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Mill Green Vs Harpenden
Away Match Report
Sunday 8th June 2008
Drew 2 - 2
Our second Jeddah Cup match of the season saw us travel to visit
Harpenden Golf Club. None of us had ever visited this club before,
but all arrived safely - Jarvis Hinds half an hour before everyone
else as he was so keen to practice. Harpenden is a beautiful
parkland course with 12 holes on the front loop and the final 6
holes on the back. It was in top condition with immaculate fairways
and greens and we even had sunshine all day so everything was
perfect.
We had quite a young team out and the Harpenden boys towered over
Jarvis, Sam Nicholls and Harry King. Even Tom Jeffries, Greg Swain
and Tom King had to look up at a couple of them. However, it was
encouraging to see our boys were undaunted as they set off from the
first tee. The Harpenden team were hitting long, but not necessarily
always straight and it seemed that Mill Green got the best of it off
the first tee as most of our team set off down the middle of the
fairway while the Harpenden boys set off left or right.
The results of the matches were:-
Greg Swain & Sam Bennett won 2 & 1 against Nick
Reeves & Ben Pegram
Greg and Sam were playing against two particularly long hitters.
However, this was an extremely close match all of the way round with
first one group up and then the other. They went through 9 holes all
square but then the generally more consistent play of Greg and Sam
started paying dividends, especially around the greens. Eventually
Greg and Sam managed to halve the 16th to go Dormie 2 up and then
repeated the feat on the 17th to win the match.
Tom Jeffries & Harry King won 5 & 3 against Nick
Drain & Tom Devonald
The pattern for this match was set on the first tee as the two Harpenden
boys drove long but went far left and far right whilst Tom and Harry set
off down the middle. This hole was halved but then Tom began to turn the
screw with a chip in gross par on the 2nd to win the hole. Tom and Harry
never went behind from then on and Harry began to make the most of his
shots taking the 7th to put Mill Green 3 up with Tom taking the 8th to
go to 4 up. However, Harpenden were not finished and won the next two
holes to pull back to only 2 down after the 10th, but Tom and Harry
pushed on again with Tom taking the 12th and Harry the 13th to put Mill
Green 4 up again in the match. Harpenden held on for another hole but
the coup de grace was delivered on the 15th with Tom taking the hole to
finish a convincing win.
Liam Hulse & Sam Nicholls lost 2 down to Ryan Ahern &
David Childs
This was another close match and after 9 holes it was all square.
However, this was in part due to an unfortunate incident where one of
the Harpenden boys putted and his ball brushed against Liam’s moving it
slightly. Under stroke play this would have incurred a 2 stroke penalty
but strangely there is no penalty in match play. However, when Liam
proceeded to putt the Harpenden boys immediately claimed the hole as
Liam failed to replace his ball – fully within the rules of the game but
perhaps outside the spirit of the fixture as they obviously knew what
was happening and waited for Liam to putt whereas they could have gently
reminded him to replace beforehand. Despite this setback, Liam and Sam
managed to go 1 up by the 16th tee. However, Harpenden took the 16th and
17th to turn the tide and go Dormie 1 up on the 18th tee. Liam made a
brave effort on the 18th, but one of the Harpenden boys sank a long putt
for a gross par to take the 18th and win the match.
Thomas King & Jarvis Hinds lost 5 & 4 against Elliot
Bourke & Angus McKay
Tom and Jarvis simply came up against two players in form on the day.
Despite getting gross pars on 2 holes and nett pars on 5 of the others
they somehow found themselves 6 down after the front 9. They then
proceeded to stage a mini fight back, winning the 10th and 11th to pull
back to only 4 down but the gap was increased to 5 again by the 13th and
a half on the 14th finished the match 5 & 4.
Alex Thomas played as our sole reserve in the
match, but was provided a partner by Harpenden. He and his partner
played well, Alex gross parred 4 of the holes and shot a nett 1 under
par for the 15 holes his match completed, but unfortunately they lost
the reserve match 4 & 3.
So, yet again we managed a halved fixture with 4 points to each team.
However, I am particularly pleased by this result as it was away from
home, playing the white tees on a course none of our team had played
before and we had some of youngest squad members playing against boys
twice their size. So a very good result !
We play Harpenden again next Sunday, this time at Mill Green so it will
be interesting to see how we do on our home turf.
Don’t forget to keep checking the Junior notice board for fixtures and
results.
Regards
Tom Jeffries
07956 110115
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