NAPGC Gordon Forster Bowl
NAPGC Gordon Forster Bowl
Gordon Forster Bowl, Round 3 contd.
The club’s Richmond Park ‘C’ team, captained by Paul Green, were soundly beaten by Wimbledon Common who now progress to Finals Day. This defeat marked the end of what had been a strong challenge by the club to get to Finals Day and again bring back the trophy.
Gordon Forster Bowl, Round 3 contd
On a cold and wet April 1st, the Richmond Park “Early Birds” team welcomed Wycombe Heights to the park for their 3rd round Gordon Foster match. Conditions at Wycombe Heights on Friday night resulted in the closure of the course due to waterlogging and the rescheduling of the away leg until Saturday April 8th. A slender lead was established at home on April 1st, however our away pair suffered a 17points defeat on April 8th meaning Wycombe Heights progress to Finals Day.
Although there was lots of water on both greens and fairways at the park on April 1st, John Perkins scored a excellent 20 + 20 for 40 pts and Brendan Sullivan had 17 + 15 for 32 pts. Our opposition had 32 pts and 37 pts respectively, so Richmond Park 72pts – Wycombe Heights 69pts. Will Balakrishnan and Ryan Wilson made the journey to Wycombe on the 8th and both scored 21pts for their respective 18 holes against Wycombe’s 35pts and 24 pts.
We wish Wycombe Heights all the best at the Finals and captain Brendan says a big thank you to everyone who represented Richmond Park and volunteered to travel to play the away legs at short notice.
Gordon Forster, Round 3
The match between Richmond Park ‘B’ and Thorney Park ‘C’ was set up, after initial problems of the opponents’ team to find enough players, on Sunday, March 26. Conditions were pretty humid and muddy.
Thorney Park won with 133 : 130 aggregate points.
The home team, playing at Prince’s, was Kim Chaffart and Alvaro Garcia-Hoz and they amassed 70 points, while Richard Owen and Uli Katte came up with 60 points playing away.
Gordon Forster Bowl, Round 2 contd
The club’s Richmond Park ‘C’ team, captained by Paul Green, progressed to the 3rd round with a comfortable 124-109 points win over Little Hay golf club and now progress to their last pre-Finals Day match against Wimbledon Common.
Gordon Forster Bowl, Round 2 contd.
The Richmond Park “early birds” team, captained by Brendan Sullivan, won their Round 2 match against the Huntswood “D” team. The match was played in nice sunny conditions with the Prince’s course in fine condition.
The match tee times were arranged for 08.00am (home & away). Alan van Wyk & Ryan Wilson made the early journey to Huntswood. Conditions were calm and they both combined to score Alan 24pts + Ryan 32pts (total 56pts) against the home pair of Martin Rogerson 37pts + Mike o’ Reilly 34pts (total 71pts).
Meanwhile back on Prince’s, Brendan Sullivan & Russell Stewart built a commanding score of 40pts + 39pts (total 79pts) which had an excellent 21pts on the back 9 by Russell, whilst our travelling opponents found the Prince’s course significantly more difficult, with Lee Coughlin 24pts + Sam Stevens 27pts (total 51pts).
So, overall Richmond Park played the better golf for a well deserved 135pts – 122pts victory. The team’s next opponents will be the winners of the match between Tilgate Forest & Wycombe Heights.
Gordon Forster Bowl, Round 2
The Richmond Park ‘B’ team played their 2nd round match against the Huntswood ‘C’ team and won through by a close margin (back 9 countback).
It had been a very cold night and both the Richmond and Huntswood courses were frosty and ‘frozen on top’ when play began. The Richmond home team of Alvaro Garcia and Alan King (a very late replacement for Kim Chaffart) dealt with the conditions better than the visiting Huntswood players, winning by a combined 5 stableford points overall (56 vs 51). The Huntswood players just couldn’t cope with the “very small” frozen greens.
The away team of captain Uli Katte and Richard Owen had a 45minutes delayed start due to fog and had to play the first 5 holes with less than 100m visibility on occasions, relying on their opponents to tell them which direction the green was ! It was a relatively close away match with Huntswood winning by a combined 5 stableford points (70 vs 65).
So the match was decided by countback on the back 9, which Richmond Park won by 5 points (6 up at home and 1 down away). The team’s next opponents will be the winners of the match between Thorney Park & Haste Hill.
Gordon Forster Round 1 contd
The Richmond Park ‘A’ team, captained by Cuneyt Sazer, played their delayed away leg of their match against Thorney Park ‘B’ and could not recover from the home leg deficit from the home leg played before Christmas at Richmond Park.
On the same day, the Richmond Park ‘C’ team, captained by Paul Green, played their match against Huntswood ‘C’ and narrowly won.
The home team players, Louis Dickey and Rob Carlile, posted a convincing lead and although our away team of Peter Goodall and Pete Malla couldn’t match their hosts scores, playing in torrential rain for the first few holes, it was a ‘win’ for Richmond Park.
