On a bright and very warm autumnal day, we all set off to play The Essex. Well known for its long par fours and numerous par fives, it was never going to be an easy trek.

Also It was nice to welcome the captain back from his death bed.

Match 1 Parky and JJ.

Parky said that both him and JJ played very well and soon were holding a steady three shot lead. This however,  inspired their opponents to turn the screw and pull it back to even. Both had a putt on the last to win the match but a half was all they could manage.

MATCH HALVED

Match 2 Allen and Malcolm

Allen played extremely well with a lot of pars and the odd par thrown in, Malcolm chipped in with two birdies but his new clubs failed to live up to the recent hype.

Their opponents were solid, with the 24 handicapper completing no less than 3 sand saves. Great company though.

MATCH LOST 3+2

Match 3 Simon and Gordon

Our pairing, despite sounding like a sixties pop duo, played some lovely golf. They were 4 down after 6 and looked to be staring at defeat, however, Gordon got in their ears and slowly talked them into losing a number of holes. It wasn’t quite enough though as they succumbed to a very narrow defeat.

MATCH LOST 1 DOWN

Match 4 Tony and Bobby

The ever-steady Sir Bob sat in the middle of the fairway watching balls fly in all directions and all said, a half seemed a fair result. Tony wasn’t mentioned

MATCH ALL SQUARE

Match 5 Trevor and Paul

Big up to Trev for filling in today, can somebody tell me if he stopped moaning about giving so many shots away.

Anyway, Paul had a bad cold, so at least one of them had a valid excuse.

MATCH LOST 4+3

Match 6 Del and Steve

Despite Steve arriving a tad late, this pairing gave us our first win of the day. They had a lovely match against some friendly opponents. They went 3 up but the Essex fought back to square the match. This was enough to wake our two up again. After a number of halved holes, they stormed into a healthy lead which they kept until the end.

The highlight of Del’s day was to win nearest the pin, I think his wifes birthday is now sorted.

MATCH WON 4+2

Match 7 IMAC and Dicky Midds

According to Ian, there was nothing exciting to report About their match. Richard was just happy that he didn’t have to call out the RAC to fix his buggy.

Played in good spirit and against two gents, the right result was clearly a half.

MATCH HALVED

Match 7 Kev and Kev

KP2J will now be known as KP1Px5  (1 putt on 1^st 5 greens). This didn’t frighten their opponents though, they took it all in their stride to fight back to all square.

What was the other Kevins contribution I hear you ask, well, he managed a fantastic birdie on the last to claim our second win.

MATCH WON 1UP

Afterwoods, we were treated to a lovely beef stew and dumplings with a frangipane dessert, washed down by a pint of Essex ale.

We all look forward to welcoming The Essex to SBN in October and hope for a better result.

Many thanks to Malcolm for volunteering to report on todays match - thanks Malcolm.