Friendlies
Friendlies
Rickmansworth Friendly
In our annual friendly a team of 12 played the home leg against Rickmansworth in a four ball better ball matchplay format. We took the opportunity to ‘blood’ some new members to team golf and everyone rose to the occasion. Richmond won by 4½ to 1½ so have a bit of a lead to take to the away match in August. We shall see if it is enough. Results…
Amida Friendly
We have now settled on an annual mixed match against our friends at Amida and we welcomed them to the Park this year. We are were extremely lucky to be playing in the dry but the howling gale made for some interesting play.
This year we managed to keep up our winning form and scored 3½ matches to their 1½. We look forward to a return match next year at their course. Results…
Wimbledon Common Ladies
Result: 3½–½
We played our first friendly against Wimbledon Common on their course. A novel but enjoyable experience, wearing red and sharing the course with numerous dog walkers and runners. We lost 3½-½ and hope to do better when they visit us at home next year.
Rickmansworth – Away Leg
Result: 6-0
Overall result: 8½-2½
Nurturing a slender 3½ to 2½ lead from the home leg it was decided to put out as strong a team as possible to see if we could gain the necessary 3-All draw or better at ‘Tricky Ricky’ to win the cup back. Not an easy task given the 6:0 drubbing we had received the previous year there.
After lots of telephone calls and cajoling a suitable team took shape and duly decamped to Ricky. The pairs were a strong mix of old heads who knew the course and young talent with handicaps sliding downwards. So confident was I that I told them this was the strongest team I can remember taking and that if we didn’t win this year we never would.
Some fine golf ensued with our top pairing picking up 46 stableford points in the sweep and our next pair a creditable 42. A great time was had by all and as always Rickmansworth treated us to some great hospitality and a filling meal afterwards.
Oh yes, and we lost. Six – nil.
Rickmansworth Friendly
Nurturing a slender 3½ to 2½ lead from the home leg it was decided to put out as strong a team as possible to see if we could gain the necessary 3-All draw or better at ‘Tricky Ricky’ to win the cup back. Not an easy task given the 6:0 drubbing we had received the previous year there.
After lots of telephone calls and cajoling a suitable team took shape and duly decamped to Ricky. The pairs were a strong mix of old heads who knew the course and young talent with handicaps sliding downwards. So confident was I that I told them this was the strongest team I can remember taking and that if we didn’t win this year we never would.
Some fine golf ensued with our top pairing picking up 46 stableford points in the sweep and our next pair a creditable 42. A great time was had by all and as always Rickmansworth treated us to some great hospitality and a filling meal afterwards.
Oh yes, and we lost. Six – nil.
Mitcham Friendly
We played the second leg of the annual friendly match against Mitcham Ladies at home and had a great result – 4-0. Results…
This year marked a special milestone in the history of the event as it was the 50th year. Results now stand at 23 wins to Richmond Park, 22 to Mitcham and 5 draws.
Mitcham Ladies – Home Leg
Result: 4-0
Overall result: 6-2
We played the second leg of the annual friendly match against Mitcham Ladies at home and had a great result – 4-0.
As always it was a really enjoyable day and there were some tight matches. Richmond Park therefore retain the trophy for 2011.
This year marked a special milestone in the history of the event as it was the 50th year. Results now stand at 23 wins to Richmond Park, 22 to Mitcham and 5 draws.
Amida Friendly
Both the Ladies and the Men’s teams finished first in their respective matches. Results…
Amida
Result: 3-0 & 2½-½
The annual friendly against Amida (now known as David Lloyd Hampton) was played out in near perfect conditions on the Dukes course.
The ladies avenged their 3-0 away loss last year with a 3-0 win at home. The victorious ladies were Doreen Dolby & Nina Humphreys, Lia Donath & Jini Beacham, and Gina Jillet & Alison Chadwick.
The men, who also suffered away defeat last year, romped away with 2 matches and the 3rd match was halved narrowly missing out on a clean sweep. The men’s team blooded some new talent and included Tom Chase & Stuart McDonald, Osman Choudry & Andrew Byrne and Arthur Dolby & John Cooper.
Rickmansworth Friendly
Once again the first leg of the annual Rickmansworth friendly was held at Richmond Park. For both sides some of the usual faces turned up but there was also a fair smattering of new ones too which is good to see.
The Rickmansworth 12 looked very smart in their peacock blue outfits but the Richmond Park Eleven looked even more colourful in a rainbow display of colours that had the opposition confused for several holes. It was particularly worrying for the 6th game who were playing Gurpal and on the lookout for a player in camouflage. Once it became clear our Captain was bravely battling on his own his opponents slowly started to take charge and we were one down despite a plucky display by Gurpal.
Overall we turned out winners by 3.5 to 2.5. This is not a great lead to take to Rickmansworth where we lost 6:0 last year, so we will be looking for a very strong squad to take this year – we might even take 12 this time.
The date for the return is Sat. August 21st, so anyone in form might want to pencil that date into their diaries now before anyone tries to slip wedding anniversaries or Mothers 100th Birthdays in instead.