| Date: | 22nd June 2009 |
| Venue: | R.Ashdown Forest GC |
The Hector Padgham Trophy at Royal Ashdown Forest 2009 Report from Tony Monteuuis
Words cannot adequately describe the performance of our team this year. As defending champions we went into battle with high hopes but our golf was less than awesome and our descent from Alpha to Omega was entirely justified. We managed to lunch with distinction but what went before and after was less impressive.
Our first pair, Colin Vokins and Adrian Cooper, may not have been at their ultimate best and they found scoring difficult and their score had not put us high up the leaderboard when they finished their morning round. This became immaterial when the pitiful score of the second pair, (the Hon. Secretary and Martin Smith) was added to their points total. Rackets players tend to try to play themselves back into form by playing the ball into the side walls and keeping the rallies going until some semblance of form returns. Perhaps Martin and Tony should not have persisted with this tactic because Ashdown's side walls don't send the ball back into play. Anyway the team again played poorly in the afternoon despite a liberal use of performance enhancing fluid and we were again found wanting (wanting to slink away ignominiously).
Our descent into last place was enjoyed and mocked by many of those who had so admired last year's team when we managed to win the inaugural event. It was, despite our dismal golf, a very well run and happy event.
Next year we will of course do very much better!