SITE UPDATED
16 May 2010 20:12

challenge matches

The Challenge Cup

2010 Challenge Match versus Friends Golf Society
Wednesday 12th May 2010
Enville Golf Club, Stourbridge

The society plays an annual Challenge Cup match again the Friends Golf Society, which is played over 36 holes, fourball-betterball in the morning and singles in the afternoon.

The inaugural match took place on 12th May 2010 at Enville Golf Club and the BUNGS team was as follows:

Brian Keates (Wildcard pick as Society & Team Captain)
Dave Grubb (Earned place from finishing 2nd in 2009 League Cup)
Steve Lloyd (Earned place from finishing joint 6th in 2009 League Cup)
Tim Thacker (Earned place from finishing joint 6th in 2009 League Cup)
Karl Hughes (Earned place from finishing joint 10th in 2009 League Cup)
Ivan Heathcote (Earned place from finishing joint 12th in 2009 League Cup)
Simon Hayward (Earned place from finishing joint 13th in 2009 League Cup)
Ian Talboys (Earned place from finishing joint 14th in 2009 League Cup)
John Haley (Earned place from finishing joint 18th in 2009 League Cup)
Mike Fox (Earned place from finishing joint 25th in 2009 League Cup)
Bill Hancock (Earned place from finishing joint 27th in 2009 League Cup)
Graham Thorpe (Wildcard pick)

Morning fourball-betterballs

After meeting with the Friends Golf Society players over coffee and bacon baguettes, the two team captains announced their pairings for the morning fourball-betterball matches and it was off to the first tee of The Lodge course.

Gary Arnold and Vic Holier	beat	Tim Thacker and Karl Hughes	2/1
Chris Christoforou and Socrates Efstathio	beat	Brian Keates and Ivan Heathcote	6/5
Jason Nicolaou and George Markou	beat	Steve Lloyd and Ian Talboys	2/1
Bill Hancock and John Haley	beat	Steve Efstathio and Sean Wiggins	1up
Andy Wassell and Andy Faulkner	beat	Graham Thorpe and Mike Fox	3/1
Don Gardner and Peter Christoforou	beat	Simon Hayward and Dave Grubb	2up

Morning score - Friends 5 / BUNGS 1

It was a severe thrashing for the BUNGS contingent with some excellent play from the Friends players and things were looking pretty grim for us. With 12 points to play for in the afternoon, there was still the chance of a fightback, so after soup and sandwiches at lunchtime, it was off to the first tee of The Highgate course for the singles.

Steve Lloyd	beat	Socrates Efstathio	3/2
Ivan Heathcote	beat	Chris Christoforou	4/2
Brian Keates	beat	Vic Holier	6/5
Tim Thacker	half	Steve Efstathio	A/S
Jason Nicolaou	beat	Graham Thorpe	3/2
Ian Talboys	beat	Sean Wiggins	7/6
Gary Arnold	beat	Karl Hughes	1up
Simon Hayward	beat	Peter Christoforou	6/4
Dave Grubb	beat	Andy Wassell	2/1
Don Gardner	beat	Bill Hancock	4/3
George Markou	beat	John Haley	2/1
Mike Fox	beat	Andy Faulkner	1up

Morning score - Friends 4.5 / BUNGS 7.5

Overall Score - Friends 9.5 / BUNGS 8.5

So a fightback from BUNGS did happen but it just wasn't quite enough as Friends held on to a deserved victory.

After the meal, Friends Captain, Vic Holier, accepted the trophy from BUNGS Captain Brian Keates who then issue the challenge to Friends Golf Society for 2011 and a very successful day ended.

We await information as to when and where we are going to compete in 2011.

Competition structure

An annual match between the two societies played over 36 holes, morning will be fourball-betterball matchplay and the afternoon will be singles matchplay.

Each year one society will challenge, and the challengers will be deemed the ‘away’ team. Friends challenged BUNGS in 2010, so BUNGS were at ‘home’ and booked the venue, BUNGS have challenged Friends in 2011, so Friends are at ‘home’ and will book the venue etc.

There will be 12 players per team, the top ten from the previous year’s League Cup plus two wildcards (to be decided by the committee). Where anyone in the League Cup top ten is unavailable to play, then preference will go to 11th place etc.