Berkshire Past Captains v Wiltshire Past Captains

On

Wednesday 16 July

Donnington Valley Golf Club, just north of Newbury, was a new venue for both Berkshire and Wiltshire Past Captains.

An impressive old clubhouse building greeted us we made our way up the driveway. Apparently in past life, the building had been used as a nunnery and as a girls school.

After a warm welcome from our good friends from Berkshire and a very fulsome lunch, it was down to the business of the match.

Donnington is a parkland tree-lined course which requires accurate driving and equally accurate club selection and shots into the greens. And, if that wasn’t enough, there were very few straight putts on offer on small, undulating greens. Nevertheless, one has to say that the course was excellently turned out. The weather was of course fantastic.

Captain Steve led off in the strong company of Ian Armstrong and, with quite a few birdies between them, did not really give their opponents much of a look-in.

The next five matches saw the tide ebb and flow – with each side winning two and halving one.

Fortunately, the last two matches provided a half and a win for WGC, thus ensuring that Wiltshire triumphed overall by 5 matches to 3. So, for the 2014 season, we are still in the positive.

After a quick shower for the late finishers, we all sat down to a lovely meal of lamb shank (very tender) and fruit crumble, with ample amounts of wine for those who wished.

Speeches were heralded with laughter (well, I think it was laughter), the trophy presented to Captain Steve, and goodbyes were said before we left around 2030hrs.

I have to say that the Berkshire match is always played in wonderful spirit and in renewal of great friendships.

My thanks to all the WGC team for playing and making my life easy of the day.

Jim Murdoch

Acting Match Secretary

Picture of Our Captain, Steve Griffiths, receiving the annual ball marker trophy from the Berkshire Captain David Cowap.