Bainbridge Shield - 2nd Round Match at The Warwickshire (Kings Course)

The Warwickshire lose - at home!

Ian Stranks & Gareth Jenkins (The Warwickshire A) v Pete Clarke & Harry Ibbertson (Coventry Hearsall C)

After sharing the opening two holes The Warwickshire took an early three hole lead by winning the 3rd & 5th and 6th hole. Hearsall struck back immediately with two birdies of their own on the 7th & 8th to cut The Warwickshire lead to 1 hole before surrendering the 9th hole for the match score to be 2 up to The Warwickshire at the turn.

Hearsall then won the 10th hole with birdie and the 11th hole with par to bring the match all square. A Warwickshire bogey at the 13th hole saw Hearsall take the lead for the first time in the match and this lead was extended to two up with another birdie at the 15th hole.

Not to be outdone, The Warwickshire then won the 16th hole with a birdie of their own following a characteristic monstrous drive from Ian Stranks cutting the corner over the trees to leave Gareth Jenkins inside 150 yards to green on this 550+ yard par 5.

When Gareth Jenkins then put his tee shot to the short par 3 17th hole to within 8 feet of the hole the pressure was on Harry Ibbertson to respond and what a response it was, a 9 iron was arrowed to less than 3 feet.

The Warwickshire pair read their putt as being just outside the left lip, Ian Stranks hit his putt as per the read but it didn't turn as anticipated.

This left Pete Clarke with the opportunity of a 5th birdie for the Hearsall pair with an uphill putt from inside 3 feet with a little borrow from inside the right lip to secure victory (perfect for a right hander), a smooth positive stroke of the putter saw the ball disappear into the hole for a hard earned 2 & 1 victory.

There was a late night thriller at Nuneaton when Nev Gardner & fresh off the plane from his US College Chris Dougill (Stoneleigh Deer Park) beat Andy Sullivan & Paul Randle (Nuneaton) on the 25th hole.

That was in near darkness and how Stoneleigh managed to par Nuneaton's notorious par four 3rd in the play-off was a piece of magic/escapism that Paul Daniels would have been proud of.