Seniors away to Gog Magog July 27 2026

 

Organiser Neil Pinnington reports

Outside the clubhouse at Gog Magog stands an oversized deck chair marking their 125^th anniversary in 2026. Captain David offered to have his photo taken in the chair as an alternative for the blog rather than me submitting a match report.  As you can see that did not happen. So…….

 Our team arrived at Gog Magog with differing stories of their travel from “problems on the A505” to “an easy drive through a deserted Cambridge”. However, all agreed that the bacon rolls were an excellent start to the day.

Captain David and myself started out full of hope and determination to do well. These hopes were severely dented when our opponents hit us with two birdies and two pars on the first four holes. Four down already! Without any help from me, David managed to stem the bleeding somewhat that meant by the end of nine holes our opponents were still 1 under par and we were 5 down.  David continued the fight back over the next three holes but with an impressive birdie three on 13 and another three on 14 our opponents closed out the match

The next two matches did fare better but still recorded losses. The spectre of a whitewash loomed.  Paul Conibear and Paul Life (in the lead match starting at the 15^th) came in with a halved match.

Whitewash averted and hope of better things to come. Unfortunately, that was the only crumb of comfort as all four of the next matches recorded losses. Final score was Gog Magog 7.5 John O’Gaunt 0.5

Spirits were revived somewhat with an excellent hot buffet and a cup of coffee.

The siting of the hole on the green elected for the nearest pin was obviously flawed. After dinner it was announced that despite there being separate boards for Gog Magog and JOG only one name had been recorded. That was their Captain Allan – his shot that closed out the top match was never bettered. In fact, no member of our team managed to hold the ball on the green! So, Captain Allan manufactured a raffle to find who would win the prize. Martyn Graham was the lucky winner.

We must do better in the return match on September 8th.

Full results are:

David Barlow and Neil Pinnington lost 6&4

Barry Donovan and Martyn Graham lost 2&1

Chris Saunders and Jed Isbell lost 1 down

Kevin Barbour and Michael Newstead lost 5&3

Peter Imray and Warren Churms lost 2 down

Paul Conibear and Paul Life Halved

Jack Shepherd and Steve Luckman lost 3&2

Gavin Little and Graham Gadsden lost 2&1

Captain David Barlow and Organiser Neil Pinnington with their opponents Allan and Iain