Louis Meryon (Captain)

Rob Browning

Dale Marson

Paul Randle

Dave Westwood

Ian Stranks

Fred Jewsbury

James Smith

Sam Dodds

The group enjoyed fine weather and quality coaching from Andy Dunbar, Adrian Riddell and Steve Scott-Bowen-(director of coaching at The Kendleshire GC).

The focus of the weekend was on short game skills, an area in which we were clearly off the pace during our first two friendly matches.

The proceedings started with a Dave Pelz skills test which was won by 'The Wizard' Dave Westwood with 98 points. The points system gave us a short game handicap. Our handicaps ranged from 4 to 16. Plenty of room for improvement clearly!!

We started on Saturday with Par 18 greensomes from awkward positions round the greens. This gave the captain and coaches a chance to look how players gelled together as they played as a team. The winners were Fred and Dave after a banter-filled playoff.

Further training in the morning set us up nicely for 18 holes medal on the impressive Hotchkin course. The coaches followed us round and videoed our swings and body language as we made our way around the tricky circuit.

Paul Randle was the winner with the fine score of 74-(+1) given the blustery conditions.

Dale, Louis, Fred and Rob filled the podium positions with Dale registering a slightly unusual par at the difficult 12th.

After some post dinner analysis and 'team games' the squad arrived fresh on the range at 9am on Sunday for a putting clinic where we learnt the benefits of constructive practice.

We then completed another skills test to determine how our skills had improved. Almost all players registered an improvement in their skills even taking into account the slightly harder set up. The winner was Ian Stranks and both he and Louis registered over 100 points.

Interestingly, not one player managed to match their actual handicap on the Pelz system and this shows us how much work there is still to be done.

Louis stressed the responsibilities players have to the county for their individual development and set out the attitudes required for the rest of the season.

Overall the weekend was very productive with all players giving positive feedback.

Many thanks to the coaching team for their enthusiasm and input and to Graham Hayes for his administrative support.

Next year we are planning a squad meeting abroad so keep working at your games and attitudes and hopefully we can celebrate a successful season with a pina colada on the Algarve next Spring!