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Mill Green Vs Harpenden
Home Match Report
Sunday 15th June 2008
Won 3 - 1
Last Sunday we played our third Jeddah Cup match, our second against
Harpenden GC. This was the home fixture against Harpenden and having
held them to a drawn fixture at Harpenden, the Mill Green team had
high hopes of a win on our home turf. Once again we had “Jeddah Cup”
weather, i.e. blue skies and loads of sunshine. We had a bit of
pre-match excitement as the Harpenden team lost its captain and
three other players en route. Dick Brown, the Harpenden organiser,
and I frantically juggled the teeing order to try and give the
missing players as much time as possible to arrive. Suddenly, just
before the first tee time, the missing players emerged from the
direction of the par-3 course. They had actually arrived first and
decided to get some practice time in. Anyway, we did manage to tee
off on time.
Harpenden’s team was similar to the one they had fielded the
previous week with only one player swapped out. Mill Green fielded a
much changed team with only 4 of the 10 players having played at
Harpenden and 2 of those playing in the scoring pairs last time.
Once again, from the outset Mill Green accuracy tended to
predominate over Harpenden distance.
The details of the matches were as follows:-
Liam Hulse & Alex Thomas won 5 & 4 against Ryan Ahern
& David Childs
A shaky start from both teams saw the 1st halved in 7 but Liam and Alex
settled the faster, taking the 2nd with a net par before some great golf
saw the 3rd and 5th holes halved in gross pars but the 4th halved in a
gross birdie 3 ! Blows were traded on the next two holes with Alex and
Liam taking the 6th to go 2 up before Ryan and David struck back on the
7th to reduce the deficit to 1 hole again. However, Liam and Alex hit
back again to take the 8th with yet another gross par and went through
the turn 2 up. However, Liam and Alex then stepped up a gear and took
the 10th and 11th (yet another gross par) to quickly go 4 up in the
match. Ryan and David hung on to halve the 12th but Alex and Liam took
the 13th to take the match to dormie 5 up. Harpenden looked to have won
the 14th to live on for another hole when Alex went OB and picked up and
Liam put his approach shot through the back of the green and left his
chip back some 20ft short of the cup in 4 whilst Harpenden had one ball
just outside Liam’s for 3 and the other inside Liam’s for 4. Harpenden
putted first and lagged the ball up to a couple of feet from the cup in
4 to almost certainly take the hole . . . until Liam drained his 20
footer to halve the hole and take the match 5 & 4.
Max Ofstedahl & Callum Walker won 2 & 1 against Nick
Drain & Ben Pegram
This was a very close match throughout. Blows were exchanged with Mill
Green taking the 1st and Harpenden the 2nd and then the 3rd, 4th and 5th
holes were halved in gross par. Then Max and Callum sneaked ahead on the
6th and took the 9th to go 2 up at the turn. However, unlike match 1, in
this match Harpenden got the bit between their teeth and took the 10th
and 11th to pull the match back to all square. Max and Callum did well
not just to stop this momentum but reverse it with good gross par wins
on 12 and 13 to restore their two hole lead. This was maintained until
the 16th where Nick and Ben hit back again to pull back to only 1 down.
But they failed to capitalise on that when both Harpenden boys drove
deep into the trees on the 17th and then, after Max and Callum hit two
excellent drives right down the middle of the 17th fairway, Nick and Ben
unfortunately hit two more balls deep into the trees. After a lengthy
search, Harpenden had to concede the hole and the match on the 17th
fairway.
Will Silverosa & Harry King lost 3 & 2 to Nick Reeves
& Tom Devonald
Another ding-dong battle saw Will and Harry go 1 down quite quickly but
hold things together to still be just 1 down at the turn. They kept
plugging away and managed to get back to all square by the 12th.
However, they just could not manage to convert the comeback into a lead
and Nick and Tom gradually took a hole here and there, finally taking
the match on the 16th green 3 & 2.
Ella Ofstedahl & Sian Hulse won 6 & 5 against Elliot
Bourke & Toby Lynes
The Harpenden boys did not know quite what to think when they were
called forward to meet Ella and Sian as their opponents. They were
phased just a little more when they were told that Ella had the lowest
handicap in the group and would be giving them shots. Sian and Ella then
proceeded to blow them away with 4 gross pars between them in the first
5 holes to quickly go 4 up. Harpenden managed to hang on for a half on
the 6th and then won the 7th to peg Ella and Sian back to only 3 up. But
this just incentivised the girls to try harder and Sian made the most of
her shots on 8 and 9 to put the girls 5 up at the turn. Elliot and Toby
managed to hold back the flood for the first couple of holes after the
turn, but Sian won the 12th in a gross par, net birdie 3 to take the
match to 6 up and then the girls halved the 13th to finish things off 6
& 5.
Greg Swain and James Kinsley played in the reserves
match against Declan Weed and Damon Sewell managing steady
progress, going 2 up in the first two holes before Harpenden took the
3rd and halved the 4th. However, the Mill Green boys then took three
holes in a row to go 4 up by the 8th tee. Harpenden took the 8th and
managed to go through the turn only 3 down. However, Greg and James took
the 10th to go 4 up. The match was terminated early after halving the
11th as some slow play meant the matches were running quite late.
So Mill Green took the fixture 3 matches to 1 (and won the reserve match
as well).
We play Brookmans Park GC next on Saturday 28th June, so another chance
for our boys and girls to experience golf on an unfamiliar course.
So far we have used 16 players in our 3 fixtures, we have won 7 of the
matches played and lost 5, none have been halved. I have asked the
Jeddah Cup organisers to try and pull together a league table which they
will do as soon as a few more matches have been played. I will publish
it as soon as I get one.
Don’t forget to keep checking the Junior notice board for fixtures and
results.
Regards
Tom Jeffries
07956 110115
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