Grafton Morrish Finals – Oct 2025

Successful qualification now three years on the bounce saw us drawn at Hunstanton GC for this year’s Grafton Morrish Finals in Norfolk.  A practice round on Thursday in favourable conditions before Storm Amy paid us an unwelcome visit.

Friday saw some miraculous scenes from Taunton, with not only a 1st Round victory against Sutton Valence, but going on in the afternoon to beat St Edward’s Oxford to make history of a 3rd Round appearance on the Saturday, an amazing achievement by the boys and 36 holes in very testing wet and windy conditions.

Having just about dried out, we were greeted by a very windy Saturday morning, gusting at 50+ mph made for interesting playing conditions, especially around the greens.  We unfortunately lost to strong opposition in Glasgow Academy, who went on to beat this year’s Halford Hewitt winners Bradfield in the Quarter Finals, but lost in the Semi’s to overall winners Radley.  Our official score was a loss of 3-0, however Pete and Greg were 2 down with 3 to play when the other games were already over and match lost, but they wouldn’t accept a friendly half, so we conceded our match to get ourselves back in out of the weather.  Of course they would have won the last 3 holes if they needed to! 😉  Seeing the Quarter Finalists teeing off in horizontal rain on Saturday afternoon certainly made the disappointment of defeat very short lived!!

1st Round – Sutton Valence – Won 2-1
Gary Hector & Phil Stickler – won 5&4
Simon Hewitt-Avison & Mark Banham – won 1 up
Greg Whalley & Pete Whalley – lost 3&2

2nd Round – St Edward’s Oxford – Won 2-1
Gary Hector & Phil Stickler – won 3&2
Simon Hewitt-Avison & Mark Banham – won 3&2
Greg Whalley & Pete Whalley – lost 4&3

3rd Round – Glasgow Academy – Lost 3-0
Gary Hector & Phil Stickler – lost 3&2
Simon Hewitt-Avison & Mark Banham – lost 4&3
Greg Whalley & Pete Whalley – lost 3&2

Fantastic for Mark to get his first points under his belt for Taunton, a formidable pairing with Simon Avison continuing their solid form from last year.  Also yet another outstanding performance from Gary and Phil, with Saturday’s defeat sadly ending their 10 match unbeaten streak in all Scratch Competitions, truly remarkable.

A great effort all round!  Well done Team!

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