Gordon Foster Bowl, Round 1 (contd)
The Richmond Park ‘Early Birds’ team played their Round 1 match against (fittingly !) Birds Hill Golf Club and secured a convincing win.
The team, captained by Brendan Sullivan, played in extremely cold conditions with 11.00am tee times, both home & away. Frozen fairways and rock hard greens meant pars were hard to come by and birdies were of the feathered variety only. Russell Stewart and Will Balakrishnan made the long journey to Maidenhead for a 5 and a half hour round. Conditions were tough but they combined to score 22pts + 28pts (50pts) against the home pair’s 25pts + 28pts (53pts). Meanwhile back on the Prince’s course at Richmond Park, Brendan Sullivan & Jihum Kim built a commanding score of 39pts + 32pts (71pts) against the visiting team’s 30pts + 22pts (52pts). So, overall Richmond Park played the better golf for a well-deserved 121pts – 105pts victory. Hopefully the weather in early 2023 will be a little kinder and warmer when round 2 comes along.
Gordon Forster Bowl 2022/23
Following last year’s triumph by a team from Richmond Park winning the GF Bowl Trophy, the club entered 4 teams in this year’s (winter) competition.
The Richmond Park “B” team, captained by Uli Katte, were the first to play their Round 1 match. This was against Portsmouth on a dull, partly rainy Sunday. The game at Richmond teed off on the Prince’s course at 9am, whereas it was an 11am start at Portsmouth. Tense and convivial rounds were played at both venues with a narrow victory for Richmond Park (113 points to 111 points) being the result.
The home team of Alvaro Garcia-Hoz and Kim Chaffart did the ‘heavy lifting’ scoring 68 points to their opponents 60 points. The star of the team was Alvaro, especially on the back 9 (22 points, with birdies on the 12th and 15th).
At Portsmouth the heavy rain during November had taken it’s toll on the course, with only 13 holes ‘fully’ open (mainly from mats), plus one 65 yard pitch over a 40 yard drop. Our away team of Uli and Richard Owen matched Portsmouth on the front 9 but slipped to a 6 points deficit by the time the shortened 14 holes were completed in the rain. We did think that we had closed the match out on the 13th hole when, from the tee, we believed Uli had hit a hole-in-one, however his ball was short and in the mud – like all the other balls!
Gordon Forster Bowl Final
Richmond Park’s team (Charlie, Sean, Adrian and Kim) won the NAPGC 2021/22 Gordon Forster Bowl trophy at the National Finals held at the Gaudet Luce golf club in Droitwich Spa. In the final, the team scored a combined 119 stableford points to beat the other 4 finalists from Wimbledon, Tilgate Forest, Huntswood and Wycombe Heights. This is the first time that the club has ever won this NAPGC competition.
Cuneyt and Captain John, who both played in the earlier rounds but were unavailable for the final, celebrated the result with other RPGC members while enjoying the Chinese restaurant on the Belek golf trip in Sirene Hotel- Antalya – Turkey.
Richmond Park team’s journey to Gordon Foster Bowl Finals took over 2 years, as summarised below:
In December 2020 a Richmond Park team comprising Cuneyt Sazer, John Ahad, Charlie Whiteman and James Deissler was prepared to play against East Hampstead. The bookings were made at both venues for Sunday 20th, however Cuneyt had a call from the Hampstead captain on Saturday 19th informing him that the golf course was flooded and would have to be postponed. This was then followed by the introduction of “ Tier 4 “ COVID 19 restrictions. NAPGC cancelled the competition on 27.January 2021 due to COVID 19 and our team had to wait many months for the next competition.
For the 2021/2022 winter competition, Richmond Park “A” team had a bye in the first round. The second round was scheduled for 12th March, 2022. Cuneyt was keen to keep the same players against Stevenage and three players from the 2020 team ( Cuneyt, John and Charlie ) were ready for the match. Charlie ( 25 pts) and Sean O’Sullivan ( 31pts) was four less than Stevenage’s away team who scored 30 points each on the Prince’s. course. However away, Cuneyt ( 38 points) and John ( 34 points) had outstanding games to beat opponents who scored 64 points at home. Richmond Park “ A “ therefore qualified for the next round with a total of 128 to 124 Stableford points.
The next game was scheduled for Sunday 10th of April which coincided with the club’s Ladies’ away weekend in the Essex golf club. Cuneyt had a long journey from Colchester to Hoebridge with strong motivation from Richmond Park golfers. Cuneyt and two opponents each scored 31 points in the long Hoebridge course on a sunny and dry afternoon. John had a bad day and had 25 points. Sean ( 36 points) and Charlie ( 30 points) outscored James & Tom from the Hoebridge team who had total of 57 points. Richmond Park “ A” team beat Hoebridge 132 to 129 which paved the road to the Gordon Forster Final at Gaudet Lace on Sunday 24th April.