Warwickshire Golf
SENIOR BEARS LOSE HEAVILY TO CAMBRIDGESHIRE IN ESSEX
Warwickshire Seniors suffered their second loss of the 2018 season when losing heavily to Cambridgeshire at Saffron Walden Golf Club in Essex. Our East Midlands opponents are known as the Cambridge 'Area' Golf Union and as such do sometimes hold their home fixtures in adjoining counties. This year's match was held just over the Cambridge border and was always likely to provide us with a stiff task against opposition based some 100 miles away for most of our team and I am grateful to all our players for leaving their beds early to make the trip.
The players travelled to the course through heavy rain which left them all looking anxiously at their weather apps to see at what time the rain was predicted to move away. The rain did ease in time for the first match to set out and for the most part, the day was dry and warmed up sufficiently in the afternoon with the sun coming out. The course had benefitted from a wet weekend and looked very green in colour with conditions quite different of late for all the players to cope with. Tee shots were not progressing very far up the fairway after pitching and the greens were almost too receptive, with players having to make sure their balls pitched up by the flag, as very little forward momentum was seen. However the greens offered a great surface to putt on.
The morning matches concluded with two wins, two halves and two losses per side.
After lunch however things were quite different with the home side making a clean sweep of all six matches.
The break for lunch had probably come at the wrong time and to use football parlance it was very much a game of two halves. To illustrate this, in match 3, playing with Laurence Greatley, he and I had played quite nicely in the morning greensome, being three under par to win. However the afternoon saw one of our opponents five under par with his own ball after just 9 holes !!
To Saffron Walden Golf Club my thanks to their staff for their hospitality and the presentation of their fine course. My thanks to Graham Goodman and his Cambridgeshire side for their warmth of welcome and my best wishes for the remainder of the season.
It was pleasing to see some new faces within the team with debuts for Adrian Gracey from Stratford Oaks and Graham Barker from Copt Heath who were unlucky to lose both their matches on the final hole. Andy Morris from Stratford Oaks was also on debut and gained a useful half in the morning. It was welcoming to see former Seniors Captain David Middleton back in the harness earning a well deserved win in his morning greensome.
In closing my thanks to the team for playing and coping with the extremely early start and the combative issues of the A14 or M1.
The County's next fixture will be the non-league match against Nottinghamshire at Oakmere Park Golf Club next week.
Mark Reynolds
Seniors Captain
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