When we arrived some of our players could be forgiven for thinking this was an away fixture as we were technically in the county of Shropshire although Cleo bury Mortimer is affiliated to Worcester. Whilst this was not a problem as several players on both sides had not played the course before we did have to clarify which team had the honour on the tee in the morning?
However, play got under way and by lunch time we held a narrow lead of 3.5 to 2.5 going into the four-ball matches. Every match was closely fought with some tram-liners being held by some of the opposition on what were excellent greens. When our penultimate pairings arrived on the 18th green the match was all square but Tony Jowle and Malcolm Pugh (Our super sub) couldn’t prevent the final put and narrowly lost the match 1 down.
This meant we had to win the last match to secure victory and when we discovered we were 1 up standing on the last tee it became a tense few moments. Fred Savage and Ian Dorrell (the latter with perhaps some local knowledge, being a member of Cleo bury Mortimer) brought up the rear and Fred’s put on the last meant the opposition had to sink a 10 footer to halve the match. However, the put shaved the hole thus securing us the necessary win by 1 up and overall victory by 9.5 to 8.5.
This result was particularly pleasing as last year the matches all went to the 18th green but we lost 5 of the 6 on that occasion. Not so this year and a great performance from the team and well done. A special thank you to Malcolm Pugh from Moseley who stood in at the last moment-a truly super-sub.
Our thanks as always to Cleobury Mortimer for allowing us the courtesy of the course and some great hospitality and catering to match. Thanks also to Shropshire and Herefordshire for a great match played in excellent spirit.
We now look forward to our next match against Northampton on Thursday July 28th at Gaudet Luce, another course several of us have not played before. Perhaps not knowing where the ball goes is an advantage?
Steve Wilkins
Seniors Captain
