The Challenge 2008

We gathered in the cubhouse for bacon butties and team colours, and Syd had brought along an oil painting he had done from a photo he had taken when we were at Aquila Game Reserve earlier this year:


Archie had had to pull out due to a neck injury so there was a bit of late re-shuffling of the teams. Dave was a free transfer from R.o.W. (Canada) to Scotland and Harry stepped up to the first team:

Scotland went in to an early lead in the above match, but RoW just nicked it in the end by one hole.

I had to re-shuffle down to Team 2, which lined up as follows:

Ken and I took the lead on the very first hole and never looked back, securing the match by going 5 up on the 14th hole. Rob and Hugh pulled off some heroics on the final 4 holes, to end up "only" 4 down, when it could have been much worse.

Match 3 looked like a banker for the home team:

It transpired to be a bit of a shock result, with RoW thumping Scotland by 4 holes, with John Meaden, in particular, playing out of his skin, scoring an approximate 46 points himself. This left RoW 1 hole ahead going in to the last 2 matches.

There was nearly an upset in match 4 as well when RoW went in to an early 3 hole lead, but John and Keith pulled it back to win by 3 holes to put Scotland ahead by 2 holes overall. Here they are on the 18th green:

The match was much closer than in previous years and the early finishers stepped back out on to the rear steps to watch the vital final match come up the 18th:

In the end, Scotland just nicked this by 2 holes, with late replacement Harry Salter Jnr playing a fine part in pushing the formidable Corbett/Simpson team all the way:

Close behind, 3 of the Ladies took advantage of the good weather:

The "WaG's" joined us for drinks and the prize-giving and then Scotland's victorious team (minus MSG) lined up with the trophy: