Alleluia! The Priems Cup finally got some feet on the ground. Thirty-six feet to be precise. And even more, if you count Jake and Todd Miles who joined us for the entertainment, and, in Todd’s case, for someone to play along with. It seems that CJ and Rob got into his earwax, and he could very well be interested in more forays into the delights of our little coterie. The reluctance of the east coast depressions to venture beyond the Murray means that the course is still a bit thirsty in places, and some cracks are almost big enough to swallow a ball, given the correct speed and angle of attack. The day was warm and sunny, due largely to the north-easterly which did spring up later in the morning and caused some reconsideration of club selection, particularly on the last several holes of the back nine, where it was heads or tails most of the way. So, the stage was set for some exciting match ups, and some good (and not so good) golf.
First up we saw Stef come up against Mark, and, coincidentally, they also just happened to agree that this would be their first round Championship match. With a lot riding on the outcome, and not a lot of difference in handicap, the match started out looking like it could go down to the wire. Except that Stef started playing like a man possessed, and he ended up equalling par for the course at the end of the round with a very impressive tally of 42 points to take out the best card of the day. Mark tried valiantly against this onslaught, but in the end, the match wound up at the 16th, 3 and 2. There is no obvious reason why Stef was playing with a ball clearly marked with the letters CK, unless it is an obscure message of support for Ukraine.
The Beast was pitted against the Brent, and it was pretty much a stroke for stroke affair, with only one stroke difference. And, as it turned out, the one hole where the stroke was given, it was not needed as Bill had an uncharacteristic triple. It was one of the few slips, and despite Brent’s best efforts, Bill came home with 3 and 2 as the winning margin. If the next match had been a football match, the result would have been classified as the turnaround of the century. Can you believe that, at the end of the first quarter, Captain Chris was at the mercy of Captain Rob to the tune of four holes? It seems that, at this point, the coach gave the team a good tongue lashing, and they lifted and tightened up their game. Over the next two quarters, the margin was ground down point by point, and at three-quarter time, the score was all square. In the final quarter, Captain Chris put the knife into Captain Rob’s heart and polished off the match 3 and 1. There were reports of Captain Chris almost crying in the first quarter, and that there very well could have been some heavy sledging at half-time, including the use of the ‘s’ word.
As he consoled himself over a bottle or two last night, Captain Chris decided that his team was ‘unbalanced’, and he needed some more low handicappers. When a cancellation came in and Jake decided (or was told) not to play a match, Chris was not slow to steal Porks from his little brother. This turned out to be a telling move, as Ryan was able to prevail over Geoff with a score-line of 2 and 1. Although Geoff was three down at one stage, he did stage a bit of a comeback to get within a point at one stage. This was with some thanks to winning a hole with a score of eight. Harry took on Trev, who, despite being in obvious pain from a gammy knee et al, grimaced and bore it for the whole round. For nine holes, the match was pretty evenly balanced, as Harry managed to give up chances to overcome the conceded strokes. A bit of a burst around the turn, tipped the score in Harry’s favour, but, despite Trev thinking it was done and dusted about three holes earlier, the match ended at the 16th 3 and 2. At which point, Trev came alive and matched H stroke for stroke over the last two holes. Thank goodness the match was finished, says H.
Adam matched up to Stan on an equal footing as far as handicap went. Unfortunately, Stan has still not managed to extricate himself from his post-streak depression, and he struggled to match Adam, who seemed to be on a post-break high with relatively few aberrations other than a super-shank from the tee on the 12th. The match finished quite early after the 13th, 7 and 5. Craig was up against SOS, who was very pleased to get five strokes. Apparently, the ‘s’ word did not raise its ugly head, and there might have been only one lost ball to mar SOS’s game. As a result, although the match tilted a little to the SOS side early on, equilibrium was eventually restored and the game teeter-tottered along until the result depended on the outcome of the 18th hole. An easy win for Craig finished the match 1 up. Blighty started out alright and was only slightly behind Brendon at the turn. A run of six ‘horror’ holes on the trot turned a potential contest into a rout and Brendon walked away with the match 5 and 3. Last match to report was the battle of the giants, between Ken and Targe. Early on, the spoils were fairly evenly divided, but, after a while, Ken managed to get his nose in front. Although Targe fought a valiant rear-guard action, he was never really able to capitalise on any gains made, and he finally had to run up the white flag at the 15th going down 5 and 4.
This meant that TeamChris had prevailed over TeamRob to the tune of five matches to four. Now, what would have happened if he hadn’t pulled rank and pinched Porks for his own team? Stanza 2 of this year’s Priems Cup competition will be run on 17 September, so pencil the date in your diary. The aggregate scores for the two stanzas will determine which Captain gets their name first on the list. Or will honours be shared? Only time will tell.
We also had our usual (almost) nearest the pin competition. It’s hard to get good help these days. Our venerable Captain(s) were so engrossed in something that they neglected to put out the BallPin marker on the 4th. So, no contest there. The ProPin was supposed to be on the 12th, and once again, there was a prospect of no contest. But, when Jake put his shot on the 15th to 3.92m, they decided that maybe the ProPin could be on the 15th instead. Harry went close to being inside Jake, but in the end, the money stayed in his hot little hand. Jake did not make the birdie from that distance, but that was more than compensated by the four that Stef scored on our way to ten for the day. However, playing on his ‘old’ Club handicap, Jake also put in a score of 42 points, so, if he does decide to make a comeback, the handicapper might have to take a close look at these numbers. The 18th BallPin was hard to get close to, and Porks put in an early claim. Adam had other ideas, and was able to get closer than 4m to collect the ball and to stake a claim for the ProShop trophy.
The Birthday Birdie is in a bit of a flutter this week, with well-wishes to go to Rod and SOS for their up-coming big days.
Results for Saturday, 09 April 2022
1st Stefan Belevski (42) 2nd Harry Boughen (40) 3rd Adam King (38) 4th Craig Cameron (36) 4th Chris Priems (36) 4th Ken Watson (36) 5th Bill Eastoe (35) 5th Trevor Jackson (35) 5th Mark Minney (35) 5th Brendon Mitchell (35) 5th Ryan Porker (35)
Priems Cup Results:
Stefan Belevski (TeamChris) d. Mark Minney (4 and 2)
Bill Eastoe (TeamChris) d. Brent Rowley (3 and 2)
Chris Priems (TeamChris) d. Rob Priems (3 and 1)
Ryan Porker (TeamChris) d. Geoff Lyall (2 and 1)
Harry Boughen (TeamRob) d. Trevor Jackson (3 and 2)
Adam King (TeamRob) d. Stan Blackshaw (7 and 5)
Craig Cameron (TeamRob) d. Stephen O’Sullivan (1 up)
Brendon Mitchell (TeamRob) d. Andrew Blight (5 and 3)
Ken Watson (TeamChris) d. Targe Mifsud (5 and 4)
TeamChris d. TeamRob 5 games to 4.
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Jake Priems BallPin No 1 – 4th – No Contest BallPin No 2 – 18th Adam King