The boys from Braintree pitched up on a chilly but beautiful September’s day to take on the might of
Capt Parkie's old gits.

SbN didn't get off to a good start when one of the selected didn’t turn up (no names, no pack drill)! No one else around so heroically Tony Denmead had to take up battle on his own!
Unfortunately, SbN suffered a double whammy at the hands of Braintree losing 3.5 to 4.5, failing to reverse the away defeat to the same score suffered in May.

Performances as follows:
Match 1: John Parkinson & Dick Lumsden – won 5&4 A great game with lots of Irish banter from Braintree's Capt Chris. JP played the front nine on his own but managed to go into the back nine 2 up. Braintree's Keith holed a 40 footer, with at least 8 foot of break, for a birdie to get back to 1 down. This clearly woke then closed out the match with a par on 15.

Match 2: Iain Gault & Alan Line – won 3&1. Iain won holes 3,4&6 then Alan holed out for a net birdie on the 9th to take SbN into the back nine 4 up. Ray and Phil won 10&11 to get back to 2 down. Iain birdied 12, Phil used his shot to win 13, Iain promptly won 14 to get SbN back to 3 up. We had a 2 foot put to win on 16 but game played in good spirit.

Match 3: Steve Mitchell & Ian Bickers – lost 3&2. SbN stood back and our opponent’s 6 birdies, not between them , but from scupper any chance we might have had! Ian said it was brilliant to watch and was the 2nd best round
he’d ever seen – no clue as to what the best was!

Match 4: Eric Fisher & Del McWilliams- lost 2 down. All square through 6, but SbN went 3 down through 10. Eric & Del fought back to 1 down through 17 but aspirations to halving the match were dashed when Braintree’s Tony parred 18 to give them the 2 up win.

Match 5: Tony Denmead on his tod! – match A/S. A great performance by Tony. He received 3 shots from their low handicapper but gave 16 to their high handicapper which were went 1 down after two and thought it was looking ominous but managed to get to the turn only 2 down. Birdies on twelve for a half and seventeen for a win helped to bring the match to all square. Braintree then offered to half the match which was duly accepted. (It would have been rude not to). Overall great company made for a very enjoyable round.

Match 6: Colin Pottle & Brian Roloff – lost 2 down. According to Brian (the only player wearing shorts), it was very close all day with Colin putting very well on the front nine. SbN managed to get to 3 up but then Braintree got the pace of the greens and putts started to drop. SbN 1 down on the 18th tee but lost the hole to par. Enjoyable game as ever.

Match 7: Paul Sheffield & Trevor Waterhouse – Lost 5&4. Our opponents played extremely well and were just too good. However, despite that, we had an enjoyable game.

Match 8: Bob Filer & Mick Henry – Won 4&2. Arriving late, we all wondered where Sir Bob was. Rumour has it he had trouble with his make up. Whatever the cause, we needn’t have worried, he proceeded to win the first 3 holes and we never looked back. Mick had little to do apart from some good bunker shots and closing the match with a short putt on the 15th.

Many thanks to Iain Gault for reporting on todays match - thanks Iain.