The GBR – The Gender Bragging Rights Cup October 2014

Posted on behalf Phil

Well another year flies by and the GBR Cup is upon us again, Gender Bragging Rights for those of you who didn’t know.

A keenly fought Ryder Cup-Style event that pits the men and women of Surrey National against each other. 18hole Foursomes in the morning and 9 hole singles in the afternoon. Originally conceived by Sam Hall some four maybe five years ago after much banter in the clubhouse about who could… and who couldn’t… beat who. It was good to see Sam back at the club for the event yesterday with new addition to the family, Jodie and son Aaron.

The first year as some of you will remember was a fever pitched battle which I think the men may have won by a touch, correct me if I am wrong, the following year though the ladies rocked the Mens section to the core, yes they whooped our a****, a lot of chaps thought it couldn’t happen…but it did, and certainly stopped us in our tracks. I think the following year was a tie and since then the men are undefeated. Never a foregone conclusion though as we knew only too well from the past.

The teams are primarily picked from couples at the club, mixed pairs who have played together and committee members. We had a strong team with plenty of chaps to choose from but Jane had problems getting 12 ladies together and only did so the night before the event, so well done Jane, I know it wasn’t easy.

The weather looked ok for the morning Foursomes but threatened to rain late afternoon so we were looking to get our singles matches out and back as quickly as possibly. Then to the eagerly awaited draw, Jane and Sean called out their morning pairs as is the custom and the matches were ready to go. I was third out and happy to be partnering Hew in the morning, my regular partner, we were feeling fairly confident as we play together a lot. We played Teresa and Bronwen and as it turned out we won by a dog’s license, 7 and 6 for those of you who don’t remember how much a dog’s licence used to be. We played ok but I think we were helped out a little by the hangovers from the night before. All the rest of the men’s matches were won except Sean and Graham Loveless, who were held to a draw by Ladies’ Captain Jane and Pam who stepped in at the last minute to make up 12 for the morning, thank you Pam. We took a break for lunch, a small bowl of soup, some rolls…eventually, and a few chips, edible but very expensive I think was the general consensus.

So with the morning score at 5 1/2 to the men and 1/2 to the ladies, we only needed 3/12 to retain the cup and 4 to win it. This score didn’t really reflect the morning play though as three of the match scores were very close.

After lunch, the draw for the afternoon singles. I was out first with Sean and drawn against Jane, not the draw I wanted I have to be honest, she’s in great form and it’s not easy playing against your other half as Graham also found out!

Coincidentally, there were two other matches drawn with regular mixed partners playing against each. Sean drew Liz and off we went, I went two up after two and was feeling fairly confident, Jane didn’t have a good start, but I missed a par putt on 3, Jane made par and the tables started to turn, and her shots were looming, she was two up through 6 and I needed to so something, I made a par at 7 to get it back to one but lost my ball off of the 8th tee and as a result, lost 2 and 1, well done Jane, you deserved the win.

Sean won his match and the matches behind us were going the men’s way, with Graham and Hew both winning theirs.

However that wasn’t the case further back where the women were storming it.

They ended up winning seven of the singles matches, so very well done to you all.

The maths told the story though and it must have been Jezza who holed the putt to retain the cup (correct me if I am wrong), beating rookie Louise, playing in her first GBR. So the men retain the GBR Cup for 2014.

But…it’s not about the winning as you all know (biting my lip) and another very successful day was had, so a big thanks go out to Jane and Sean for their organisation.

Back to The Macve’s in the evening as is the tradition and once again a very successful evening was had with some wonderful food prepared by Jane and Liz, Peter’s superb pie and I am sure Bronwen must have brought some of her wonderful cakes. Thanks again to Jane for all of her hard work preparing and organising the evening. Plenty of alcohol consumed a few would of could of should of stories told, a few old pics browsed and a lot of weary faces, a long but fantastic day and long may it continue. Didn’t see the cup yesterday so I don’t know where that lives now, perhaps someone does?

Foursomes in the morning

• Graham (L) and Sean halved with Jane and Pam
• Hew and Phil beat Tee and Bronwen 7&6
• Graham (A) and Jezzlar beat Carol and Lorraine by 1hole
• John (V) and Joe beat Margaret and Tracey 6&4
• Mushi and Peter beat Indra and Pauline 2&1
• Denzil and Bobby beat Janine and Louise by 1hole

Morning ended Men 5 1/2 to the Ladies 1/2

Long lunch break. Fiver for small bowl of soup and a handful of chips.  That really isnt good enough of the club to charge that.

Singles in the mid-late afternoon

• Sean beat Liz
• Jane beat Phil
• Graham (L) beat Carol
• Hew beat Lorraine
• Jerry beat Louise

Then the ladies stepped up…

• Janine beat Graham (A)
• Pauline beat Denzil
• Inra beat Mushi
• Margaret beat Bob
• Tracey beat Peter
• Tee halved with Joe
• Bronwen halved with John

Ladies took the singles 7-5.

So from last year where the ladies won in the foursomes to be taken on the singles, this year it was switched around and the strong morning session saw the Men come out on top-retaining the Cup 10 1/2 to 7 1/2.

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