First Team V Hertfordshire
On Sunday July 29th, the BBO First Team travelled to Hadley Wood GC in Hertfordshire for a England Golf South East Group League Match against Hertfordshire. With Hadley Wood being Hertfordshire’s “home venue” where they play all their matches and the conditions being somewhat damp and breezy it was going to be a tough day for the team.
In the morning foursomes, the top match consisted of Rory Browne (Feldon Valley) & George Bell (Harewood Downs) for BBO against Jack Slater & Luke Colgate. Although this was a very tight match for the front nine, Rory & George found another gear at the start of the back nine and won 4 of the next 7 holes to win 4&2. The second match was between the BBO pair of James Brockington (Henley) and Shane Slatter (Calcot Park) and Laurie Own & Jason Mitchell. BBO got off to a good start and were 3 up through 5. However a run of astonishing golf from the Hertfordshire pair to be 5 under for the next 5 holes (including holing out from 150yrds on the 10th for an eagle 2) totally swung the game around. A couple of further birdies towards the end of the game won it for the Hertfordshire pair 4&3. In the 3rd game was Adam Birdseye (Maidenhead) & Craig Buttivant for BBO, and James Surridge and Ben Harman for Herts. BB&O got their noses in front with a great birdie on the 4th, never looked back and went onto win 3&1. The last game of the morning saw Aaron Ashberry (Burford) & Adam Batty (Beaconsfield) against Tony Wilkins & Matt Smith for Herts. This was a really tight game with nothing in it through 11 holes, however a strong finish from the Hertfordshire pair won them the match by a score of 4&2. This left the match in the balance at 2-2 at lunch.
Thankfully the rain eased up during lunch to leave relatively dry but very windy conditions for the afternoon. 1st out for BBO was Rory Browne, with a lot of Links golf experience under his belt Rory didn’t find the conditions any issue at all and produced a strong 4&3 victory over Jason Mitchell. In the 2nd game, Adam Birdseye came up against the in-form Tony Wilkins, and unfortunately couldn’t match his form so lost 4&3. The 3rd game was James Brockington against Jack Slater, an extremely tight match saw it go down the last hole, and Jack rolling in a 25ft putt gave the Herts man a 1up victory. In the 4th match George Bell was on fire and gave his opponent, Ben Harman, no chance whatsoever and won 6&4. Adam Batty was also taking no prisoners in the 6th game and also won well against Luke Colgate, 4&3. This left 3 matches on the course, the 5th game (the battle of the big hitters) in Shane Slatter against James Surridge, the 7th game between Craig Buttivant and Matt Smith and the final game between Aaron Ashberry & Laurie Owen. With BBO 1 up in 2 of these 3 games and AS in the other playing the 15th, things were looking goof for BBO. However, things switched around very quickly. A horrible horseshoe lip-out on the 17th left Shane 1 down playing the last. However proving that things always even themselves up, Shane rolled in a beautiful 30ft putt on the last to win the hole and halve his match. In the bottom game, Aaron ran out of steam against Laurie and lost 2&1. Which left the match in the balance at 5.5-5.5, with the final match on course between Craig & Matt. With Craig 1 down playing the last, BB&O needed something special to get a result. A fine iron shot into 8ft on the last provided a great opportunity. With Matt in the hole for par, it left Craig his downhill, right to left putt to win the hole and halve his match and halve the overall match. He put a good stroke on it and with everyone holding their breath as it rolled towards the hole he saw it hit the left lip as it slid agonisingly by, giving Hertfordshire a very narrow 6.5-5.5 victory. A gallant effort by the BBO team, but unfortunately came up 1 shot short for the day. However, as Essex had won their first 3 matches convincingly, anything other than a big victory in this match was going to all but mean Essex win the league. Concentration now turns to preparing the team for the English County Finals at the end of September!
Ashley Walton
First Team Captain
Click here for the full match result
