The OCGS played in the last major golfing event for this year last weekend – the Grafton Morrish.
It is played on two great golf courses – Hunstanton and Brancaster, in Norfolk. We were blessed with wonderful autumn sunshine, albeit with strong winds.
The Grafton Morrish is a scratch foursomes tournament for teams of 6. We fielded a promising team including two new youngsters, Benji Carr and George Wilkinson. However other teams are notoriously strong in this competition – many boast of having 6 players of scratch or better these days!
We had an early start against Uppingham at Hunstanton in the first round. The match was fairly even until the turn, with Craig Moore and Adam Kendrick leading the way, after which a combination of mistakes by us, and steady play from them, saw their top two pairs win. The third pair, Giles Pickford and Harry Milburn Fryer, always had the edge on their opponents, and settled for a half.
Hunstanton is unusual in having a terrace which overlooks both the 1st tee, and 18th green. We spent a memorable afternoon with other first round losers “supporting” play on the first and last – the atmosphere was just like the Ryder Cup!
The next day we played in the Plate competition – the Solihull Salver – where the teams play scratch stableford foursomes at Brancaster. In windy conditions our combined scores were not quite enough to qualify (81), but Giles and Harry excelled in getting 33 scratch stableford points.
This year hopefully sets the trend for younger players to go out and get some experience in playing competitive scratch foursomes. One day soon, with a bit of luck, we should be in the running to win some silverware, here, or the Brent Knoll Bowl or even the Halford Hewitt!
