Dorset County

Captains Report

Dorset V Hampshire 2017

Liphook Golf Club was the venue for Dorset’s first County East League match of 2017 and the team consisted of 5 new players to the match sheet. Lee James returned after a 22 year professional career and he was joined by Bournemouth University Players Harry Collins and Aaron Bullock, 2016 Dorset Colts Champion Callum Ward and 2017 Dorset Open Runner Up Luke Hirst. Completing the team were experienced team members Matthew Sandy, Andy Rideout and Giles Legg.

Lee James and Matthew Sandy lead Dorset out but with the latter feeling under the weather they both found themselves down throughout the round, finally going down 4 and 3. Experienced university foursomes pairing of Harry Collins and Aaron Bullock continued their successful partnership in Dorset colours, a fast start saw them 3up through 6 and with some steady play through the middle of their round they crossed the line 2 and 1. Luke Hirst confident after his runner up finish in the Dorset Open joined his experienced Dudsbury Golf Club teammate Andy Rideout for the third pairing. Both players looked in an attacking mood and charged to a 2up lead after 5 holes, a rough run over the next few holes turned the match and they were 2 down after 10. Luke and Andy continued to push on and managed to level the match with 1 hole to play, unfortunately their Hampshire opponents managed to make 1 last birdie to win 1up. Finally to round off the mornings play experienced player Giles Legg partnered Callum Ward in his first match as a senior and whilst being 1 down for most of their match they were unable to capitalise on some very solid play through the middle of their round and finally lost their match on the 17^th green.

Dorset 1 - Hampshire 3

Lunch

Needing a strong start to the afternoon it was the responsibility of Lee James to lead the team out. There was some excellent golf being played by both sides but it was Hampshire who managed to keep themselves in front during most of the games. After 13 holes the scores were:-

• Lee James                      1 down
• Aaron Bullock                   1 down
• Harry Collins                     Level
• Andy Rideout                    Level
• Matthew Sandy                 1 down
• Callum Ward                    4 Down
• Luke Hirst                         1 down
• Giles Legg                         1 down

Turning all of the scores around proved a step too far but we did manage to take positives from late wins for Harry Collins, Andy Rideout and a great birdie, birdie finish for Matthew Sandy which gave him a halved match.

Final Score Dorset 3 ½ - Hampshire 8 ½

Whilst we must take the result on the chin and move on the score line didn’t really reflect the closeness of some of the matches and that 6 matches out of the 12 played over the day went to the 18^th hole. Thank you to all of the team for their efforts over the weekend and I look forward to our next challenge at Southwest Week in Weston Super-Mare in June.

Tom Leech

County Captain

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