Last Thursday the 2nd April, Colette Robertson, Ezra Oliver
and I had the pleasure of taking our Juniors to Formby GC for the Annual Quadrangular match which is competed for by the four oldest clubs in Lancashire and Cheshire.
Our team consisted of Felicity Lamkin, Luke Walton, George Crompton, Will Tate, Jack Brocklehurst (Captain), Archie Jones and Jack Feeney.
After meeting at 7.30am for breakfast the draw was made by the Formby Captain, Peter Marsh and we were given the toughest of morning matches against Royal Liverpool who have won the event for the last few years, their team included Joe Dodd-Berry the younger brother of Matthew who qualified for the Open in final Qualifying at West Lancashire a couple of years ago.
Hosts Formby were drawn against Wallasey, the matches are played off Scratch, Singles Matchplay started at 9am. The highest handicap playing being Jasmine from Wallasey off 9.7.
The weather was glorious, bright blue skies and little wind to talk about, with the exception of a couple of matches our games were all tight affairs, one minute we didn’t look like we had any chance to win and then we did, it was very difficult to predict.
Fliss had a great game with the aforementioned Joe, with the latter holing a 12 footer on the last to Square the match, by this time, Luke Walton had comfortably won his match 4&3 and George Compton was fighting back from 3 down on the Back 9, to be left very disappointed when he missed a shortish putt on the last to half his match, but he had no reason to berate himself, it was a valuable point. Will Tate was the next in beating his opponent by 2 holes to give us 3 points.
One more win was needed but the news from the course was not good, the two Jacks and Archie were all struggling against their opponents, always 2 or 3 down, Jack Feeney and Archie Jones were unable to turn things around, so it was all down to our Junior Captain, Jack Brocklehurst to fightback in his match, with support from our new Captain, Tim Morris, they came striding down the 18th fairway with a 2&1 win under his belt much to everyone’s delight in the clubhouse and around the 18th green. It was an enjoyable lunch with our Captain, his presence raised spirits and rightly so.
With a strong Formby team also beating Wallasey by the same score, it was going to be a tough final, with no quarter given. Fliss led us away and was involved in another monumental battle with the Formby number 1, Zane Casson to lose on the 18th, but her golf on the day was fabulous, she never disappoints with the quality of her play.
Another who rarely lets us down, is Luke Walton, another impressive 4&3 win and over the two matches hardly a shot dropped. George put his morning disappointment behind him with an exceptional performance to win his match 3&2.
Will Tate found his opponent too tough and lost a closely fought battle, at this stage there was plenty of messages flying around to see who was doing what, as were our wonderful hosts Steve Hughes, Andrew Hanson and Nick Foley.
It appeared that Jack Feeney would struggle to turn his match around and despite a brave fightback, that proved the case. Our Captain, Jack came up trumps again to win his match, leaving the match tied at 3 points each.
This left Archie and Rohan out on the course, with Archie 4 down on the back 9, it didn’t look good, but he produced a phenomenal comeback to take the match down the 18th, all square. Both on the green for 2 with Archie appearing to have the upperhand being closer to the pin.
With putts being left about 3 feet from the pin and everyone watching from the clubhouse and around the green, it was on Archie to putt first, unfortunately his putt slipped past the hole as he sank to his knees in disappointment, visibly upset as Rohan held his putt to win the match. Being aware of Archies distress there was no wild celebration from Rohan or the players, peoples’ thoughts quickly turned to Archie as he was consoled by almost everyone at the green, with our Junior Captain showing true friendship and compassion, staying with Archie until he was ready to join us for dinner.
So a truly remarkable days golf, was wrapped up with the last putt of the day. There was plenty of good-natured chat around the dinner tables and after the Presentation. The sportsmanship and camaraderie shown by all the boys and girls that played was a credit to them all and it was a pleasure to witness it, making us so proud of each and every one of them. We are blessed to have this group of youngsters at our club.
Thank you to our Captain, Tim Morris for his support and guidance on Thursday, helping to support the team and hopefully enjoying everything that was on show during the day.
Next year, the match will be played at Wallasey and those that go with the majority of this team are in for a treat.
