Essex Seniors Team Championship - Shepherd Neame - April 2011

The first round of the Championship for the Shepherd Neame Trophy was played against Royal Epping Forest GC on the Constable Course on Thursday 14^th April.

An eleven man Stoke team playing singles matchplay faced strong opponents, who had won the Trophy two years ago. Nine of our team were giving full handicap shots to their opposition numbers, none of whom declared a single figure handicap.

A nervous start from all 22 players resulted in only one par on the first hole. By the ninth, Stoke were behind in most matches. However, the home team fought back well on the back nine.

The hard, dry greens made low scoring difficult but the match was played in good spirit and the opposition spoke highly of the course.

The first man home was the non counting reserve, Terry Mitchell who won comfortably 6 & 5. He was followed by a determined Mike Evans who held his nerve and resisted a late challenge to win 2 & 1.

Roger Davies had a few wayward holes which left him struggling to recover the deficit, so lost 4 & 3.

Third Man, Captain Dave Austin was one up coming to the 18^th, and although halving the hole on strokes, had to give a shot to the Epping man, so finished his match all square.

Chris Bridge fought back from being 2 down and had a fine win 2 & 1.

Bob Filer was in a similar situation to Chris but recovered well to win 3 & 1.

Our 6^th man Martin Brown found it difficult giving 4 shots to his opponent and went down 3 & 1.

Roger Fleuty, however, had an inspired day and trounced his man 9 & 8.

Bill Wardle enjoyed a close fought match but finally lost 2 & 1.

John Williams managed another creditable half in a game against a strong 15 handicapper.

With 9 matches complete, Stoke were leading narrowly 5 – 4.

Tenth man was a nervous Trevor Samways, who had never faced this type of competition before. He was 4 down at one stage but played a magnificent back nine to come in a 2 & 1 winner.

In the final match was Alex Giddens, giving 12 shots to his opposite number. At the 18^th the game was all square. They both ended up twelve foot from the hole after the Epping man had used up his shot. Even after measuring, they could not decide who should play first. After tossing a coin, it was Alex to go. He sank a great putt, then his opponent missed, giving Alex a one hole win.

A magnificent all round team effort meant a final result of 7 – 4 to Stoke By Nayland, who now face Ilford away in the next round.