They think it's all over; well, it really is now. The BDGA touring season drew to a chilly close over the weekend of October 24th and 25th with the Top 16 match-play event alongside the Not the Nationals competition hostedby Quarry Park.
Jester Wilson and Bruce Webber qualified by right for the event but with attendance levels being poor Am Champion Rich Wood as well as CDGC's Dan Ryan and Phil Wood were present and hoping to not just make up the numbers.
The Not the Nationals this year was made up of a one day stroke-playcompetition on the Saturday, which then created the seedings for a day of match-play on the Sunday. Croydon Cyclone Ad Am Champ Tom Lowes was joined by Stew Gudgeon representing CDGC in this format.
With the Bongo loaded and the "Taj Mahal" packed, Croydon set off North. Few dared brave the cold of camping over the weekend but the Croydon Palace was joined by Neal Pickett's pop up tent and Steve Broster with Paul Stoddart in the Shrewsbury Love bus.
As is often the way, night golf was the calling on abeautiful moonlit evening and having taped glowsticks onto Champion(see-through) discs an entertaining selection of regular and jungle holes wasattempted. Stew was determined to lose his disc, losing sight of it after afair few throws. Rich almost added the beast to his bag after impressing over a few holes, although in the cold light of the next day he realised that it had been the glowstick stuck to the underside that was giving it such a good flight. In the end the warmth of the tent and a cup of tea were called the players inas rain arrived.
Next morning frozen toes soon thawed as what turned out to be perfectgolf weather arrived at QP. With not a breath of wind in the air and slowlyrising temperatures, expectations of low scores and holes won was among theCroydon boys. The National Match-play is a seeded event, with the seedingsbeing reflective of final BDGA tour standings. First round matches are 1st seedplaying 16th, 2nd playing 15th and so on.
The entire first round went well for the higher seeds, though Jester was runvery close by Sophie Southgate. Conor Davies was looking in particular finefettle and was on the birdie train for 4 out of 5 holes against Neal.
In the Not the Nationals stroke-play, Tom and Stew shot a 68 and a 69 respectively, putting them a little off the pace of the lead group. They wouldhave another 18 holes to try to correct that.
The afternoon saw Jester facing Jesse Denny, Bruce playing Ivan Bromage, Richalongside Paul Holden, Dan against Sophie and finally Phil squaring up againstNeal. Jester, Rich and Phil were all victorious, but Dan couldn't get pastSophie and Ivan overturned Bruce in a close match up.
In the Not the Nationals Tom improved his score to a 65 and Stew held aneven keel, unfortunately not challenging the leaderboard but putting theCroydon boys in the same group for the following days match play. With Stewunbeaten in match play format, he was confident on getting one over on the restof his group!
The Saturday evening's plans were almost completely scuppered when theBongo decided it was too cold and wasn't going to move. Either that or Rich hadbeen leaving some electrical devises on for too long and run the battery down.The AA were called and so Rich did go to the ball. Off to the pub for all theplayers for the BDGA AGM and annual prize giving. The AGM was a relativelystraight forward affair, with the election of the board, Rich Wood standingsuccessfully for the Communication Director role. So Rich will no doubt have usall writing something for the BDGA soon! Maybe bird watch at Essex Uni, Jerry's thought of the month, or just his musings on why CDGC are better thanQP ;-) Derek Robins picked up the Open tour title and Rich the Am titlefor their performances over the season, with Dave Allaker picking up TD of theyear, Charlie Mead taking contribution to the game (for efforts at the BritishOpen) Sophie Southgate, Womens title, Garry O'Malley, Comedy moment and Rich Hatton Spirit of the game.
Sunday morning and the sore heads were wrestled from their pillows as another gorgeous frosty morning dawned. Some interesting pairings came up, mostnoticeably the all-CDGC match up of Wood on Wood. Phil vs Rich in a re-enactment of a typical Saturday morning round. Jester had a chance to play Ivan, Bruce faced Jesse and Dan was against Dunc.
Rich and Phil endured amammoth battle with the lead swinging back and forth. Highlights included anunbelievable birdie on hole 11 for Phil after driving about 3 meters from thepin and Rich finally conquered his demons on Hole 13, finally managing a 3 (he got 2 of them) after 6 years of trying, however they were all square cominginto the last hole; Hole 4.
Phil drove first and threw a trusty teebird levelwith the last conifer leaving a 15m putt, Rich sent his drive into the secondtree on the left hand side, leaving a tricky up and down. Rich stretched aroundthe tree but pulled his flicked approach short leaving a long putt for par.Rich missed the putt, meaning Phil could just lay up, take the par and thehole. All the other Croydon boys performed well and won there matches, meaningJester, with 3 wins out of 3, would be competing for the title against TourChampion Derek Robins.
Stew and Tom were joined by QP's Mark Davis and Essex' Paul Stoddart.In the opening matches Tom was defeated by Paul (3 and 2) and Stew maintainedhis 100% record by beating Mark. This caused the afternoon's fixtures to bereversed - Stew against Paul and Tom against Mark. Stew was again victorious,winning the group; Tom decided enough was enough and conceded after a playoffhole with the match all-square.
The final round of matches in the Nationals saw Bruce v Sue, Phil vCharlie , Rich v Sophie, Dan v Neal and going for the top spot and to retainthe national match play title, Jester against Derek. Bruce controlled the matchagainst straight-shooting Sue to win 3 & 2, Dan found his form late andturned Neal over 5 & 3 and Rich turned over his Ad Am adversary Sophie 3 & 1. Charlie Mead proved just to good for Phil, beating him 4 & 2. So allhopes were with Jester. Despite his best efforts, Jester could not keep pacewith Del and finally fell on the 16th hole, loosing 4 & 2. Del was crownedNationals Match-play champion of 2010.
This season has been one of the most successful to date for CDGC, withRich crowned Ad Am Champ and Jester, Bruce, Phil, Tom and Charlie Myall all winning BDGA tour event divisions over the course of the season. We can only hope that next season goes on to be even more successful with more of CDGC outon tour.
Whilst the BDGA season is now complete, things don't stand still for CDGC. Thefirst leg of the Hyzer cup will be taking place at the end of November so seethe forum or Rich for more information.
