ACGA Win the 3-Way Golf Challenge
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On the first day of competition, all three teams arrived on an overcast morning to the smell of fresh coffee on tap in the lounge area. Many of the players from all three teams were familiar with one another and so the atmosphere was one of old friends renewing acquaintances. Team captains met to finalise competition details and to confirm the respective parings.
The CGS team were quietly confident about our chances and felt that if we could get off to a quick start we would keep the pressure on the ACGA, who were clearly viewed as the main threat.
The first day format was four ball better ball and Eric Queely and Elford Douglas (CGS) went in game one against Randy Plowright and Gary Cameron of the ACGA. Randy and Gary are two of the ACGA’s finer players and both play off a 9 handicap. Eric and Elford therefore had their work cut out and played hard to challenge the consistent performance of the London boys, however Randy and Gary won the 15th and closed out the match 4 & 3.
CGS chairman Junior Harris and Dave Brown went out in game 3 against Brian Levi and Ferron Newell (Fez) of the Titans. The score line suggests it was a fairly close game with a 2 & 1 victory to the CGS.
In game 4 Dean Leith and Linton Bell (CGS) went out against Errol Green and Austin Simmonds of the ACGA who played off 11 and 12 handicaps respectively. However, Dean and Linton are a particularly strong pairing and duly had this game under control throughout and closed out on the 15th with a 4 & 3 win.
In game 6 the CGS pair Ansell Pottinger and Jay Berryman were matched against Norman Pascal and Dunstan Taylor from the Titans. Norman and Dunstan played off handicaps of 14 and 17 respectively. However, after a closely contested match Ansell and Jay halved the matched to achieve a half point for the CGS team.
Game 9 was the final match of the day and saw Ronald Ross and Lloyd Thomas (Bugsy) from the CGS out against Steve Williams and Kirris Williams of the Titans. This was an evenly contested matched that saw the Titans pair edge out the CGS players with a 2 & 1 victory.
At the end of day one the scores were as follows:
The format for day two was the traditional singles challenge and with ACGA and the CGS locked together at 3½points each, we all anticipated a difficult and challenging day of golf.
The CGS got off to a positive start with Dean Leith beating Kirris Williams 3 & 2 to earn his team their first point of the day. Junior Harris faced the daunting challenge of taking on the ACGA’s best player, Tyrone Carter, a scratch golfer. Junior was aware that he would be up against it but was reassured by the support of his team. At the turn the match was all square but on the back nine Tyrone established a lead and on the 15th closed the match out with a 4 & 3 victory.
Eric Queely went out against Kola Solanki from the Titans and produced an assured performance to take the match 4 & 2. Jay Berryman was next to take up the charge and went out against Ferron Newell (Fez) from the Titans. Fez got off to a good start and was able to establish an early lead in the match. However, Jay was able to draw on his competitive instincts to fight back and take the match comfortably 3 & 2.
CGS Captain Elford Douglas had been hospitalised two days earlier after being struck on the head with a golf ball at the Droitwich Golf Club. Elford went out against ACGA Captain Sophia Lodge and was in control throughout before winning the match 5 &4.
CGS big hitter Ian Higgins took on Dunstan Taylor of the Titans in his match and produced an assured performance to take the match 3 & 1. CGS vice-captain Lloyd Thomas faced a stern challenge in his match with Errol Green of the ACGA. Errol is an assured player with a handicap of 11. Errol ran out a comfortable winner 4 & 2.
Linton Bell (CGS) faced Steve Wilson of the Titans and ran out a comfortable winner with a 5 & 4 victory. Dave Brown faced Ernie Owusu of the ACGA and secured a good 3 & 2 win. Unfortunately, Ansell Pottinger in his match with Brian Levi of the Titans and Ronald Ross in his match with Keith Murray of the ACGA were defeated 7 & 6 and 3 & 2 respectively.
At the end of the second days play the final scores were;
We congratulated the ACGA on their narrow victory and it was the unanimous view that the competition had been played in an excellent spirit with all three teams looking forward to the next 3 way challenge in 2014.
