Palairet team romp to victory
Downes Crediton
Under the inspired leadership of team captain, Jason Wride, the East Devon team marched in to the third round of the Palairet Trophy on Sunday at Downes Crediton by beating Dainton Park 3-2.
In reality, for the watching team and supporter, it felt like we stumbled over the line, but a win is a win.
Jason’s pre match motivational speech clearly had no effect on the team as all 5 matches lost the first hole, and in fact the top pair of Paul Mullerworth and Bob Dawson decided that they would lull their opponents into a false sense of security by losing the first three holes. However, winning the next three got them back all square and they went on to play some solid golf to close out a 2 &1 victory.
The second pair of Glenn Tucker and Rory Adams recovered as well and were never behind after that, to record a victory by a similar margin. The third and fourth pairs also got back to all square at various times but in closely fought matches both narrowly lost 1 down and 2&1 respectively almost at the same time to leave the score at 2 – 2.
This left the final pair of Captain Wride and his cerebral sidekick, Paul Heys, to earn the winning point. In a seesaw match, they came down the 17th knowing that the match depended on them. In military fashion, they plotted their way down the hole to gain a half taking them to the par 3 final hole all square.
Jason narrowly missed the green, while the Dainton club captain found the greenside bunker. Under Jason’s instruction, Heysie carefully chipped on to the green, while their opponents came out of the bunker to around 8ft. Jason narrowly missed his putt leaving an 18 inch putt which wasn’t conceded , so when Dainton missed their putt and left a two footer, the East Devon pair decided not to concede the putt either.
With everybody preparing to walk across to the first hole for a sudden death play off, the Dainton player unexpectedly missed his 2 footer, leaving Heysie to confidently knock in the winning putt, which by then end of the evening was a 6 foot curler
and will probably be 30 feet if you ask him about it after a beer or two.
A relieved team enjoyed the hospitality of Downes afterwards listening to Jason explaining how it was all part of his master plan to win the trophy we narrowly missed out on last year.
We now wait to hear whether it will be Portmore or Tiverton in next round and where it will be played.
Neil Sear (features editor)
In reality, for the watching team and supporter, it felt like we stumbled over the line, but a win is a win.
Jason’s pre match motivational speech clearly had no effect on the team as all 5 matches lost the first hole, and in fact the top pair of Paul Mullerworth and Bob Dawson decided that they would lull their opponents into a false sense of security by losing the first three holes. However, winning the next three got them back all square and they went on to play some solid golf to close out a 2 &1 victory.
The second pair of Glenn Tucker and Rory Adams recovered as well and were never behind after that, to record a victory by a similar margin. The third and fourth pairs also got back to all square at various times but in closely fought matches both narrowly lost 1 down and 2&1 respectively almost at the same time to leave the score at 2 – 2.
This left the final pair of Captain Wride and his cerebral sidekick, Paul Heys, to earn the winning point. In a seesaw match, they came down the 17th knowing that the match depended on them. In military fashion, they plotted their way down the hole to gain a half taking them to the par 3 final hole all square.
Jason narrowly missed the green, while the Dainton club captain found the greenside bunker. Under Jason’s instruction, Heysie carefully chipped on to the green, while their opponents came out of the bunker to around 8ft. Jason narrowly missed his putt leaving an 18 inch putt which wasn’t conceded , so when Dainton missed their putt and left a two footer, the East Devon pair decided not to concede the putt either.
With everybody preparing to walk across to the first hole for a sudden death play off, the Dainton player unexpectedly missed his 2 footer, leaving Heysie to confidently knock in the winning putt, which by then end of the evening was a 6 foot curler
and will probably be 30 feet if you ask him about it after a beer or two.
A relieved team enjoyed the hospitality of Downes afterwards listening to Jason explaining how it was all part of his master plan to win the trophy we narrowly missed out on last year.
We now wait to hear whether it will be Portmore or Tiverton in next round and where it will be played.
Neil Sear (features editor)