IGC Seniors vs Juniors 2010
Saturday 20 March at Empereur
|
|
IGC Seniors vs Juniors 2010 Saturday 20 March at Empereur |
|
Seniors retain trophy after tie with gallant Juniors 9-9 (report by Stuart) Another Year, Another Seniors versus Juniors |
 Iain hands the cup to the Seniors captain after the Seniors retained the trophy |
 The final score Seniors 9 - Juniors 9 |
 Victorious captain Hon President Mr Barry Stamps |
|
What a week it was. Chelsea losing to the might of Moriniho, Fulham beating the might Juventus, and Gordon Brown wishing he had Lester's ability to recall as statements made to the Iraq enquiry started to seem as full of truth as the various emails received about those playing, tee times and dress code during the week. Still, this did nothing to dampen IGC's enthusiasm as we arrived at Empereur in the pouring rain, anxious to see how two mulligans would help the respected elders and none of the juniors believing that the "play it again, Sam" rule would really be used by those we have grown to respect and cherish (more of this later). At least the rain was kind, certainly to those of us teeing off in the later flights. After the first hole, off came the waterproofs, to be followed by a gradual shedding of layers as the round progressed. Maybe the strong wind was helping us as the clouds raced away over our heads and, on a few occasions, turned challenging par 4's into "drivers and wedges" - of course, there was the odd par 6 for good measure as well. Being in one of the later flights, I returned to a club house full of tension and excitement as the match went down to the very last flight. Unfortunately, despite a phenomenal performance from the juniors, the seniors just managed to hang onto the trophy following a nine all finish. The lunch conversation was dominated by "what ifs" and "if onlys" and, more importantly, how the seniors had to rely on their underhand measures of mulligans and so on. Indeed, when I heard how one of our most (formally) respected seniors (Bill Purdue) had behaved towards Gary Ross (for those of you who have not met him, Gary is from Oz and not used to the tender delights of a Belgian winter), making him retake a holed 40 foot putt, I would not blame Gary for taking his clubs back to the sunshine and never playing with us again. If only the ferret that Bill found in his flat earlier in the morning had acted as ferrets should, this unfortunate incident could have been avoided. I suppose justice was done by Bill missing his 18 incher a couple of minutes later. Despite all this, I must pay tribute to my partner Rodolph and our opponents, Barry and Peter "Windmill" Wright. Our match actually went down to the very last putt, and ended in an honourable draw. It really was a pleasure to be involved in, as we all managed to play decent golf, with Barry hitting some stunning drives (including reaching the edge of the green on 18) and Peter pulling out birdies on 10 and 17. The only sour point was the seniors' decision to ask Rodolph the replay his second shot on the 18th after his first attempt landed well within birdie range.........I hope they are able to sleep at night and that the look of anguish on his face (photo) does not cause too many nightmares. A quick run through the individual results: |
 Majid Ghammachi and Tim Metzger(with a 40 points plus performance from the latter) beat Celia Berry and John Smillie |
 Margreet Van Heck and Gary Ross tasted victory over Bill Purdue and Shaun Wood |
 Sarah and Mark James (how sweet) ran in winners against Lester and Robert Hayers |
 Robert McCormick and Jean Feuillat crushed the junior "dream team of Saskia Van Oldenborgh and Patrick Zaman (Patrick was so distraught he could not show his face at dinner) |
 you have already read bout the draw between Barry Stamps & Peter Wright and Stuart and Rodolphe Matossian |
 and the match finally came to a conclusion as Sue and Tommy overcame Iain and Carole on the 17th |
 Rodolphe: pensive |
 Peter: agressive |
 Gary: tired |
 Tim: pleased with his "40+ pts" |
 Robert: toasted the Queen |
 Lester thanked Anne for her hard working as Ringmaster and for selling Logoed sweaters and shirts |
|
Lunch was an enjoyable and sociable occasion and we were delighted to be joined by Suzanne and Nigel, back from their travels.
Thanks must go to Barry for his generosity with the wine and the port, to Saskia for collecting the lunch money and to Robert for proposing
the royal toast. A particular thanks must also go to our "Hero of the Week" Anne Morley, who due to a Lester "senior moment" was not able to
play but stepped in as ringmaster and sold the "as modelled by Tony" range of IGC designer golf apparel. |
|
|