Swashies humped by Early Birds but make Finals Day…. just

A certain James Doran suggested a match report of “they won, we lost…. move on“.  Seems about right, but I’ll grudingly stick a few more down.

After last week’s win against our sister team, The Originals, the Swashies entered into the final game of the Ryder Cup campaign facing the always steady Early Birds in a rescheduled match.   Swashbucklers needed just 4 points to make sure of finals day….  just 4.

Weather held off  – overcast, mild and breezy later on.  In Phil’s absence, Winkle captained the Swashbucklers and the draw made with Andy G for the Early Birds.  Pairings and singles headed out in good spirits.

I played alongside Simon G in the singles.  I was taking on canny Paul Gilbody whilst Simon was playing young Haydn.  Few opening birdies between Paul and myself, holes were just won or lost and it turned we didnt halve a hole till the last one… the 15th.  Paul played very well, never missed a fairway and struck the ball very well.  I tried to keep up but made a few poor decisions, found far too much sand and with couple of ropey putts thrown in we were shaking hands on the 15th green with Paul taking it 4&3.  Well played Mr G.

We played the 16th for fun meanwhile Haydn and Simon’s match remained tight and they walked to the 17th all square after Haydn fought back from being 3 down earlier on.

Clubhouse had far, far too many pink shirts in there.  Things were not looking good.

Meanwhile… not more than 6feet away….

No hiding, no excuses, we were beaten by the far better team on the day. Huge congratulations to the Early Birds.  Well played Simon who was unfortunately pipped by Haydn on the last.  Well done Winkle and Dan “the trousers” Mason for their hard-fought point against a gritty Andy and Joe, and also to Wayne and Scotty who both battled hard to the 18th hole to halve their matches.

Would 3pts be enough?

Yes as it turns out – our 3 hard-fought (but measly) points, were just enough.  It meant we halved overall with The Originals in the final table (see below).  An unusual situation but as it turns out, a halved final score then goes to the head-to-head result meaning our win against the rest of the Swindle last week meant we make Finals Day on 1st April.  A big outside chance perhaps, but a chance to contend nonetheless.

Their big win today puts the Early Birds back in the game, level pegging with the solid Bashers on Finals day.  Did I hear someone say “anyone but the Pistols?“, *cough* who’d say that eh?

Shame we couldn’t have both Swindle teams featuring on 1st April. Pretty d8mn good that we are even able to to put out two Swindle teams (and of course let us not forget the The Originals won last year).

Hard campaign for both of our Swindle teams, lets see what shakes out next year but well done everyone.