The end of July brought the much promised Summer and the Captains of Somerset traveled to the Isle of Purbeck Golf Club near Corfe for their annual fixture against Dorset.
From the clubhouse the vista across the course was a clear view across Poole Harbour. The holes looked to be in excellent condition and the team looked forward to a challenge from what is a always strong opposition. To handicap themselves Dorset could only could put out a team of 14.
In the first match Dorset Captain, Dave Picton the Dorset captain was playing against the Somerset Pair of Captain of Captains Mike Rossiter and Mick Bovingdon. Always ‘up against it’ a flurry of birdies from the boys in yellow put paid to any chances he had and a final result of a 8 and 7 win did not do justice to his efforts.
Again the second match was one Dorset player against 2 Somerset players. In this match however Nigel Mobbs playing against Roy Parmiter and David Andow played a much closer match losing 1 down in a friendly game played in the spirit of golf.
In the first match where there were two pairs, Rob Ford and Colin Mantle for Somerset played Andre LaBouchardiere for Dorset. A very enjoyable game again played in excellent spirit ended in a half.
Rob Fear’s and Mark Swallow’s golf was not as good as the weather was glorious and they lost 3 and 2 against Chris Lay and Alex Anderson. The first victory for Dorset.
In a very competitive match with strong contributions from all involved between John Whitewood and Geoff Rooke for Somerset and Steven Boyd and David Renouf for Dorset ended in a halved match. Everyone agreed that this was the ‘right’ result.
Keith Funnell and Phil Purvis were the best players on the day in the next match managing the putting better to beat the Somerst pair of George Davis and Paul Hucker 2 and 1.
The next match was set alight by John Skinner’s Hole in One on the 9th. Playing with Ian Bakewell for Dorset the match was in doubt for most of the game with John Beer and Bob Smith managing to win 3 and 2 for Somerset.
Ian Gover and Clive Stilwell went 6 up with 6 to play in the last match by neatly sharing the load. Then a chip in birdie from Peter Foster, a hole won in 7! meant that he and Jack Crockett managed to narrow the gap. In the end Somerset won a nervous 3 and 2 match.
Nigel Mobbs won the bottle of wine for being nearest the pin on the 4th and Peter Foster also won a bottle for being nearest the pin in 2 on the 18th.
On a glorious day play on a magnificent course Somerset won the match 5 and 3 retaining the trophy.
Not all of the photos taken on the day are displayed in this post but can be seen at this link http://tiny.cc/Dorset2024
