| Date: | 29th March 2007 |
| Venue: | R.Cinque Ports G.C. and R.St.George’s G.C |
Halford Hewitt 2007 : Report from Richard Stocks
Our captain Nick Kemp put a lot of work into the planning of our campaign this year. It was felt that the make up of the team was in transition, with the need to introduce one or two younger players. A rigorous competitive process was instituted with rounds at Royal St George’s and Rye in the winter and the medal at the Spring Meeting at Rye all counting.
In the end, the team was not hugely different from previous years. We were sorry that Jason Foster had to drop out through illness, but we welcomed James Horn, who fitted into the team particularly well. And, of course, Geoff Clay was still there, still playing off one at 67½, and still just about our best player. No Ed Richardson this year though.
So the team that duly assembled in our usual quarters at Knowlton Court was Geoff Clay playing as usual with George Taggart, Johnny Hubbard playing with Brian Ingleby, Chris Lloyd partnering Richard Partridge, Nick Kemp with Colin Jones, leaving Johnny Spurling to play with James Horn.
First Round v Wellington
So, your correspondent flew in from Johannesburg early on the Thursday morning and travelled straight down to Sandwich in some expectation to join the opening round against Wellington at the hut. All seemed to be going smoothly, with four pairs ahead, and only Kemp and Jones down. They eventually lost on the last after Jones manfully kept the match going with good putts at 16 and 17. Both Spurling and Taggart looked a little out of sorts with their game, but they both won, and we recorded a satisfactory 4-1 opening victory.
JC Spurling & JA Horn 1up 1 v JJ Douglas & EM Barry-Walsh 0
C Jones & NJ Kemp 0 v CB Manson & JAD Wyke 1
JC Hubbard & BSE Ingleby 3/2 1 v AT Gowar & CN Hurst-Brown 0
CRE Lloyd & RJ Partridge 4/3 1 v CE Richardson & TDG Warrilow 0
AG Clay & Dr GE Taggart 2/1 1 v JA Holland & RW Eggleshaw 0
Won 4-1
Second Round v Cranleigh
Friday was a thoroughly miserable day for which the Scottish word dreich was invented. It was grey, cold, and misty, which made watching very tiresome as it was impossible to follow the ball. The start was interrupted by an exciting 19th between Gordon Gow and Jonty Campion of Shrewsbury who lost to the fine four of Sam Smale and Robert Bonallack of Haileybury.
Walking out to the sixth (The Maiden), I observed a Cranleigh birdie three at the first in the fourth match. Ahead of them the third pair have exchanged the first three holes in our favour and, with Cranleigh missing their drive at the fourth, we probably go two up. I arrive at the 6th in time to see Clay hit the green – of course. Cranleigh are in the bunker. Taggart’s putt from not very far rolls 2½ by and looks suspiciously like a yip. Clay holes manfully to go 1 up. The second pair Lloyd and Partridge go 2 down early on but win the fifth and square the match when Partridge holes from fully 60 feet for a two at the Maiden. We are +1 +2 and +2, but we are struggling in the fourth match. We are still one down after the birdie at the first and Tony Whitty who hit it close at 1 does the same at the Maiden. Spurling is well short and Horn only manages to putt to 12 feet so we go 2 down. The fifth match is some way behind, but we are three up going four. In that match, we time the Cranleigh slow player on the sixth tee and he takes 76 seconds to play his shot (time allowed in pro tournaments 47 seconds).
Over to the 8th to watch Kemp and Jones playing at three. We get a great up and down from short of the left hand bunker with Kemp holing from 15 feet across the slope, while Cranleigh have managed to green it out of the fairway bunker. We remain 2 up. Behind them James Horn hits a great iron shot, while Cranleigh leave it short. They have already recovered to 1 down and square the match there. Over now to the 11th to catch up with Clay & Taggart. We are left and long just off the green. Clay putts 15 feet past – very unlike him. Cranleigh go 8 feet past and the hole is halved in undistinguished 4s. The second match is going wrong though. We are 2 down and get away with a half at 10 and also with a four at 11 after Partridge hits it way right off the tee and Cranleigh three putt from 12 feet. The third pair remain 2 up, whilst Horn and Spurling have turned their earlier deficit round and are two up having won four holes out of five.
Thereafter our team played pretty well. Partridge and Lloyd were struggling against the redoubtable John Davies and Ferguson Jones. But they hung in there several times and kept it going until the 18th where they were able to call it a half.
Spurling & Horn also called it a half when they were two or three up after 15 and the match was over.
Spectators today included John Falkner, Adrian Cooper our captain, our Hon Sec, and Martin Ellis
I went over to Deal to note that Malvern were making very heavy weather of beating Merchant Taylors, eventually winning at the 20th and the 19th.
Back to Knowlton to a warming fire and a nice dinner. Andrew Reynolds was unable to come as our guest at the last moment, so we welcomed in his place Harry Thomson OT, Geoff Clay’s long serving caddie.
