes reports
After a quick trip across Bedfordshire along the A421 on a rather overcast day, we arrived at the splendid course in Aspley Guise, home of the Willmotts. We had the usual coffee and biscuits (chocolate digestive my favorite, but last one on the plate). We were told to discuss free drops with our opponents if our ball found its way into ground damaged by Badgers, it proved not to be a problem really.
It was a shame that Fred Williams had to withdraw from the match - all bunkers on the course were considered Ground Under Repair. I went in quite a few and was very pleased to have a free drop out of them.
In the first match I was playing with Captain for the day, David Barlow and despite both of us playing the first hole well, David with a par only meant a half on that hole. By the fifth hole we were three down. With David parring the sixth he brought us back to 2 down. We only managed to halve the next three holes so were two down at the turn. Again David made par on the tenth but still only a half due to the shot allowance for a Willmott! Having had a super sausage roll at the halfway house, it had given me a new lease of life and I managed to help our cause by making par on the eleventh to bring us back to one down. That didn't last long, we lost the twelfth.
Hole 13 saw the nearest the pin competition, David was just a few inches short of the green, but the winner from JOG was Trevor Darrington. Well done Trevor to follow up on 'beating the pro' in a competition at Colmworth the day before. David made par on the fourteenth to bring us back to one down again, the fight was on. That didn't last long (have I said that before?) and we were soon two down again. However, David made a birdie on the seventeenth to give us hope of halving the match, but although David made another par a 6 net 5 saw that as a half so we lost one down. A very good game on a very good course.
If you ever play here in the future, make sure you keep any food well hidden in your golf bag, David Trotter was looking forward to his sausage roll bought at the halfway house. He didn't heed the warnings and subsequently was seen chasing a crow away that had stolen his food!
The results gradually came in with JOG being second best in the first three matches, David McNair and Paul Jeeves won their match to make it three to one with four results to come. We still had hope but then we heard we had lost the fifth match, then the sixth, then the seventh and lastly the eighth, an overall loss seven to one. It has to be said (some might think sour grapes) they had 147 shots to our 49, make your own mind up.
The meal that followed was Steak and Ale pie (not a real pie) and chips with a dessert of Sticky Toffee Cheesecake.
Apart from the result we had a good day and some laughs in the clubhouse.
The individual results were;
David Barlow and Algy Grimes - Lost 1 down
David Trotter and Derek Young - Lost 7 & 5
Derek Page and Kevin Barbour - Lost 3 & 1
David McNair and Paul Jeeves - Won 3 & 2
Gerry Degaute and Neil Pinnington - Lost 5 & 3
Steve Collins and Richard Westergreen-Thorne - Lost 2 down
Trevor Darrington and Paul Life - Lost 2 & 1
Steve Luckman and Steve Mathers - Lost 3 & 1
No comments:
Post a Comment