L&RGU Seniors beat Northamptonshire in Midland League

Match report from L&RGU Seniors Captain, Roger Corp

To remain with a chance of winning the League, this was a must win match and we were able to field one of our strongest sides.

In the morning foursomes, we played the 9 hole Yellow course. In a match which didn’t go our way, Phil Gray and Graham Marshall went down 3 & 1. Martin Downing/Gilbert Scoular and Paul Jelly/Dave Johnson then came in with hard fought halves. However and such was the strength of the L&RGU team that the remaining pairs of Mark Illsley/Alan Martinez, Ian Moss/Alan Turton and Martin Hall/John Hardwick all managed to win on the 8th hole, which gave us a promising 4 - 2 lead going into the afternoon session.

The afternoon fourballs were played on the Red and Blue courses. Our leading pair of Phil Gray and Graham Marshall played superb golf and were able to overturn their morning result with a trouncing 7 & 6 win (rarely does a leading pair win by such a margin). Having birdied the 17th, Martin Downing/Gilbert Scoular almost birdied the 18th and were closely defeated 1 down. In the third match, Paul Jelly/Dave Johnson were all square playing the last. Paul though hit a perfectly struck wedge which pitched 4ft past the hole and spun back to within a few inches for a gimme birdie, which their opponents were unable to match, securing a 1 up win. In the fourth match and playing with Mark Illsley, Alan Martinez birdied both the 17th and 18th holes to also secure a 1 up win. And

in the final two matches, Ian Moss/Alan Turton and Martin Hall/John Hardwick both gradually overcame their opponents to comfortably win 4 & 3.

The afternoon score was therefore 10 - 2, which meant that L&RGU won the match 14 - 4 points. The standard of golf throughout the day on both sides was excellent but with the strength in depth of the team proving to be the determining factor in both the morning and afternoon sessions.

In terms of the League, the result against Northants puts L&RGU on exactly the same 'goal difference' as Nottinghamshire, which means that if we beat Cambridgeshire and Nottinghamshire lose when they play at Woodhall Spa, we win the League. If however Notts halve with or beat Lincs, they win - therefore all to play for in the final match!

Results sheet: 2017 LRGU Seniors v Northants.docx

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