Gloucestershire Golf Union
Second Team narrow defeat to RAF
Lansdown Golf Club was the setting for this years annual friendly match against the RAF and with last years encounter resulting in a tie another close match was anticipated with the RAF bringing a strong team who had travelled from all over the country.
The morning foursomes started in cold, wet and breezy conditions and scoring was going to be difficult it seemed. The first match saw Joe Biscoe and James Rowles but in a very dominant performance eventually wining by a 4&3 scoreline, in the second match Josh Edmunds and Dan Page had a very close match and managed to come out on top winning by 1 hole. With Lee Hanson and Joel Tarry always in control of their match and seeing out a 2&1 victory all was looking good, however the RAF battled back well in the final two matches with Tom Morris and Neil Tocknell being defeated 3&2 and in the final match of the morning Alex Winn and Charlie Taylor-Madge lost 4&2.
With a 3-2 lunchtime lead it was going to be all to play for in the afternoon singles and with the sun now out and the players well fed and watered by the Lansdown hospitality it really was all to play for.
First out was James Rowles who had a very up and down match and he battled well through injury on the back nine to win the last hole and halve his match. Out second in the match of the day was Joe Biscoe who despite playing excellent golf and indeed himself being 2 under was defeated by Sam Whitaker who had 7 birdies to claim a 5&4 victory with some truly exceptional golf. Dan Page was next up and yet again went all the way to the 18th securing a hard fought half and with Josh Edmunds winning 4&2 also with some fine golf the first 4 matches points were effectively shared. A strong middle order from the RAF however pushed them to the brink of victory by winning the next three matches, Tom Morris was defeated 5&4, Neil Tocknell lost 2&1 and Charlie Taylor-Madge was defeated 1 down. All was not lost however and with Joel Tarry dominating his match for a very impressive 6&5 victory followed by a 4&2 win for Alex Winn the match scores were now 7-7 and it all came down to Lee Hanson and Stu Hardy who faced each other in the last match the previous year.
Stu dominated the front 9 and raced into a 4 hole lead which he held until the 15th before Lee staged a fightback winning 3 holes on the trot and needing to win the last to square the match which unfortunately didnt happen with Stu holding on and winning 1 up.
The final score ending Gloucestershire 2nd Team 7 The RAF 8.
Congratulations to Jamie and his team on the victory and we hope you have a successful year against the other forces teams and we look forward already to next years match.
Thank you to Lansdown Golf Club and its members, starter Andy and the Club Captain for the warm welcome we received, it was also good to see Ian Cornwell supporting and Robbo looking after him.
Thanks
Neil Tocknell - Captain
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