The South team on first tee
North will take a significant but not necessarily decisive lead into Saturday’s singles after a good afternoon performance left them 5-3 ahead after the first day’s play. Although the captains have not been made available for comment, the feeling here is that the holders are fairly comfortable with this position – not unreasonable as they have never lost the singles overall – whilst the home side must imagine this still leaves them in with a shout, unlike 2 years ago.
The players arrived gradually Thursday, with a few of the travelling bunch actually coming early enough to play around the front nine, which caused some mutterings as this tactic has not been used before. South captain Bell was seen walking the course with a few of his players later in the afternoon. The Suffolk is a parkland course, no too long but with a great deal of water to keep players honest. It therefore looks like a good choice for the higher handicapped home side and was seen to be in very fair repair for the time of year, with the exception perhaps of one or two rather scratchy looking greens.
Lister, carried by his partner all day Friday
The opening fourballs teed off from 10:00, the previous night’s socialising having been reasonably modest, and the weather was set fair and sunny. It was essential for South to get off to a good start after the mauling they took in 2005 and indeed they did, as South captain David Bell sent out his two rookies Simon Harris and Mark Wallis in the first two groups – playing respectively with veterans Simon Cole and Bob Batch – and both returned with wins. Behind them however North prevailed comfortably in the other two matches as Phil Lister and Darren Mountain powered past Bell and Simon Hordern and Ben Moyle and Dave Hubbard were dissappointing in a 4&3 defeat to Jimmy Curley and David “Jack” Horner.
Lunch was snatched quickly with the match standing 2-2 and Moyle & Hubbard sent out first to try to redeem themselves in the foursomes: this they duly did, beating the Hooley Hardwick combo 4&3, but that was to be the last point the home team would gain in the afternoon. Hooley had taken the unusual step of keeping his pairings unchanged from the morning session and the decision proved a good one as they triumphed in the remaining three foursomes.
Hordern, struggling with injury, gets out his 12th new ball of the day
The closest of these – it truly could have gone either way – was Horner & Curley against Cole & Harris which North eventually took by 1 hole after some good golf from all concerned. Peter Forster & Paul Marcus got an easy point on the board against Batch and Hordern, the latter clearly struggling with an ankle injury that saw him apparently playing some shots standing on just one leg – evidently he will need considerable patching up for his singles match tomorrow.
Meanwhile there were quite extraordinary goings-on in the final foursomes game, where North newcomer Phil Lister “Batley” appeared to spend much of the decisive 13th hole rolling on the turf in laughter as he and his partner successively hooked out of bounds on the left before opponent Bell, in an incident that really had to be seen to be believed, contrived to pitch South’s second into a pond 3 yards behind him! Bell was to find the water once more before he saw the green, and a hole which North were on the point of conceding was eventually won, taking them to a 6&5 victory.