Seniors at home to Wellingborough April 14 2026

 

Seniors Captain David Barlow and organiser Paul Jones with their Wellingborough opponents

Organiser Paul Jones reports on our match against Wellingborough

It was a lovely sunny morning when I set off from Northampton and I was grateful that I was organising a match that meant I had an hour extra in bed. The later tee time is due to the distance our opponents from Wellingborough have to travel, and the same arrangement will be afforded to us when we visit Wellingborough later in the year.

On paper, the two teams appeared to be extremely unevenly matched, as the JOG team were receiving 70 shots more than our opponents. The average Handicap Index for Wellingborough’s players was 13.9 and ours was 17.7

Fortunately, I had the luxury of having a draft version of their team, but it was a challenge to achieve matches that were closely matched.

The balance further tipped in our favour when a player from the Wellingborough team failed to make the journey.

Our team welcomed Paul Conibear for his first JOG Seniors match, and I paired him with the experienced Tony Lloyd.

As the organiser I was paired with David Barlow our Seniors Captain and unsurprisingly he was the “scratch” player in our group, so our opponents were getting 3 and 5 shots and I received 11.  Rather embarrassingly my handicap has crept up to 20 mainly due to playing several rounds at Collingtree Park (CPGC) whose Slope Index of 118 off the yellow tees means that it is perceived to be easier than both JOG courses. The fact that I hardly ever finish with the same ball at CPGC and very rarely score more than 30 points suggests that the slope system is not flawless.

We started well, winning 3 of the first 4 holes with David playing holes 2 to 4 in one under par. We both messed up the 5^th hole, but David found the green on the 6^th hole and, after our opponents had both extracted themselves from the same right-hand bunker (the Wellingborough nearest the pin hole,) he sank his putt for a two.

At the JOG nearest the pin hole (8^th) both David and I found the right-hand bunker and we lost that hole. So, we had played both nearest the pin holes and none of us recorded our names on the marker boards.

 David parred the ninth and we finished the front nine 3 up.

 On the 10th hole our opponents demonstrated that they hadn’t quite mastered the art of “ham and egging” as they both secured birdies whilst David and I decided if we were going to lose the hole, we might as well do it in style as we both messed up.

The 11^th was also won by our opponents who were now only one down.

The 12th was won by JOG to get us back to 2 up.

Wellingborough’s Senior Captain Neil, birdied the par 3 13^th so the margin was reduced to 1 again.

The turning point was the shortish par four 14^th when, with the honour off the tee, both the Wellingborough players went too far right and the JOG pair both pared that hole.

I parred the 15^th and with my shot that could not be matched, we were dormie 3 up.

We halved the 16^th in 5 shots with three of the four ball receiving a shot thus closing out our match 3&2.

On the 18^th tee we waited for match 2 to tee off on the 15^th tee and last year’s captain came up to us and apologised for falling three holes behind. I’m sure it must not have been Tony’s fault as once he is over the ball he plays quicker than you can say double bogey.

I suppose when you are behind a group when three of the four players were getting birdies and my contribution to the pace of play was picking up when my partner carried me, it cannot be easy keeping up.

After our golf and a long wait in the clubhouse for the results to come in, we enjoyed an excellent meal of pork loin steak, potatoes and veg followed by pavlova.

It then fell to our Captain to toast our guests and present the nearest the pin prizes. The JOG nearest the pin (NTP) was won by Martyn Graham (a tip here for future blog writers just copy and paste “the nearest the pin winner for JOG was Martyn” as, if I am not mistaken, we have played three matches and very admirably Martyn has won NTP each time.

Do not be surprised if at the “bring and win” event later in the year, Martyn donates a bottle of wine from the comprehensive collection in his wine cellar.

David then handed over to Captain Neil to announce the result which was a 4-4 draw.

Our Vice Captain shared with me that in the final match the teams stood tied on the 18^th tee. He was aware that sometimes teams have agreed a half on the tee in this scenario, but he wanted to play the 18th and try to get the win.  It was a good move as that win meant our unbeaten start lives on for another day.

This is an encouraging start for our Captain especially after his struggles last year. He has played three matches and won his game each time so long may his and the team's unbeaten run continue.

I have also won all three of my matches, but I am far too modest to mention that, other than to say that I have been blessed with good partners.

The individual match results were:

1	David Barlow	Won 3&2
	Paul Jones
2	Paul Conibear	Lost 3&2
	Tony Lloyd
3	Geoff Elcome	Lost 5&4
	Mehmet Osman
4	Graham Gadsden	Won 4&2
	Paul Dobson
5	Richard Westergreen - Thorne	Lost 3&1
	Ian Maddison
6	Martyn Graham	Lost 3&2
	Michael Newstead
7	Gavin Little	Won 2&1
	Chris  Roy
8	Terry  Domagala	Won 1 up
	Gerry Degaute