Here we go again! A few of us arrived on the Tuesday for the first practice day.
To set the scene the weather was fabulous, blue skies and a moderate breeze. Our first round was against Stowe late Thursday morning at Royal Cinque Ports Deal. This year the team welcomed back Mark (Banners) Banham and a new recruit from Cornwall JJ Debenham. Taunton’s track record over the last 10 years was better than Stowe so a first round win was looking promising. However, we never anticipated Stowe importing 3 plus handicap players from abroad! Sadly, we lost 3-2 but to complete the picture we had 2 pairs losing on the 18th green. Stowe continued to the quarter finals of the main competition.
Usual hold up on the 5th hole at Deal. On Friday we played Dulwich in the Plate at Prince’s, who also lost their first round. We always knew this would be a tough game. At this stage teams are reduced from 10 players to 6, which like deciding the 10 man team and pairings is never an easy task for our Captain Pete. Well done Pete you did a great job. Again sadly we lost to Dulwich 2-1.
We now had an afternoon free so many of us decided to play the Himalayas at Prince’s, which after so many years in this competition we have never played.
Team this year was: Pete Whalley (C), Greg Whalley, Phil Stickler, Gary Hector, Richard Willacy, Mark Banham, JJ Debenham, Jack Malden, Andy Ford, Ed Bradnock, Dave Higginson.
By looking at HH Scratch page you can see the full statistics of the competition and see who won/lost or drew.
Another superbly organised event and wonderful camaraderie and again welcome to this scratch competition JJ.
Some wonderful pictures of Deal.
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