Gloucestershire Golf Union
Gloucestershire Second's RETAIN Wessex Salver
The 2nd team travelled to Builth Wells Golf Club at the weekend to play in the Wessex Salver against fellow Wessex League Counties, Brecon & Radnor, Glamorgan and Gwent in a strokeplay aggregate tournament with 3 from 4 foursomes counting in the morning round and 6 from 8 scores counting from the afternoon individual element of the tournament with the lowest aggregate County being declared winners.
On a tricky tight bouncy golf course scoring was going to be tough and it really was up for grabs as to which County would come out on top.
With County debuts handed to Tom Morris and Will Rawlins the morning foursomes was going to test all aspects of the game and especially the short game with hitting and holding the firm greens a tough ask.
With a par of 66 and no par 5's anything around 72 would be a fantastic effort and with the score of 75 by Toby Janes & Neil Tocknell out in the first group not being needed a great start to the competition was to be had. Lews Stalley & Will Rawlins were next in with a very hard working 72 followed by joint best morning round scores from Lee Hanson & Joe Biscoe who shot a 70 as did Dave Allison & Tom Morris meaning that the combined score was 212 (14 over) for the team. This gave Gloucestershire a 1 shot lead at lunch over hosts Brecon & Radnor on 213 followed by Glamorgan on 221 and Gwent on 234.
With the course playing firm and bouncy the wind strength increased significantly after lunch so scoring again was going to be difficult and every player knew they had to grind out a score if we were going to keep ahead of the home players and retain the Salver.
Scoring was indeed tough and only 1 player managed to break par, a fine 65 from Matt Coombes from Gwent, in fact only 3 other players managed to break 70 and these all came from Gloucestershire.
Afternoon singles scores from the team were Toby Janes 75, Neil Tocknell 69, Lewis Stalley 69, Will Rawlins 74, Joe Biscoe 72, Lee Hanson 74, Tom Morris 71 and Dave Allison 69. With the best 6 scores counting this gave Gloucestershire a total of 424 for the singles format and an overall total of 636 for the day, this proved to more than enough to claim the Wessex Salver by 22 shots with host Brecon & Radnor in 2nd on 658, Glamorgan 3rd on 664 and Gwent 4th on 675.
Special thanks to Alan Robinson and Richard Salter for their support over the weekend and my team for a tremendous effort in defending the Wessex Salver.
I would like to thank Builth Wells Golf Club for their hospitality and all 3 Counties players for the great sportsmanship and competition.
Neil Tocknell - 2nd Team Captain
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