2012 Match Report
Worcestershire 1st Versus Leicestershire 1st
Played at Longcliffe Golf Club, Sunday 4th March
The 1st team travelled to Longcliffe on a wet Sunday in March with the words from the county presidents speech at the county dinner still ringing in their ears.
On arrival at Longcliffe it became clear that there was not a lot of golf going to be played. Longcliffe Golf Club kindly kept the course open to allow 20 guys to go and hone their foursomes skills.
Prior to the golf the guys were informed that the 2011 season was over and this was the start of something new, any differences were put aside and it was full steam ahead to try to go 1/2 a point better and win the league in 2012. With a few regular 1st team players out through injury and work commitments Matt Vigurs (sporting a very 80's swept fringe bowl type haircut), Scott Mason and Russ Ager came in to an already strong team. The regular and reliable partnership of Sadler and Heeley led the team out and were nearly in before the last game had tee'd off. Great win and 1st point.
The new pairing of Mason and Carpenter had a good match with Webb and Corby bringing in half a point.
The slap/slap putt putt pairing of Lane and Hill won.....that's all we can say, seldom do they lose..well played guys.
Now we come to the young pretenders of Palmer and Vigurs. Whether it was the Rhino tusk earing weighing Palmer down or Vigurs hat/tea cosy absorbing too much water that caused the defeat we shall never know! Either way they came back from a bad start to give themselves a chance of a half but the final surge from Pretty and Wilson put a stop to that and they lost. Bad luck guys but remember, for the actual matches we don't do fancy dress!!
The trap 5 pairing of Wallace and Ager was new to everybody. I was asked why I chose to play with Russ and I honestly said "because I drew the short straw". However I was about to eat my words (as well as 4 bananas, 2 twix and 3 snickers) as Ager stepped right up to the plate with what can only be described as a brilliant display of putting. Down in the game early things did not look good then with Russ's solid putting and my humour we overcame Foster and Anderson to win 2 and 1.
This left the foursomes at 3.5 to 1.5 to Worcestershire and, with the weather cold and deteriorating, the Captains agreed to cancel the singles and Worcestershire took their first win of the year.
Thanks go to Longcliffe Golf Club for hosting the day and to the officials (Bill Thompson and John Moreton) for making the long trip to support the guys. Again also thanks to Andy Lammas, from Bransford, who supported the team, provided refreshment where necessary and helped out as he did in the matches last year.
I look forward to the next game at Cleobury V Gloucestershire on the 15th April and hope to continue our winning run.
Graham Wallace Captain
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