Sunday August 2^nd and the Bedfordshire team make the short journey down the M1 to play Hertfordshire at West Herts golf club. Perfect conditions and a near perfect golf course should pave the way for a competitive match.

Norman Cilliers and Paul Kenna lead the way for Bedfordshire and played their part in a very high quality match. The Beds lads held a narrow 1 hole lead for most of the game but the Hertfordshire pair produced a great finish, birdie’s at four of the last five holes gave them enough for a 2/1 victory. Jack Leek and Harry Boyle second out, and soon levelled things up always looking in control to win 2 up. A result matched by the Millbrook pairing of Paul Kitching and Jack Hawksby  to give us two points but Hertfordshire soon had things all square with a comfortable win in the last match, Scott Armitage and Mark Yeomans never really got going.

We were very happy to be all square at lunch another good performance in the foursomes gave us a good chance of taking something from the match.

The singles kicked off with Norman in pole position, another good match, going one way then the other but first blood to Herts with a 2up victory. Jack Leek soon levelled things again with a very solid win 5/4, not really putting a foot wrong. The Hertfordshire lads then struck back with two more comfortable wins with both Mark Yeomans and Jack Hawksby losing out. Scott Armitage pulled one point back with a solid 5/4 win, a great bounce back after a heavy defeat in the morning.

So with three matches still going Herts had a narrow 5-4 lead. Harry Boyle, who had trailed by just one hole for the majority of the back nine, knew he had to make something happen, so standing on the eighteenth tee, one down, he steadied his thoughts and dispatched a perfect tee shot down the par five finishing hole with his opponent in the rough, a door had opened. Harry played the hole in text book fashion and won the hole to take, what turned out to be, a very important half in his match.

That left Paul Kitching 2up with three to play and Paul Kenna one down with four to play, a great finish lay ahead. Paul Kitching hit his tee shot on the par three sixteenth just short of the green but when he got to where the ball should have been it had gone, picked up by a very happy dog. After some discussions a ball was dropped and Paul got up and down for his par and halving the hole a further half on seventeen gave him a great win.

So Paul Kenna was left playing Bedfordshire old boy Lewis Watcham, with three to play and Paul still one down. The seventeenth saw Paul hit his tee shot to three feet to pull level again, the seventeenth saw Lewis hit his second to four feet and hole it for birdie to go back one up. One hole to play, if Paul could somehow win the hole he could half his game and the match.

A solid tee shot left Paul with an outside chance of getting on for two, Lewis was in a bit of trouble off the tee, so it was going to be three shots for him to reach the green. Paul finished short right and it really looked like he had no chance of winning the hole from where he was, only a perfect chip could get him to about ten feet but it had to be perfect and perfect it was, he finished as close as he could have got it, a truly great shot, Lewis had chipped and two putted for his par, Paul had about a ten footer across the slope for the half. Now at this point Paul was the best man for the job having been a member at West Herts for some ten years he knew this green well and he knew the putt well, holing out for an incredible up and down.

6-6 and a great draw for Bedfordshire finally showing that we can compete when we are at our best this was a very good performance and no more than the lads deserved.

We look forward to hosting B.B.& O at The Millbrook on August 30^th for the last fixture of the season

Dave Weedon.

Team Manager

Back to previous results