It wasn’t that close, seriously

By close of play Saturday the North had secured victory and taken the Cup for the first time in its short history. The scoreline, apparently so comfortable, was perhaps a little unkind to the South, who had attempted to mount a brave rearguard action in the Singles but finally capitulated.

Things had begun ominously for the South as the opening Fourballs, Friday morning, saw a North whitewash averted only by a dogged performance by Bell & Moyle which resulted in a 3&2 win over Hooley & Marcus. Matches elsewhere were tight but North lunched happily, 3-1 up.

Omens are sometimes accurate after all, and the afternoon Foursomes descended into chaos for the South as the last three pairings went down 6&5, 5&4 and 8&6. Only Hordern & Moyle, teeing off first, were able to remotely trouble the North, as they went down by 2 holes on the 17th, eventually submitting to the clinical play of Hardwick & Hooley. The overall score stood at 7-1 – the North had played brilliantly and now it seemed only complacency or over-confidence could stand between Forster’s boys and a stunning victory.

Friday evening: quiet outside but Batch working hard indoors to reenergise his men

Batch must have done good work with his team off the course that evening though, as the South approached the 1st tee Saturday morning refusing to admit defeat and ready to put up a fight in the Singles. Shrewdly, Batch had put all of his quality at the top of the draw, hoping that an early fright could rattle the North.

Up to a point the strategy worked as Moyle (incidentally, the South’s best player during the course of the event) secured the first point of the day with a 3&2 victory over Thompson whilst either side of him Burke and Cole were holding Horner and Hardwick respectively, at bay and were eventually to halve their matches.

Further back however, things were not going so well for the South. Bell went down by an embarrassing 9&7 to Marcus meaning that it only needed Callaghan to take a point (3&2 against Hubbard) for the victory to be sealed: fittingly these two North veterans of 2003, and their much improved form, were subsequently cited by Forster as the difference here at Oulton Park.

Full statistics from Oulton Hall here.