St Mellion Golf and Country Club, 10th – 11th October 2023
A dozen of Somerset Golf Captains’ finest took the route west to compete in the first Inter-Counties Captains’ Challenge at St Mellion Golf and Country Club. The event consisted of 6 pairs each from 7 Counties playing a 4BBB format over each of the two courses over the two days. Each County dropped the worst score on each day meaning that five scores went on the board on the Tuesday and another five on the Wednesday.
The event was primarily organised by a Golf Holiday company in conjunction with St Mellion, and the seven competing Counties were:
Derbyshire, Dorset, Shropshire & Herefordshire, South Wales Coast, Somerset, Suffolk and Surrey.
Somerset fielded a diverse team with nine Clubs being represented. Our pairings were; David Bate (Captain) and Kevin Blakeley; Steve Butterfield and Mike Snaith; Maddie Casson and Geoff Rooke; John Beer and Phil Barrett; Steve Parker and Murray Parsons; and finally, Dave Rich and Glyn Sewell.
As expected of Somerset, everyone joined in the après golf and pre & après dinner sessions with great gusto, this being one of only a few occasions when the team stays overnight. Had there been a competition for the most red wine and beer consumed on the first day, the Somerset contingent would have been in a league of their own. As it turned out, our golfing skills were a little more middle of the road, Somerset finishing 5th out of the seven Counties. The margins were fine though as we were ultimately only two Stableford points behind Shropshire & Herefordshire in third place. Dorset concluded a fine season, which also saw them win the Four Counties in Somerset, with another strong performance in Cornwall, their total of 389 winning by a margin of 28 points over Surrey who came second and Shropshire & Herefordshire who were third, a further 16 points away.
The complete table of scores is below:
| County | Day 1 Total | Day 2 Total | Grand Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dorset | 202 | 187 | 389 |
| Surrey | 182 | 179 | 361 |
| Shropshire & Herefordshire | 181 | 164 | 345 |
| Derbyshire | 169 | 176 | 345 |
| Somerset | 170 | 173 | 343 |
| South Wales Coast | 177 | 166 | 343 |
| Suffolk | 167 | 162 | 329 |
The Dorset team had set an early lead scoring some 203 points on day one, working out to an average of over 40 points per pair from the five qualifying scores which was impressive scoring.
Notable scores from the Somerset team included a fine 35 points from Steve Parker and Murray parsons on the Nicklaus Course and 40 points from Maddie Casson and Geoff Rooke on the Kernow Course.
Well done to team Somerset ably led by our Captain David Bate and we very much look forward to the 2024 event.
