Posted on behalf of Originals Captain Simon C
2nd fixture for the Originals after a great 8-8 draw with the Early Birds saw us up against the Pistol Knights. In the lead up to the day we had some drama with Brian C requiring eye surgery on a detached retina. Asif and Mushie were away and numbers were tight again. Thankfully Brian made a quick recovery from the op and our team was raring to go.
There had been a lot of rain overnight and the course we extremely wet; bunkers were out of play and the rain continued during most of the morning. Tough conditions!
Up first was Barry Bone & JC vs Steve Atkinson and Danny Betts.. at least that was the idea. Unfortunately Mr. Betts had one too many vinos the night before and was running late, so the 1st match became the 4th. I saw Danny a few times during the round and he did look rough; slipping over in the mud a couple of times I sure didn’t help! Despite the high alcohol levels Danny and Steve did a job on Barry and JC beating our lads 7&5.
Graham CC was back in action having missed the first tie and was paired up with Brian C against the Pistols captain Mick Sweetman and Charlie Payne. The Pistols won 3&2.
Next up we had Graham Adams and Peter Stevens drawn against the excellent Sam Allen and Dom Khan. This looked like tricky tie despite our pairing’s impressive win in the Early Birds tie. Another loss unfortunately, 4&3.
My playing partner was young Harry Yule and we were drawn against Chris Hart and Ben Lodrick-Osbourne. Ben was the low handicapper, Harry got 4 shots, while Chris and myself got 7. Harry and I didn’t start well. I had a 4 footer on the 1st to match Ben and missed.. thankfully my putter didn’t let me down on the 2nd andI managed to secure a par for a half. The 3rd saw us all go left with the exception of Chris who won the hole with a 3. We managed to lose the 4th as well… 3 down after 4, pretty poor!
Thankfully we started to wake up a bit, we halved the 5th, and won the 6 with a great up and down for par by Harry. 2 down.
7th hole, Harry and Ben narrowly missed birdie putts. The 8th was halved after my downhill 10 footer. Harry was the hero winning on 9 after falling over, getting covered in mud but managing to then hole a left to right 4 footer for par. 1 Down.
The back 9 was very close with only 1 hole not being halved. Ben saved their bacon on 11 with a great up and down for par and a half.
The 12 was our worst hole and badly timed. Harry and I had straight forward 3rd shorts in but we both missed the green and lost the hole.. 2 down.
Harry holed a very important 12 footer for par half on 13, and I managed to par 14 and 15 to keep it at 2 down. On 16 chris had a 12 footer to win the match and it grazed the edge…
Both Ben and Chris hit great tee shots on 17, so we needed a birdie. Harry went right and his 2nd went in the front right bunker. I hit decent tee shot but it was on the left side just right of the path.. I had 160 yards into wind, ball above feet.. which were slipping in the mud. I hit my shot of the day, pin high left of the pin.. about 12 foot away. Ben chipped it stone dead and I had a put to keep the match alive.. I missed and 2&1 loss result. A loss but a fun game, Ben was class, making very few errors.
So having lost all of the pairs, we needed something to prevent an embarrassing disaster! Enter TJ with a great 5&4 win over Steve Bracey. Thanks TJ!!
Lee Histed played well again and managed to hole a 30 foot grandstand putt to nick a half with Dan Donegan. TJ and Lee have already proven to be 2 of our strongest players this year, keep it up chaps!
Another great result came from the tenacious Rob Hance beating Jay Massey 2&1. Rob has not been well of late so this was a fantastic victory.
Last in was Bryan Hogben vs Baz Sweetman. A very close one with an unfortunate finish. Bryan just missing short putt to nick a halved match. 1 hole loss.
So a little disappointing 11-5 loss but it could have been worse.. the opposition was very good and it was a fun day overall. Our next tie is against Bobs Bashers in Feb 2018.
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