After a very frustrating 10 – 5 loss to Suffolk @Rookery Park where we again put ourselves in a decent position in the afternoon singles but could not quite close out the late matches, the CAGU Seniors team showed great resilience to put in a memorable afternoon performance in the afternoon singles against Norfolk at a Saffron Walden course in fantastic condition.
The morning foursomes followed a familiar pattern for us this year, despite some very good golf at the top of the order we fell behind early, however, as we have done a few times recently, a mid order rally from Paul Izzard (great to have Paul back from injury) and one of our course specialists Steve Plumb played really well to steady the ship. It was left to our weapons at the back Doug Bottomley and our other Saffron Walden specialist Graham Goodman to convincingly get their point to put us right back in contention. We have found ourselves a point down a lunch in our last three matches and fought back in each one only to just be denied, so we all knew what was required and were very determined to get one to fall our way.
So on to the afternoon singles. WHAT.A.PERFORMANCE.
Kevin Diss got us started with great performance to beat a top class player in Jon Baker-Odin. With Kevin’s victory reverberating back through the team, news that Terry Ryan and Steve Plumb had built strong advantages more than offset setbacks for the captain and Paul Izzard who could not fend off the buzz saw of early birdies and holed putts (Paul’s opponent had 13 putts in 13 holes!!). Kevin Hayes who had been down all day, approached the 15th green 2 down but calmly converted his opportunity to pull one back. This at the time looked like a very key match, with things getting tight at the back end of the field. After two very good shots to about 20 feet at the 16th, Kevin’s putter caught fire and he drilled in the 20 foot birdie putt to get back to all square.
With both in the middle of the 17th fairway Kevin played an excellent shot that just went through the back into a tricky lie. Kevin’s opponent could not quite get up and down from front right of the green and a huge opportunity presented itself. After a very decent chip to about 8 feet and with the putter still hot, Kevin sunk the putt to turn the match around. With a solid half at the
last, Kevin walked away with the victory which summed up the determination of the team to get the victory. News quickly spread to the rest of the team and it appeared everyone caught fire at the same time. Keith Moore and Terry Ryan were playing quality golf in our strong mid order and quickly despatched their opponents 3/2 and 6/5 respectively and with Steve Plumb adding an emphatic 5/3 victory we were on the threshold. Our last three players needed little more encouragement than to know we just needed one more point to guarantee victory and all three delivered in great style. Graham Goodman, despite being 2 down with 5 to play, turned his match round in grand style to win 2 up, with the customary fist pump, as is Graham’s style.
Richard Beecroft had been involved in a close match all afternoon, but a great up and down at 16 and 17 secured his point and just to round things off in great style, Doug Bottomley
calmly (which is Doug’s way!!) despatched his opponent on the 17th after two great shots to win 2/1.
The result of this stirring comeback was a magnificent 8 – 2 winning performance resulting in a 10 – 5 overall victory, and to have other members of the squad in attendance, Jeremy Baldwin as VC for the day, Steve Hedges, who is close to full recovery and getting back playing with us, and Mark Smith who also popped in to encourage the team, made this victory even sweeter.
We have really shaken up the EASL, we have a break until August for our next game which is at home to Northants at Girton. Although our fate is not in our hands, we will have a chance to go top of the table and if other results go our way things could get very exciting.