The Challenge 2019

It was a miserable Sunday morning and most of us couldn't believe it when Rob reported at 8 am that the course was open and The Challenge was still on. We all drove up to the car park to check that Rob still had his marbles and were even more astonished when a further 6 all volunteered to play. Most of us watched as Raymond, Syd and Rob tee'd off at the 1st hole (with Ian Sh - not in photo):

The sensible majority returned to the clubhouse before 1 pm to join the 7 golfers for a very full - and very good - meal, after which Rob declared the result of this year's mini-Challenge. Appropriately, the match was declared a tie - the first since the very first year of the Challenge. Rob and Syd were well beaten (by 5 holes) by Raymond and Ian, whilst solo Harry beat Jack and a hastily transferred John M by 3 holes, the latter duo somewhat bizarrely agreeing to play the match off scratch. In latter days, the match might have been declared null and void, or perhaps Scotland would have been declared winners overall on countback, but it was all taken in good spirit and nobody died.

Rob therefore declared that, as it was a tie, the trophy should remain in R.o.W. hands, so here he is handing the gauntlet to Ian to allow Ian to present it back to him:

The R.o.W. team then lined up for a photo - only Syd, Harry and Rob actually played for R.o.W., but John also played - for Scotland! The rest were sensible:

This was the 16th year of The Challenge and Scotland still lead overall with 9 wins to R.o.W.'s 5, with 2 matches tied.