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This was the third Carib-Morris Cup golf competition between the Caribbean Golf Society and the Chris Morris Society. The event once again took place at the West-Midlands Golf Course in Kennilworth Solihull. This year’s choice of location was the reserve of the Chris Morris Society and they chose again to play the West Midlands.

This event is a great event between two highly competitive golf societies who look forward to this annual meeting. The CGS are the current holders of the Cup and are unbeaten since it’s inauguration in 2008.

This year the Chris Morris team came to this event with all guns blazing and a team looking to overturn their loss in 2009 due to a technicality.

Having warmed our bodies with Tea, Coffee and bacon or egg rolls both teams were ready to go.

Playing from the white tees and representing the CGS in the first group out were Ken Brown and Nat Burrows. Both players had a great match against Dave Bull from Chris-Morris. Unfortunately for Dave his partner phoned in late to say he could not make the event due to personal circumstances so Dave playing off 8 handicap had the disadvantage of making all his shots count to beat the CGS guys, whom have showed good form throughout the CGS 2010 season.

Despite playing some great golf Dave found himself 4 down after nine holes and then shook hands on the 13th loosing 6&5. So it was 1-up to the CGS, whom might have been excused for thinking this was going to be a stroll.

The Chris-Morris team despite having three men short for one reason or another came out fighting. The second match out representing the CGS and a pair that the CGS captain was relying on for a sure point was Roan McLeod and Linton Bell. With Linton’s strong form this year, a CGS second straight win looked on the cards but it wasn’t to be. Playing against mother and son pair from Chris-Morris was Steve and Lorna Parfitt. The match was close throughout the round but once the Chris-Morris pair went 1-up after the 3rd hole, they never lost the lead and came in 3 & 1 winners taking the match on the 17th hole.

So as the scores came in, it was certain that this year it was going to be another close encounter, it was now a point to each side. There were some titanic battles going on all over the course with one team taking the upper hand on one hole then giving it away on the very next hole. Jacko Powell and Emmanuel Sylva from the CGS playing against Neil Felgate and J. Allardyce from Chris-Morris, played excellent golf between them, this was another very close match which went right down to the wire with Jacko being the only player to hit the green on the final hole, the island green par 3. It was a solid strike from Jacko who then two putted to seal the victory for the CGS and take the overall match score to 2-1 CGS.

Not knowing which way the other matches were going both teams were on tender hooks! 2-1 became 2-2 with Eric Queely and Denny Senior losing their match 3 & 2.
Match 5, between CGS captain Dean Leith and Keith Salmon against sole Chris-Morris player and captain Paul Wragg was very one sided not just in participants but also the score. Both Dean and Keith played some excellent golf and is a sure fire pairing for next year should they both make the team. The match was won 6 & 5 to put CGS up 3 – 2 overall.

The CGS was starting to take a grip on this year’s event especially when Junior Harris and Lloyd Thomas brought home a 2 & 1 win. Score now CGS 4 Chris-Morris 2.

As we all know golf is a funny game and form can turn in a minute a 4-2 CGS lead quickly became 4-4 with losses for CGS pairings of Don Bramble & Jay Berryman and Rhucha Ford & Ronald Ross both losing their matches. Don and Jay loss 4&3 and Rhucha and Ronald Ross loss on the final hole when Ronald had a putt to seal the deal and claim a half.

So it was now down to the final match between Martin Chidgey & Alan Ferguson representing the CGS and Martin Crawford one of the stronger players on the Chris-Morris team. Unfortunate for Martin he was on his own in this match but that didn’t deter him from giving a strong performance against the CGS pair.

With all the other matches now in, all the talk was about how this match was going. Some were saying that Alan and Martin were down by 1 and some were saying it was all square. Anyway the group finally reached the 18th with the CGS pair 1up. The CGS were in a strong position, if the match was tied we would still retain the trophy. However Alan and Martin wanted to win this one and give the CGS an outright win.

The island green 18th is one of those holes when you’re having a good round on a Saturday in the monthly medal that you could do without. It’s 140 yards from the white tees but when the winds blowing it can be as tricky as that famous par 3 island green at Sawgrass, you know the one where we see all those top players dump it in the drink costing them thousands in prize money. Anyway we weren’t playing for thousands of dollars we were playing for bragging rights and the Carib-Morris Cup.

After all the tee shots were struck on the 18th there was concern for the Chris-Morris team with their man’s ball possibly in the drink. The CGS team were in a much better position with Alan Ferguson hitting a lovely tee shot to leave him in prime position. His playing partner Martin Chidgey was not in such a good position, the immediate thought was that he had dumped his shot in the drink but after a little confusion it turned out it was dry albeit on the edge of the green but still having a chance to get up and down. The Chris-Morris teams concern over the whereabouts of their man’s golf ball was soon laid to rest when they saw Martin getting out his wedge to chip from the back edge of the green. It wasn’t a very good chip from Martin it left him in bogey country at least 15 feet from the hole and still his turn to putt first. Martin putted up but still had some meat on the bone, he eventually holed out for a bogey four. Martin Chidgey also had a poor chip and eventually holed out for a 5. This left Alan Ferguson with two putts to win the match 2up. He eventually holed out for a bogey 4 to halved the hole but win the match 1up and provide the CGS team with that final point to win the Carib-Morris Cup 5-4.

It was great to see both teams turn out for this year’s event. It was a shame the Chris-Morris team were down 3 players but these things happen. Hopefully next year they will have a full complement of players and push the CGS yet again. We can be sure that they will win one day but hopefully not in the near future. The CGS membership grows every year and every year we have more players to choose from to make up our team.

Thanks to the Chris-Morris society for making this a special event.

Thanks to both team Captains who have a difficult job organising players to take part, it’s not an easy task.

Both teams would like to thank the West Midlands Golf Club, the soup and sandwiches went down well especially when it got really cold outside.

Next Year’s event will be hosted by the CGS so both teams will be looking forward to the next phase of this ‘Ryder Cup’ cup style event.