Warwickshire Golf
SWCGA v MGU Annual Match played at Saunton (East) Golf Club on Friday 14th October 2022
This year's Annual Match between the South Western Counties Golf Association (SWCGA) and the Midlands Golf Union (MGU) was held at Saunton Golf Club's East course on the 14th October 2022. The match which features the cream of Amateur Golf from the two regions was initially played at Burnham & Berrow Golf Club in 1925. It was followed the next year with the match being held at Little Aston Golf Club and then saw a hiatus of the fixture until 1950 and since then has been played regularly.
The Midlands leads the fixture with 42 wins to the South West's 25 and 5 matches have been halved.
This year's event saw a very strong Midlands team, which included the two Warwickshire players Tom Ibbertson from Coventry Hearsall and Louis Sanders from Copt Heath, play five foursomes matches in the morning and ten singles matches after lunch. Tom and Louis were paired together in the third foursomes match and arrived at the 18th hole against their South West opponents with the match all square. After Louis had found the fairway with his tee shot, Tom's approach from around a hundred yards was fired at the flag. The ball landed and spun back to about eighteen inches short of the hole, leaving Louis with an uphill putt to win the match which he duly holed to do so.
The score at lunchtime was two wins to each side and with one match being halved it was all to play for in the afternoon.
Louis went out in the fifth match in the singles immediately followed by Tom and both players were ahead for the most part and deservedly both won, Louis on the seventeenth hole with a two and one win and Tom on the last green, when his opponent from Gloucestershire missed from about eight feet for his birdie three which would have tied the match.
Three matches from the Warwickshire men and three points delivered to the Midlands side- well played guys.
After seven matches in the afternoon, the match score was still tied at six points each. However, approaching the final three holes the Midlands side was ahead in each match, before the drama began in earnest. Match nine saw Matthew Haynes from Lincolnshire close out his match with a three and two win to put the Midlands ahead by seven points to six. Match eight saw Andrew Grimwood from Cambridgeshire with a one up lead as he teed off at the seventeenth hole but at impact the head of Andrew's three iron snapped cleanly off and his ball went about forty yards into long grass as the head of his club went further but in a different direction.
Not surprisingly out of the very long grass with well over a hundred and fifty yards to go and his opponent Eliot Baker from Devon safely on the green, Andrew lost the hole and went to the eighteenth with the match now all square. A few moments later Eliot hit his second shot to a couple of feet at the home hole for a winning birdie three and the South West were level again at seven points apiece.
All eyes now turned to the final match on the course between Cornwall's Matt Richards and Simon Richardson from Lincolnshire. As they approached the seventeenth tee the man from Spalding held a one up lead. Both players found the putting green on the long par three hole, but Simon's first putt was a little strong and ran past the hole by about five feet. When he missed the return, the match headed up the last hole all square.
Surprisingly Matt with the honour hit a two iron from the tee and left a much longer second shot to the green which he missed by bunkering his approach. Simon's more aggressive play from the tee with his driver had left him a much shorter shot to the green and he made no mistake in finding the green from the fairway. Matt's bunker shot came out a little short and left him with a putt of about twenty feet to secure his par. Simon had a putt of about thirty feet which broke from left to right and ran downhill away from him. His first putt whilst on line came up about four feet short with Simon expecting the slope to help him get the ball much closer to the hole side. But with Matt missing his putt for his four, the Lincolnshire man calmly rolled his ball into the hole to win not just his match but the overall match for the Midlands team.
Eight points to seven was the final score and meant the visitors had retained the Salver they won emphatically last year at Fulford Heath.
My congratulations to Oli Willson from Leicestershire who captained the Midlands side to victory and commiserations to Charlie Phillips from Cornwall and his southwest team for their valiant effort. The match was played in a wonderful spirit throughout and it was a thrill to have been there to witness it.
Saunton Golf Club was a fitting venue for this event and they looked after all players and officials marvellously well, with the Midlands support well hosted by the officials from the SWCGA.
Next year's match will be back in the Midlands, I am already looking forward to it.
Mark Reynolds
President
Warwickshire Union of Golf Clubs
Tom Ibbertson (back row 2nd from right) and Louis Sanders (Front row farthest right).
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