The Old Cranleighans reached the second round of the Halford Hewitt, beating Canford on the opening day before going down to Bradfield. Here is the report from the OCGS website.
An excellent first-round win against Canford, a young team, with many fine golfers (including an international from Barbados!) who beat Epsom in the first round of last year’s Hewitt, and progressed on
ly to lose to Charterhouse in the quarter finals. It was therefore extremely pleasing to thrash them! While our first pair limped home, our ‘rookie’ pair, David Hobden and Harry Millburn Fryer played some faultless golf to brush aside the opposition. Craig Moore and Tony Whitty won comfortably, while Willy Porter and Adam Kendrick overcame a hole-in-one at the 3rd by the opposition (James Lovett), to win seven holes in a row to round off their match. Giles Pickford and Martin Riddiford were all square on 16th tee and confident of victory when the match was completed.
Whilst Cranleigh spirits were high after our victory we were under no illusions that Bradfield, semi finalists of the last two years, would provide a stern test. The surnames of Torrance, Rafferty and Gallacher on the team sheet are impressive. Cranleigh pairs two and three ground out victories, while pairs one, four and five fell just short of the high levels of play on the Thursday. All three pairs felt that their opposition were eminently beatable and ultimately we were undone by the ‘knack of winning ugly’ that some of the Bradfield pairs have acquired as a result of repeated runs in the Hewitt.
Obviously this was our first Hewitt for decades without the presence of David Bluett. He would have been proud, throughout both matches we enjoyed excellent encouragement from our supporters which was much appreciated by all of the team. A special thank also to you to Matthew for performing the role of 11th man so graciously.
All in all it was an excellent Hewitt. The weather, the craic and in particular the clear evidence that over the next few years we have the potential to build a strong team who will undoubtedly be able to help us progress into the weekend. Roll on 2012! (MFJ)