Winning Pairs Off To Sun

Nov 4 2009 The Journal

THE Golf North East Match Play Pairs champions both Gents and Mixed are now looking forward to a week's competitive golf in sunny Portugal. Following a record entry, the 2009 Gents competition attracted 187 teams from clubs all over the North East region.

Starting back in April, a preliminary round of 57 matches had to be played followed by six further rounds to reach the final. Unlike last year, the weather has been kind and apart from the odd delay for one reason or another, all the matches were completed on time.

The eventual winners, John Egglestone and Paul McCarthy from Chester-le Street Golf Club, received a bye in the preliminary round.

Their first match was at home against a Tyneside team, which they won comfortably 6&4. They then had to play two away matches, both too tight for comfort, winning at Consett and Castle Eden 1 up.

A home game in the fourth round was a walkover with an 8&6 victory against a duo from Ramside and Castle Eden and in the fifth, another home game resulted in a 3&2 win over Slaley Hall and Consett.

On reaching the semi-finals, played at Ramside Hall, John (2 handicap) and Paul (14 handicap) were up against Tony Rudd (5 handicap) from Durham City and Graham Howard (12 handicap) from Stressholme.

On paper the match looked to be a tough one and how right that proved to be. Never more than one in it, both teams had their chances and the match reached the turn all-square.

A solid par at the tricky 10th put Chester-le-Street in the lead and they went further ahead at the 12th through Paul's nett par. A nett birdie from Tony won the 14th hole and the next three holes were all halved.

Leaving the 17th green and because of the darkness, the players decided to call it a day and arranged a time to finish the match later in the week.

Not easy to return to a course and play just one hole as Tony and Graham found out. Both missed the fairway and a solid tee-shot from John followed by an approach to the heart of the green, secured their place in the final 2 up.

In the other semi-final, Steve Slater (3) and his son Jordan (21) from the City of Newcastle were drawn against Andrew Walker (11) and William Nelson (24) from Bishop Auckland.

This was also a tight match with Andrew and William hanging on to a one-hole advantage through the front nine. But birdies from Steve at the 11th and 13th turned the game around and a nett birdie from Jason at the 15th put City of Newcastle further ahead. The Bishop Auckland team then appeared to bottle it at the short par 4 16th - both players made a right hash of the hole, putting Steve and Jason into the final 3&2.

In the mixed semi-finals also played at Ramside, Danielle Brady (12) and Craig Davies (5) from Durham City played the Whickham pairing of Neil Cornish (12) and Julie Cornish (36). And in the other match, Ian Crawford (8) and Sue Crawford (16) from Hexham were drawn against Gary Catt (2) and Eileen McMullan (25) from Richmond.

On the day, young Danielle played a blinder, solid accurate golf to help her team to the final with a 5&4 victory and with Gary showing his opponents how to play golf, they never looked like loosing and also won 5&4.

The finals this year were played at Close House on a superbly presented course with greens that are as good as anywhere in the North of England.

The Gents final definitely belonged to John Egglestone and in the words of Sam Torrance, "he played beautifully".

With seven 3s on his card, he played the City of Newcastle team off the park. Out in 33 and with further birdies at the 11th and 14th, won himself and his partner a golfing trip to Portugal with a 6&4 victory - well done, John and Paul.

The mixed final was a much tighter affair and with only one win each through the first ten holes and all the others halved, the match remained all square. Gary and Eileen won the 11th to go one up and also the 13th to take a two-hole advantage. Danielle and Gary pegged one back at the 15th and to be honest, they did have chances at the 16th and 17th but their putting let them down. With the final three holes all halved, Gary and Eileen won 1 up.

Our four winners, along with the Golf North East Gents Amateur Classic winner Stephen Pickering, will now be heading south on an easyjet flight, to take part in the annual Golfing Holidays/Golf North East Algarve Invitational Tournament - best of luck to you all.

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