Final Friendly - A Team vs BB & O

David Westwood - County Captain - Thursday, 12 May, 2011

Sunday 8th May at Studley Wood GC - This was our last friendly before we start the league matches, a re-scheduled game as we were first off to Heythrop Park but due to a double booking this was switched to Studley Wood, a course not one of our team had played so we did not know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised as this turned out to be a very nice golf course around 10 years old but playing many years older.

It was a 'normal' start with foursomes in the morning, then a last minute team switch around due to Sam Dodds sleeping through his alarm clock, so Fred and myself went out first.

We are a partnership that have played together many times over the years and we got off to a good start going up early on and maintaining that lead right through the game winning 4&2.

Sam & Richard Oddy went out next and were 4 down very quickly. Once though Sam had cleared the sleep from his eyes things turned around they made an excellent recovery to square the match but narrowly missed out on the last following a brush with one of the many water hazards to lose 1 down

Ryan Wallace and Elliott Forbes also had a rare loss going down 3&1. Steve Creed & Joe Harris fought hard all morning and according to Steve the half was a fair result.

Finally Nev Garner and Shaun Young our last pair (thanks Shaun for filling in at late notice) again met up with some stiff opposition and some big hitting both had an early lunch following being on the wrong side of a 5&4 result

So after the morning session we were 3.5 to 1.5 down. Normally we would now be looking for a big come back in the afternoon but both captains decided to alter the PM session, as this match to both sides is more about getting the team together and trying out new pairings rather than focussing on the result.

We had no choice other than sending the teams out in fourballs due to the course using tee times for all play, so rather than hold individual matches within each fourball we went for a straight forward four ball better ball.

This ultimately decided the outcome of the result as instead of playing for the normal afternoon 10 points this format reduced this to 5.

This was my chance to completely change the normal pairings and go for some team building and the outcome was a very enjoyable (although very slow due to a busy course around 4.45hr matches)

The PM matches were close and hard fought and produced a few comments from the team -

Shaun playing with Ryan said he was tired of hitting his second shots first in their fourball normally from 40 yards behind - Fred saying he was back following some solid golf and I can confirm this following our morning game - Steve Creed thought we were pulling his leg when told he was playing with Sam Dodds in a top match and lastly Joe and Richard were just glad to get in before dark.

Full results are below and thanks to our president John Powell for his full support once again throughout the day.

Thanks to Studley Wood for a very enjoyable day both on and off the course and BB&O for the welcome we received.

Finally thanks to my team for the support and positive attitude shown throughout the pre season matches, we will now move on towards the Midland league matches starting at Harborne on June 5th against Nottingham please keep this date free to enable me to put out our strongest team, I will be in touch following the Amateur.

RESULTS

Sam Dodds & Richard Oddy lost 1 down to Andy Lynch & Ashley Walton

Fred Jewsbury & Dave Westwood won 4&2 to Ashley Watkins & Luke Williams

Ryan Wallace & Elliott Forbes lost 3&1 to Joe Richardson & Dean Newbold

Steve Creed & Joe Harris halved with Dave Langley & Malcolm Reid

Neville Garner & Shaun Young lost 5&4 to Ross Mitchell & Ben Cotton

3.5 to 1.5 to BB&O

Dave Westwood & Elliott Forbes lost 1 down to Andy Lynch & Luke Williams

Sam Dodds & Steve Creed won 4&2 to Ashley Watkins & Ashley Walton

Fred Jewsbury & Neville Garner won 5&4 to Malcolm Reid & Dean Newbold

Shaun Young & Ryan Wallace lost 5&4 to Joe Richardson & Ben Cotton

Richard Oddy & Joe Harris lost 3&2 to Dave Langley & Ross Mitchell