Great start to the year

Dave Westwood - County Captain - Tuesday, 22 March, 2011

What a fantastic start to our 2011 campaign! On arrival early Sunday morning Rugby Golf Club looked in great condition, the team was in good spirits and I got the feeling after a long winter all were keen to get out on the course to start the year off.

The morning session got off to a flier with Rob & Doogs out first winning 6&5, Dale and Ryan out last went one better with a 7&6 victory, a great start for Ryan in his senior debut.

Everyone in between also won convincingly and the morning finished with an unheard of 5-0 lead.

The afternoon session started with Fred asking for the top match as there was past history and a grudge match was on the cards. A couple of hours into the afternoon although trying to avoid too much distraction I got word that we had not started off as strong as the morning, and our supporting officials seemed more nervous than the team that we still needed to get the 3 points to secure victory.

There was no need to worry though as we soon had the numbers coming in with some solid performances from the new lads to the team.

Creedy, Ryan & Gary all put in fine displays of golf, Ryan showed confidence in his ability to keep his 1up lead over the last few holes to win his point. Gary continued last year's form and had no problem stepping up to the first team, playing some great golf to win comfortably 3&2.

Creedy looked in trouble at 4 down but showed why he is pushing for a 1st team place by turning this around to win 2&1

Every team member contributed at least one point to this victory (see below for full results) solid PM performances from Tom, Richard and Doogs bringing in 2.5 points between them, but thanks to everyone yesterday for this result and good to see a great team spirit amongst you all, also thank you for making the new lads to the team feel comfortable and welcome.

Final note on Rugby Golf Club, the hospitality given to us all day was excellent, from the condition of the course to the food provided and the friendly response from the members this made the day for the visiting county Northants and Warwickshire a very good experience.

Thank you to all supporting officials on the day this is always very welcome.

Now onto Leicestershire next week, we will be looking for another good performance from the team.

Rob Browning & Chris Dougil bt Ryan Evans & Fraser Carnivan 6&5

Fred Jewsbury & Tom Ibbertson bt Sam Buss & Jamie Powell 4&3

Dave Westwood & Richard Oddy bt Lewis White & Michael Campbell 3&2

Steve Creed & Gary Greenway bt Harry Woan & Paul Hodgkiss 5&4

Dale Marson & Ryan Wallace bt Lee Hitchock & Matt Birs 7&6

Morning result 5-0

Fred Jewsbury lost 1 down to Ryan Evans

Rob Browning lost 2&1 to Sam Buss

Chris Dougil halved with Jamie Powell

Tom Ibbertson bt Lewis White 1up