Twelve Somerset Captains drove down the M5 to a newly configured course at Stover to stake their claim for the 2024 Six Counties Trophy, led by President Roy Parmiter and Captain Mike Rossiter who both had high hopes for the Somerset team who had made such a strong start to the season. Six pairs of 4BBB would submit their scores with only the lowest score being deducted.
It proved to be a great effort from all of the team and consistent scoring kept us in the hunt right up to when the final pairs were coming in. Despite our best efforts and averaging almost 38 points on a tricky course, the Trophy went to Dorset who are in an amazing run of form. We were only beaten by 5 points overall, finishing a strong second with some very good individual scores. Most of the groups were left ruing a couple of putts here and there and what might have been.
The Somerset scores were:
Mike Rossiter and Matt Lazenby 37 points
Clive Stilwell and Kevin Blakeley 35
Dave Bate and John Beer 42 (and leaders for most of the day for the best pair overall)
Roy Parmiter and Steve Butterfield 26
Keri Allchurch and Rob Fear 38
Denis Compton and Dean Evans 38
Highlights of the day included a great score of 42 by 2023 Captain David Bate and previous Secretary John Beer. David had a purple patch in the middle and John was in great form on the back nine. They were only pipped by a huge score of 45 points right at the end.
The composite course we played had a very low Course Rating resulting in everyone losing shots on the new WHS handicap calculation with as little as one or two shots each for a few of our lower handicappers. Three point holes were hard to come by!
The new layout at Stover was a pleasure to play and with two further new holes being brought in to play in the next week or so, it was clear that this course is destined to become a firm favourite very soon. All of the Somerset players were impressed with the new holes, and over Dinner we all agreed that a trip west to try the finished course this summer would be time well spent.
The day was very well organised by Devon and the whole team at Stover who handled such a large group very smoothly. We look forward to having another crack at The Dorset Golf and Country Club in 2025 although the home county will be strong favourites without a doubt!
