Match Report
Princes 5 V 0 Littlestone
Princes welcomed Littlestone for the return fixture knowing that they needed something special in order to keep up with Canterbury who had recently gone top of the table.
The performance the lads put in was nothing short of exceptional as they managed a brilliant 5-0 win to go back to the top of the table.
On a day where every thing needed to go right, it all started off so wrong! With only 6 days before the fixture, we only had 7 players available.
Thankyou so much Neil Murphy and Luke Smith for playing and putting in a brilliant performance to put Princes back to the top of the table.
The Littlestone captain Darren said his team had never lost 5-0 home or away so goes to show what a strong team we have!!
Our pairings were done, the match order complete, team sheets filled in onto the pre match meal........................
So after some disgruntled talk of 'Not ham egg and chips again!' Paul 'Catering Manager' Copley decided to go upmarket and order the opposition Ham egg and chips and the Princes Athletes a Chicken Caesar Salad. Unfortunately the Princes athletes not being too familiar with Chicken Caesar salads were not expecting anchovies on the salad! Myself being one of them I must admit. After 10 minutes of Paul Copley swapping meals around with the opposition to try and keep the Princes lot happy, removing anchovies from the salads we finally ate up and got to the putting green. Paul Copley has since retired from catering duties :o)
Onto the putting green, Steve Klosek receives a phone call.... 'DJ, Reedie is going to be a little bit late, he thought the tee time was 1:30pm not 1pm'.
Brilliant, match order swapped around, we were ready to go. Reedie finally makes it, apologises to the opposition then hits shocking tee shot to shouts of ' Is that what we was waiting for was it!'
1st Match
Steve Klosek / Robin Orchison
Myself and Robin got off to a flyer against the Littlestone pairing of Richard & Dave (both full time golfers I must add) going 1 up at the 1st after a great putt from Robin for birdie from 25 feet. Birdie on 2 and par on 3&4 were good enough to half. A birdie from myself after an 8 iron to 10 feet saw us go 2 up. Pars on 6&7 were good enough to half then Robin making a birdie on 8 and par on 9 meant we turned 3 up. A birdie on 11 from Robin meant we went to 4 up and cruising!! At this point (maybe feeling too relaxed) our golf started going from bad to worse and a run of bad luck meant we started struggling. David won the next 3 holes with birdie,birdie, par which meant we were back to 1 up in no time!! Pressure was on, let's not lose another!! Par on 16 was good enough for the half then Robin parred 17 to take the win after two poor shots right from the Littlestone pair. Hands were shaken, points were banked!! I must add Robin was solid today and carried me the whole way round!! 👏👏
2nd Match
Darren Crabb / Simon Reed (Eventually)
Well it didn't get off to a good start, me not reading the small print thinking tee off was 1:30 not 1! I got straight out of the car onto the 1st tee to hit a massive block cut.... lost ball. Even Toby said that really wasn't worth waiting for! Anyway lucky Crabby was there to make a solid par a/s. I kind of redeemed myself on the next, holing out from the green side bunker for a par! Still a/s. It was very substandard golf after that with 5 straight pars good enough to stay level. Crabby then hit a worldy of a 3 wood on the 8th to 20ft, two putt birdie 1 up. Solid pars on the 9th turning 1 up. A good birdie from Littestone on 11th was good enough for a win, a/s again. I then proceeded to knock it into 10 ft on 12th and 13th however couldn't buy a putt so we remained a/s. Then I thought I'd join the party, knocking it to 5 ft on the 14th, birdie and 1 up. Toby (Littlestone) had enough at this point throwing in two birdies on the bounce which sore us a/s standing on the 18th tee! Step up Crabby, well lucky for us a routine par good enough for a win, winning the match 1 up. I must admit it wasn't the most exciting match in the world but there was some serious scrambling going on with chip ins and up and downs from all over the place. Great result beating Littlestone 9.5 v 0.5 this season.
3rd Match
Tony Davis / Luke Smith
From Tony Davis:
After a rather confusing start we eventually tee off, par par start plays one up 3rd & 4th birdie, birdie, three up, my partner yet to get going, six hole, Smithy wakes up and comes in with a par 4 up.
7th halved in pars, 8th hole birdie for me to go 4 up. 9th hole straight forward par to go 5 up after 9 holes played.
Back nine underway we lose 10 and 11 to too good birdies from nowhere, back to only 3 up, win the par 3 12th with a par 4 up,
Win the 13th again with a another par (lipout birdie) 5 up and 5 to play,
I close the match out with par 6&4 win.
Well done to my partner Luke Smith
And the team for a great result 5-0
4th Match
Rob Riddell / Neil Murphy
Report from Rob Riddell:
1st time I'd ever played golf with Neil and what a pleasure it was, we opened up with 2 halves and then won the 3rd with a par and won the 4th with a birdie, 5th 6th and 7th were halved in pars and 8th was halved in birdies and we won the 9th with a par to go 3 up after 9.
Neil made a par up the 10th to go 4 up, 11 12 13 were halved in pars and we lost 14 to a birdie, we halved 15 and 16 in pars the close the game out 3 up 👍
5th Match
David James / Paul Copley
Finally we got going, after confusion on order of play, Anchovie-gate, myself and Coppers were finally ready to get going.
Coppers started off safely smashing his 5 wood into the middle bunker on the 1st Hims, ball right up the face. DJ hooks it off the tee luckily just short of the rough. DJ halves the hole with a par.
Coppers halves 2 with a par, hole 3 won by Coppers to go 1 up.
5th, DJ hits green to approximately 10 foot from the pin, Coppers also hitting the green but with a very tricky 20 footer, Littlestone also both on the green with long putts. Littlestone both make pars, up steps Coppers, drains it! 2up.
6th, shot hole for Littlestone, which they win to go back to 1 up.
7th halved with a par, DJ putting in an 8 footer to keep us 1 up.
8th halved with a birdie, again Coppers deflating the Littlestone pairing by rolling in a superb putt from 15 foot or so.
Coppers halved the 9th with Par to keep the match 1 up at the turn.
10th, Coppers again drained a 20 footer after leaving his chip on well short, the Littlestone pair becoming deflated as Coppers again made a birdie on 11 to put Princes 2 up.
12th halved with Par, 13 was a shot hole for Coppers and both Littlestone players. Brilliant drives from both DJ and Coppers saw them chipping onto the green. Coppers chipped the ball so close to the bunker on the right hand side my heart stopped, Coppers heart stopped, it was all ont he first bounce, would it go left or right, it was like time stood still! The ball landed and bounced left and trickled down to about 6 inches from the hole! Birdie, net eagle! 3 up!
DJ halved the 14th, Coppers halved the 15th 3 up 3 to play.
Littlestone both hit bad drives and were struggling to make anything better than an 8 down the 16th, hole conceded match won 4&2.
Brilliant performance from Coppers today!
