Posted on behalf of The Originals captain, Simon C
A very cold and frosty start to our big match against Bob’s Bashers. This was our 3rd fixture and after a draw against the Early birds and a loss to the Pistol Knights we needed a good win to guarantee a place on finals day and gain some momentum heading into the Swashies match. The Bashers were desperate for a win and I could sense a bit of nervous tension in the clubhouse!
The winning Originals team
Bob’s Bashers captain James Carter was kind enough to agree swapping the top 2 matches as someone (Barry..) was running late. Glad you made it Baz!
Out first was Graham A and Mushie. They played a well fought half against Graham Hooton and Greg Hughan.
Barry and Bryan H were up against the big hitting 17 handicapper Gabriel and the very good Peter LeCren playing off 6. Our lads gave it a good go but lost by 2 holes.
So not a great start but the tide began to change with the Yetti, Brian C on the first tee doing his famous one armed bolo warm up and sending a cracker down the first. Brian and Jonny C earned a great 3&2 win over Ralph and Geoff Russon.
In my match I was with Dave Francis making his Ryder Cup deput. He’d been practicing his chipping and pitching in his back garden and you could tell!! We were playing Peter Wheeler and Kevin Harmon.. looked like a tough one. We didn’t start well losing the first 2 holes, with Peter getting a birdie on the 2nd. We won the 3rd when they sent both tee shots in the water, I then sunk a 40ft birdie putt just to make sure!
The 4th and 5th were halved. We lost the 6th to a 5 with the hard greens not helping our approaches! I was the only one who hit the green on 7, and my par won the hole. 1 down! Dave played some great stuff on 8 and 9, paring both with longish putts, resulting in a win on and 8 and a half on 9. Match all square at the turn.
10th hole was big. All four of us on the green in regulation, I was at the back of the green and lipped out a monster birdie putt. Peter had a 4 footer for a birdie and surprisingly missed.. momentum was with is.
11th hole and Dave played a great up and down from right of the green side bunker for the win! First time up in the match!
The greens had started to thaw out in places but both our approaches into 12 hit ice and bounced way through. Kevin got a par to win.
On 13 Dave was about 10 ft short of the green and played a great pitch shot to gimme range.. all that practice in the back garden was paying off! 2up.
14 was very rough into the wind. I managed to hole a swinging left to right par putt of about 15 ft to win the hole. 3 up!
Kevin was playing well by this time and looked like the danger man. He was unlucky on 15, his approach was heading straight for the pin but bounced though the green. A par from Dave meant we couldn’t lose. Dormie 3.
Kevin had a shot on 16. His tee shot went right, near the small trees. He had over 200 yards and a small tree in his eyeline but hit a great fairway wood on to the green. He 2 putted for a nett 3 and won the hole.
Onto 17, neither Kevin or Peter on the green and I had a simple 2 putt from 20 ft to win the match, which I managed! Great win against 2 very tough players.
Onto the singles and we won all matches, with some big results! The ever reliable Asif won his match 3&2 against Paul Delaney and in the same group, Rob Hance (vice capt) won big, 6&5 against the excellent Luke Carter.
Speaking of big wins, Lee Histed had an even wider winning margin 7&6 against Jo Lo. Giving away 9 shots that was impressive golf!
TJ also played a great match beating James Carter. I hear that the match was tight on the front 9 but TJ turned on the style on the back 9 to win 3&2.
13-3; Great day, great win! Thanks to the team including Jan who was on standby and nearly got a call until Barry arrived. One more match and then finals day..
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