AG Clay & Dr GE Taggart 3/2 1 v MM Crane & WA Porter 0
CRE Lloyd & RJ Partridge ½ v JC Davies & MJ Ferguson-Jones ½
C Jones & NJ Kemp 3/2 1 v MV Connelly & MP Riddiford 0
JC Spurling & JA Horn ½ v AJ Whitty & JCH Schofield ½
JC Hubbard & BSE Ingleby 6/5 1 v LRE Parry & OJ Rosenberg 0
Won 4-1
Third Round v Epsom
Saturday was a much nicer day for playing and particularly watching golf. It was bright and sunny but the spectators still needed to wrap up well. We had time for a leisurely breakfast before meeting Epsom at 1020 in what promised to be a tough match. All went well at the first where one Epsom pair went out of bounds (and were within inches of following it with another) and another pair three putted. Jones and Kemp’s play of the downwind first didn’t bode well though as, after a huge drive from Kemp, Jones’ second shot was very short on the green from where the inevitable three putts ensued.
By the sixth the pattern of a close match was established with the top two pairs winning, all square in the third, and the bottom two pairs losing. Clay and Taggart had gone one up at the fifth when Clay took so long to replace his ball on the green that the opponents got bored and conceded the putt.
By the hut, Hubbard and Ingleby in the top match remain two up after a let off by their opponents there. Taggart at two goes just through the green with a fine second to the ninth. Epsom meanwhile have driven into a fairway bunker and hit the green in three. Both take three more to get down so we go three up. Lloyd and Partridge remain all square. Not so good behind. Epsom go through the green. Jones’ excellent second is unlucky not to release and stays short of the green. Epsom get down in 2 and we take 3 more to go an unlucky 3 down. Spurling, especially, and Horn are struggling in the bottom match, but win the 8th to be only three down.
By the 11th, Hubbard and Ingleby are only one up, but Epsom cut their drive at 12 into thick rough. Behind, Taggart hits his 3 foot putt for the hole several inches left – a real horror – but we remain three up.
On to the 12th where Clay and Taggart go through the top match searching for the Epsom ball on the right of the 12th. A good hole for us, as they go four up with a fine four, and Hubbard and Ingleby go 2 up as well, thanks to the lost ball. Somehow, Partridge and Lloyd get a half at 12 to remain one down, by getting down in two from short right of the green up the bank, while Epsom miss their three from 8 feet. That could be the turning point we have been waiting for. Again, at the thirteenth, they escape with another half after Epsom three putt.
All is looking very gloomy for Tonbridge, but, at that moment, Wells hits his drive to 15 out of bounds, and Lloyd hits a great shot to the 14th, so we are still alive. The third match appears to be crucial as the fourth and fifth appear lost, Clay and Taggart have won, and we have to assume that Hubbard and Ingleby can hang on to win. Things then get worse as Lloyd and Partridge don’t win the 14th (still 1 down) and Hubbard and Ingleby take a wretched 6 at the 16th after Wells has hit a huge second from a long way out over the green. They take five, but Ingleby, from a position from where he has played many good pitches from short of the bank, hits a weak one from where we three putt. All square. So now the situation does not look promising. A/S, Win, -1, -3, -3.
There is some hope in the third match where Epsom completely fluff their second shot at 16. Meanwhile, up ahead, Epsom drive into the ditch in the top match and we win by one hole. So, from the twelfth, Wells has had a lost ball, an out of bounds, and a ditch, Hubbard and Ingleby have just managed to hold onto their one up lead to win by one hole. That at least makes the match all square unless something unlikely happens in the fourth and fifth matches, so our last hope is Lloyd and Partridge, who are now two down on the seventeenth tee, as the later matches are seen to be walking in.
At the seventeenth, both pairs drive into the cross bunkers. Lloyd plays a good shot out, but too hard and it goes through the green down the path into a hole, and we lose the hole to a five, and the match, and the contest. A disappointing end to a campaign where a few of our players were slightly below their best, and the ball had not quite run our way. But, full marks to Epsom, who are a good side, and they went on to lose to Watson’s in the final.
Spectators today included Caroline Kemp, Janet & Ian Jackson, Richard & Heather Clay, Doc Hugh Evans, The Hon Sec, Simon Martin and Moira Ellis, Bob Gonda, and David Kemp
That enabled me to return to St Georges Hill for a jazz evening, before flying up to St Andrews to host the final of the Rules of Golf Quiz, filmed by Sky. That is another story, but the DVD is available on request
JC Hubbard & BSE Ingleby 1up 1 v SP Baker & AJ Wells 0
AG Clay & Dr GE Taggart 5/4 1 v MJ Felton & AWM Fisher 0
CRE Lloyd & RJ Partridge 0 v PAF Stanford & MM Williamson 3/1 1
C Jones & NJ Kemp 0 v JCA Collier & SJ Schindler 6/5 1
JC Spurling & JA Horn 0 v RM Jennings & AM Maurice 3/1 1
Lost 3-2