Report: The match was played in fine weather over a course which was in excellent condition. Arrangements for a practice round on the afternoon before the match were disappointing as only tee times after 5 pm were available

The morning foursomes were keenly contested with all of them finishing on the last green. However, two of our pairs made major errors on the last hole to lose both matches. We were therefore 1 – 4 down at lunch and in great need of a fast start in the singles

Our first two players in the singles battled strongly but both lost on the 17th and 16th greens respectively. This put us 1 – 6 down and in dire need of a miracle from the middle and lower orders. Well, miracles don’t come along very often and so it proved. We lost all of the pm singles with only three matches getting to the 17th green

The standard of golf produced by our opponents was of a consistently high standard. The two new faces in their team both play to scratch and it’s unlikely that any of our opponents held a handicap higher than 2

Collectively, our players were devastated by the overall result but, individually, there was no evidence of “shoogly heid” syndrome. All players applied themselves to the task which confronted them and fought to the end. None of us would seek to claim that course knowledge was in any way a decisive factor. Dainton Park is a well-designed and patently fair test with relatively few quirks.

We ended up being soundly beaten by a very strong team who had fine, talented players in all positions in their line-up and who, as always, proved to be excellent company both on and off the course. Could we have done any better? Of course we could - but precisely what lessons have been learned must await our post event evaluation process

Our next SCL match is a home tie against Gwent at Tall Pines on 22 June


Alex Kidd SGU Seniors’ Captain

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