Seniors Narrowly Miss Top Spot

On Tuesday 6th July the Seniors took part in the North/East area qualifier of the Southern Counties Senior Foursomes, fortunately the weather did not turn out as bad as the forecast though some testing strong winds were present for the afternoon round. Following a very valuable practice round on the Monday we went into the competition with a reasonable amount of confidence a good result was achievable.

We were led out in the 1st morning match by Paul Sennett & Tracy White who unfortunately fell to a 4&2 defeat, this was soon followed by a 2&1 defeat for Colin Beard and myself. Was our optimism misplaced as the next match in saw Peter Mott and his Millbrook colleague Duncan Steele slip to a final green 1 down defeat. The morning was salvaged by a 3&2 win for old timer Dave Banwell and Andy Whipp a late draft to the team, thank you Andy, and a 2 up win for the tail gunners Dickie Harris and our very own Italian Stallion Carmine Di Salvo. So at lunch the scores stood at Norfolk 4 points, Cambridgeshire 3, Bedfordshire 2 and Suffolk 1 and all to play for. The afternoon did not start well with Paul and Tracy soon falling behind, Colin and Myself 3 down after 6 and Richard and Carmine at one point 4 down, however we all know what foursomes can be like, you win 1 hole then another and momentum can quickly swing back in your favour. As we approached 4.00 pm games were starting to come to a conclusion, Paul and Tracy had turned it around and recorded an 18th green 1 up win, Colin and myself finally got back on level terms by the 13th and following 4 halved holes took the lead for the first time at the best possible place, the 18th green. Banners and Andy Whipp unfortunately could not repeat their morning heroics and fell to a 4&3 defeat however spirits and pints were soon raised as Motty and Duncan walked in having recorded a 2&1 victory. Phones, calculators and in some cases fingers were now in use as it became apparent how close the final result was looking, Norfolk the morning leaders had only taken 1 1/2 points from their first 4 matches, Cambridgeshire only 1/2 a point from 4, Suffolk had rallied with 3 wins but had left themselves to much to do, what of Bedfordshire? 3 wins from 4 matches and only 2 matches on the course and 1 a shootout between Norfolk and ourselves. Having initially hung on then incredibly turned a 4 down score line into 2 up Dickie Harris and Carmine having lost the 15th and halved 16 and 17 (as a result of a very good downhill rapid curly 8'0” putt for par by the Norfolk Captain) reached the 18th tee box 1 up, a halved hole see's us over the live a halved match gives the top spot to Norfolk by a 1/2 point over ourselves. The following 20 minutes was mentally draining and included every emotion you can experience on a golf course but sadly for us resulted in Norfolk winning the hole, the match finishing all square and a final result of Norfolk 6 points, Bedfordshire 5 1/2, Cambridgeshire 4 1/2 and Suffolk 4, it doesn't get any tighter than that. I know how gutted Dickie and Carmine were for the way the 18th panned out, using our own special Bedfordshire Seniors humour we even pointed out how disappointed we were with them and it's only because of the wonderful team spirit we have we can do that and swiftly move on. As a pairing they were our top scorers and although it's easy to look back just on that final match all 10 of us knew we made mistakes during the day that could so easily have changed the overall result in our favour. The most pleasing thing for me was that all 5 pairings most of whom were playing foursomes together for the 1st time recorded a win and it was a genuine team effort, thanks to all involved and special thanks to Dobbo who was there all day on a buggy keeping us all not only informed but going when things weren't looking good.

     Andy Brown (Brownie)

     County Senior Captain.

Link below to see full results 

/uploads/bedscounty/File/SC Foursomes FinalResult.pdf

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