The second annual fixture with the Friends Society who had selected Horsley Lodge as this year’s venue, took place on 11th May 2011 with the BUNGS seeking revenge for last year’s reversal.
Unknown to us that the Friends Society had played their last Golf day here three weeks prior to our match as preparation for their strong team.
Dave Grubb (Society & Team
Captain & qualified from League Cup position)
Simon
Hayward (qualified from League Cup position)
Mike
Fox (qualified from League Cup position)
Phil Latham
(qualified from League Cup position)
Karl Hughes (qualified
from League Cup position)
Graham Thorpe (qualified from
League Cup position)
Brian Keates (qualified from League Cup
position)
Graham Bilsland (qualified from League Cup
position)
Jeff Sackett (qualified from League Cup position)
John Mansell (qualified from League Cup position)
Adrian
Marchant (wildcard)
Bill Ball (wildcard)
Club Captain David Grubb was pondering over his morning pairings with a cup of coffee and bacon baguette (what diet?) when the BUNGS team arrived on a sunny but windy morning. Friends fielded seven players from last year and the BUNGS had six players returning for revenge!
Bill Ball and Graham Bilsland | beat | Jason Nicolaou and George Markou | 1up |
Simon Hayward and David Grubb | half | B Alambritis and Steve Efstathio | A/S |
Vic Holier and Andy Wassell | beat | Graham Thorpe and Phil Latham | 1up |
Adrian Marchant and Karl Hughes | beat | David Gardner and Tom Serghi | 1up |
Socrates Efstathiou and C Socratou | beat | John Mansell and Brian Keates | 6/4 |
Sean Wiggins and Andy Kavalieros | beat | Jeff Sackett & Mike Fox | 6/4 |
The opening match had a very close game with Bill Ball playing a leading role to gain the BUNGS first point. The Bungs team of Simon & Dave were leading 3 up with 4 to play but finished all square in the second match. Similar story in the third match with Phil & Graham 4 up after 8 holes were pulled back to all square, then won the 16th before Andy Wassell (Friends) chipped in for birdie at the 17th to square the match. At the 18th BUNGS were outdriven & lost the last hole. Vic Holier (Friends) the squirrel slayer finished his round with 2 broken clubs, putter snapped in half after 6 holes and his 3 wood wrapped around a tree on the 13th fairway!
Adrian & Karl triumphed in the fourth match for BUNGS taking our second point by 1 hole. The fifth & sixth pairings both lost by the same scores of 6&4 with both teams struggling in the windy conditions and trying to keep the Friends society in distance. With 12 points to play for in the afternoon, BUNGS now had a chance of a victory, so after soup and sandwiches at lunchtime, it was off to the first tee for the singles.
Sean Wiggins | beat | John Mansell | 5/4 |
Brian Keates | beat | Andy Kavalieros | 1up |
Dave Grubb | beat | Jason Nicolaou | 1up |
Simon Hayward | beat | Steve Efstathio | 5/4 |
Bill Ball | beat | B Alambritis | 3/2 |
Graham Bilsland | half | Socrates Efstathiou | A/S |
Adrian Marchant | beat | C Socratou | 2up |
George Markou | beat | Jeff Sackett | 9/8 |
Andy Wassell | beat | Graham Thorpe | 3/2 |
Phil Latham | beat | Tom Serghi | 7/5 |
Mike Fox | beat | Vic Holier | 3/2 |
David Gardner | beat | Karl Hughes | 2up |
So the recovery from BUNGS happened this time with sterling performances led by captain Grubb who came back in his match to win the last 4 holes to triumph 1up and then jumped into his chariot, sorry buggy, to rally his troops. Another comeback came from Mike Fox who came back from 3 down to triumph 3 & 2 against Vic Holier who by this time I suspect had very few clubs left in his bag to play with! Bill Ball led from the front again and tried to encourage Graham Bilsland to his hard won half point in the game of the day. Solid performances from Phil, Adrian, Brian and Simon recorded the necessary wins, while Jeff Sackett was heard to be muttering something about “the USA don’t play matchplay enough”, keep practicing Jeff!
After the meal, BUNGS Captain, David Grubb, accepted the trophy from Friends with a smug smile and issued the challenge to Friends Golf Society for 2012 and a triumphant team went home with a job well done.