Dorset County

Kent Golf Union were our opponents for our third league match of the year and we decided to take them as far away as we could. Bridport Golf Club were our host club for this match and they pulled out all the stops in ensuring we had a terrific weekend.

After starting the season with 2 draws against Hampshire and Kent we were looking for a win to give us a slim chance of winning the league. The full team list was as follows:-

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

Leading Dorset out were Sam Roles and Andy Rideout who started very solidly but then around the turn founds themselves on a losing streak of holes and their match ending 5/3. The second pairing of David Cook and Andrew Robson started in very much the same way as the 1^st match and again found the run of form not in their favour and whilst managing to win 2 holes late on they lost 3/1. Matt Sandy and Luke Hirst have been unbeaten in all of their matches as a pairing and that form continued. For most of the match they were in control but a late challenge from their opponents saw them 1 down after 17 holes. Luke Hirst needed to hole from 6 feet at the last to ensure we grabbed something from the morning’s results and he duly walked the putt in. Match 4 Saw Giles Legg and Harry Mitchell trail in their match from the start, finally losing on the 16 green. A tough mornings golf made the scores a little hard to read.

Dorset ½ - Kent 3 ½

Lunch

Being down at lunch isn’t completely new to us but we had to remain positive that we could go out and get a result. The scores after 7 holes made for very positive reading and they were as follows:-

• David Cook                         All square
• Matt Sandy                         1 up
• Luke Hirst                            All square
• Harry Mitchell                    All square
• Andy Robson                     1 up
• Andy Rideout                    1 up
• Sam Roles                           1 down
• Giles Legg                            All square

Very much like the morning matches the games took dramatic changes around the half way point and the matches that were in control started to lose their momentum. Cook losing 3/2, Hirst Losing 5/3, Robson Losing 4/2, Legg losing 5/4 and Mitchell Losing 2 down. There were positive results for Matt Sandy who won 6/4 to remain unbeaten all year in the east league and Andy Rideout came home a 3/1 winner. Sam Roles produced the last result for Dorset with a solid half.

Last year’s match result against Kent was 11 ½ to a ½ in Kent’s favour so you could say this was a slight improvement but I speak on behalf of the whole team say that we are bitterly disappointed not to have given ourselves a chance to seek some glory in our last match in September.

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

Last but not least a final thank you must go out again to Bridport Golf Club for their fine hospitality all weekend. Nothing was too much trouble for them and both teams really appreciated the efforts of everyone that was involved in the weekend.

Back to previous results