Result – Lost 5 - 3 

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Sixteen of our number met up at Kirtlington Golf Club on a warm, sunny day. Some arrivals late as they experienced travel delays due to serious accidents on A40 and A417 causing road closures.

 

The course, a relatively short but challenging inland links, is situated in rolling countryside north of Witney. The greens were fast and tricky with subtle borrows and pin positions cleverly positioned, retained from their Club Championship the previous weekend and still in place for their Ladies Championship in the morning.

 

Despite some creditable performances we lost (again) by the narrowest of margins. Most matches going to the 18th green. 

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I played with Dave Soar. He had the misfortune to be giving shots (one on a par 3) to Tim Berrie, the current Captain of Kirtlington (who never stopped talking) and Graham Robinson, the Oxfordshire Captain. I only got 2 shots and was unable to use either! We got off to a very slow start and were 3 down after 3 holes. We managed a half on the 4th, a short par 3, in par after all four of us came up short off the tee. Things did not improve as the next hole was index 1, a relatively (330 yards) par 4 with a very slopey green being lost to a double bogey. We did get it back to 1 down at the turn but eventually lost 3&2. The quality of play was not scintillating to say the least!

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Dereck Buttler & Alastair Harvey, Ian Smith & Rex Parry and Clive Fluck & John Dymock all lost 2&1. John Christie and Ross Antonczyk suffered our heaviest defeat by 4&3.

 

On the plus side Jim Ford & Ian Hughes won 2&1, Chris Dooley & Brian Norman won 2 up and Dave Mathews & Steve Yemm won 1 up in the last match.

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My thanks go to Rex and John Christie for stepping in as reserves for the originally posted team.

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We were well looked after by the catering & bar staff with good service and excellent food. I asked Tim to pass on our thanks to the members and management for facilitating our event.

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Sam Collins.