Dorset County

Surrey County Golf Union were our opponents for our second league match of the year at the immaculate and very tough Hankley Common Golf Club. Following our very close match with Hampshire where we ended up with a halved match it was vital to continue to push for a winning result.

The Core of our team for this match was very similar to the 1^st one with 3 changes in total. The full team list was as follows:-

Lee James, David Cook, Andy Rideout, Andrew Robson, Luke Hirst, Matthew Sandy, Giles Legg and Harry Mitchell.

Leading Dorset out were Lee James and David Cook who covered the 14 holes of their match in 4 under par to complete a solid 5/4 victory. The second pairing of Giles Legg and Harry Mitchell along with the 3^rd pairing of Andy Rideout and Andy Robson found early dropped shots hard to come back from and lost both of their matches on the 17^th green.

Our last pairing of Matthew Sandy and Luke Hirst who have been unbeaten since teaming up this year were in an epic battle which saw them get to the last hole all square. With both tee shots on the last hole finishing in difficult positions it was the Surrey pair that looked to be in heading for the winners circle until they found out that they had played the wrong ball for their second shot. This meant Dorset won the hole and their match to finish up the morning session at 2 apiece.

Dorset 2 - Surrey 2

Lunch

It was vital to remember that the Surrey mistake was an opportunity for us to win the match but with very strong individual players on their side it was going to be a tough afternoon.

It was a difficult test from the outset but we managed to be in the lead of the match through 12 holes. The scores after 12 holes were as follows:-

• Lee James                           1 up
• David Cook                         2 up
• Matt Sandy                         4 up
• Luke Hirst                            4 down
• Andy Robson                     1 down
• Andy Rideout                    3 down
• Harry Mitchell                    1 up
• Giles Legg                            1 up

Although there were 2 matches with a strong lead it was always going to be hard to cross the line as Lee James proved when he was pegged back by his opponent to lose on the 18^th green and David Cook could only grab a half at the last. Matt Sandy made sure we grabbed the lead with solid match win but when Hirst lost his match 3/2 we were behind again with no obvious sign of where we could get a result. Andy Rideout was the next in with a 3/2 loss and now we need something from the last 3 matches. Andy Robson who had been down in his match all afternoon showed great resilience in taking his opponent to the last hole. He played the very difficult 18^th perfectly and parred his way to a halved match. Now all we needed was 2 wins in the last matches. Harry Mitchell was 1^st to get in with a great 2/1 win and then it was left to one of Dorset’s most experienced match players Giles Legg to grab the last point. It wasn’t all plain sailing for Giles as his opponent holed from 30 feet at the 17^th to take the match to the last hole, however he also played the hole intelligently and came away with the vital final point to ensure we halved our second match of the season.

This is the 1^st time we have halved the 1^st two matches of the league season and it still gives us a chance to win the league if we can win our final 2 matches and get some help from Surrey when they play the league leaders Hampshire in their last match.

All to play for.

Please can I thank all the players for their commitment over the weekend also like to thank the Dorset Executive for their support on the day.

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