Warwickshire Golf
Seniors v Nottinghamshire - Match Report
Warwickshire Seniors vs Nottinghamshire Seniors
The annual friendly match between the Bears of Warwickshire and the Cobblers of Nottinghamshire was played on Friday 1st September at The Nottinghamshire Golf Club. Unfortunately Roger Neale (Seniors Captain) was unable to attend the fixture and so Rob Soen was recalled into the Captain's hot seat again!
The selected team was:
Shaun Young (Maxstoke Park)
Neville Gardner (Stoneleigh Deer Park)
Andrew Carman (Coventry)
Russell Barker (Coventry)
Dylan Ward (Shirley)
Mark Reynolds (Walmley)
Rob Soen (Walmley)
Adrian Cashmore (Stratford Oaks)
John Lawrence (Sutton Coldfield)
Laurence Greatley (Sutton Coldfield)
Neil Sellars (Olton)
Mark Stanton (Stratford-on-Avon)
The golf course was a new venue for our team. Previously known as Cotgrave Place GC it has undergone a number of renovations and in was excellent condition for our match. There was talk of the course being under water in the run up to the match but there were no signs of that being the case when we played. If you get the chance, I strongly recommend you play the golf course - it is great fun and nice and easy walking!
As this was a friendly match, the morning 9 holes were played in Greensomes with Shaun and Nev leading us out. This was a tight game with the 9th being halved in birdies and a 1 up win for Warwickshire. The Andrew/Russ and Rob/Adrian matches were also very tight affairs with both games ended in a half. Dylan/Mark and John/Laurence were both on the wrong end of 2&1 results whist our standout pair in the morning were Neil/Mark with a very strong performance winning 3&2.
So we sat down for lunch, honours even - 2 wins, 2 halves and 2 losses a side. This meant it was 3 points each with all to play for in the afternoon Fourballs.
The same pairings went out in the afternoon and after a titanic match in game 1 the reverse result happened - both pairs birdieing the last but Nottinghamshire reversing the morning result, winning the match 1 up. The Andrew/Russ and Dylan/Mark matches both also went the way of Nottinghamshire so we needed the tail to wag to get a half in the match overall.
Rob/Adrian and John/Laurence both had very tight games again but both finished victorious - 1 up and 2&1 respectively.
This meant that the whole match came down the last pair. Despite their best efforts to get the required 2 points, Neil and Mark ended up halving the last game, meaning the match was lost by the narrowest of margins 10.0-8.0 to Nottinghamshire. We will attempt to get our revenge in 2024!
Our huge thanks to Nottinghamshire for their fabulous hospitality and camaraderie on the day and to The Nottinghamshire Golf Club for hosting the match and looking after us extremely well.
Neville Gardner
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