Report by Jeff Faulkner
The Broadwas GC 5+ Level Team Play teamset off at 08.00 on 9 July from Ombersley for the 80 miles journey to Nailsea wondering if the match would definitely go ahead. Nailsea had experienced heavy overnight rain and a yellow weather warning had only just been withdrawn. On arrival under leaden skies there were large puddles in the very muddy car park but the hoops were in and the lawns although mottled looked in extremely good shape with no evident moisture.
As the forecast was for possible rain, proceedings were got under way with alacrity. It was agreed to play the 20 matches in five rounds rather than the customary six to try and beat the rain, but as Broadwas only had a team of five compared to Nailsea’s seven it would mean no sit outs for the first four rounds for our players and only one player sitting out in the last round of four singles for a team with an average age of over 75 quite a tall order.
The first two rounds consisted of two doubles and one singles game. In the first round our new doubles pairing of Gill Richardson and Jeff Faulkner and our established pairing of Peter Hill and Howard Freeman both lost 7-4. However, Ian Lambert had a storming 7 – 1 victory over 8 handicapper Fiona Illing. This was Ian’s first competitive GC match for 5 years so it was quite a comeback.
Peter and Howard were given a chance to redeem themselves in the second round doubles but narrowly failed with a 6-5 loss. Ian continued his good form, partnering Gill Richardson to a 7-4 victory in the final doubles. Captain Jeff Faulkner had a tight singles game with Rob Royffe a 7 handicapper but rather better than that ( an AC handicap of 9! ), Jeff just scraped home 7-5 to make the match score 3-3 after 2 rounds.
The famous five were all in action in the third round of five singles. Victories for Jeff, Howard and Peter meant the team could take a 6-5 lead into the 20 minute lunch break.
In the fourth round of five singles, everyone played again and Gill and Howard led the charge with two quick victories over Nailsea’s weaker players on the day, but Ian, Jeff and Peter were grappling with the in-form and more experienced core of the Nailsea team and couldn’t muster a victory between them. This left the match on a knife edge with the score at 8-8 with four singles games to play in the 5th round. By now, Ian was feeling the pace so he opted to sit out and texted John Guy to say he had been dropped by the captain and told to take some photographs!
The team were weary but in good spirits with all match outcomes still possible. Peter dispatched Fiona Illing with aplomb but Mike Powell the Nailsea captain rose to the occasion to beat Gill Richardson 7 -2 but only after an hour’s hard fight with the score not reflecting the resistance Gill put up.
Needless to say, in such a close match with the score now 9 – 9 it was likely to be death or glory at the 13th hoop in the other two singles and this was indeed the case. Both Jeff and Howard were in good positions to win their games at the 13th but both of their opponents played brilliant shots to snatch a victory for the home team by 11 – 9 from the jaws of defeat!!
What a day – a terrific match played in great spirit which couldn’t have been closer, excellent hospitality, superb lawns and no rain. We were back in Ombersley by 17.45pm – somewhat exhausted and all five of us had won 2 games each of either singles or doubles.
Jeff Faulkner
