On a very windy Sunday afternoon at Hoebridge (a neutral venue), the Richmond Park team played Easthampstead for a place in the national semi final of this men’s pairs matchplay competition. The course was in good condition and proved an excellent choice for the match. Our 3 pairs did the club proud by all winning their matches for a 3-0 result and we now look forward to a national semi-final against the Area 3 winners (either Huntswood or South Bucks).

With Uli away on holiday and Peter Goodall and Julian James unavailable, Roger Rojas and Mark Bean joined the team for the match. Our long hitting, low handicap pairing of Richard Back and Ross Hood were first to tee off and ground out a relatively comfortable 2&1 win (certainly more comfortable than their earlier, last-ditch 1up win at Birds Hill!). Richard Owen and Mark Bean were 2nd to go and, after halving the 1st hole, surged to strong position by winning the next 5 holes, and although Easthampstead fought back, the match was closed out with a 4&3 win on the 15th. Our final pairing of Roger Rojas and Tamas Ladacs had a close front 9 with both teams playing very well, however Easthampstead’s putting fell away on the back 9 and a comfortable 3&2 win was the result.