Mail On Sunday Team 2010

The format for this competition is a 5 man team who play singles matchplay. The matches are not of scratch, so there are shots. It is simply a case of the team with the most points wins the match. If the match is level at 2 1/2 - 2 1/2 at the end, there is a playoff. The playoff is played by the players who went out 5th, so it pays to put your best matchplayer 5th, so the team is not necessarily in handicap order. The competition is ran by the Mail on Sunday newspaper. The first rounds are normally kept very local, with the matches tried to be arranged so that teams do not have to travel very far.

The first round of 2010 saw Oadby have to travel to Stoke Albany, located just outside Market Harborough. Only two if the team had ever played the course before so this was never going to be an easy match. The 5 players chosen by captain Tidge Gharial for this match were; Tidge Gharial, Dave Goodman, Ed Eley, Adam Jacques and Ben Hall so Oadby were fielding a strong team. The order that the players would go out in took a while to decide, but in the end it was decided that the best order would be Tidge Gharial (1), Ben Hall (2), Adam Jacques (3), Dave Goodman (4) and Ed Eley in the pressure number 5 position. If the match finishes at 2 and a half each, it is the players who go out at number 5 who have to compete in the playoff. It was a challenge Ed Eley was more than happy to accept. The weather was very kind with very little wind and only a very tiny amount of rain while waiting on the first tee. Tidge Gharial got to the team off to a good start by winning a very close match. It was a match where neither player could get more than a few holes ahead and one minute Tidge was up, the next he was down. Tidge won 2 UP in the end having been 1 UP coming down the last and going onto win the hole. Ben Hall also won by the same score in a similiar match. Ben went 1 Down on the third and then won the 4th and 5th to go up. Ben was always up after that but never by more than 2 holes. He hit 15 greens in regulation and had he putted slightly better could have closed the match out sooner. It looked like the match was over on the par 3 17th when Ben stuck his tee shot to 2 feet before his opponent rolled in a very tricky 20-25 footer to make Ben sweat over his putt, which he holed. He then won the last to win 2 UP. Adam Jacques drew the short straw and unfortunately had to give 10 shots away, which was always going to be an extremely difficult task away from home. In the end the shots were too much for Adam who ended up losing on the 15th. Club Vice-Captain Dave Goodman had only returned from a week of skiing on the Saturday but showed no signs of that after storming to 4 UP after 7 holes. A couple of three putts later from Dave and a long putt from off the green from his opponent and all of a sudden he was back to 1 UP. Dave showed some great determination to not let that bother him as he halved in from there to win his match 1 UP. Ed Eley played some very solid golf against a very solid opponent as he fought his was to a 1 UP victory aswell. It was a very close match where neither player was ever more than 1 UP and Ed halved the last 7 holes for his victory. That gave Oadby a 4 - 1 victory although the scoreline is a bit harsh on Stoke Albany. All 4 of the matches Oadby won went down the last and although we were 1 UP in all of them, on another day the match could have gone a different way. Oadby did the business though and they march on into the next round, hoping for a home tie. A big thank you goes out to Club Captain John Goodman and wife Su Goodman who came out to support the team, and also to Brian Fletcher-Warrington who also came out to support the team. Your support is very much appreciated and motivates the team even more to go out there and get a result. Details of the next round will be posted on the website as soon as they are announced.

After a convincing victory at Stoke Albany Oadby were lucky enough to draw a home tie against local rivals, the Leicestershire. However, Oadby failed to contact the opposition by the contact deadline set and hence had to forfeit their home advantage much to the dismay of the officials and participants. Nonetheless, the Oadby players remained upbeat and positive going into the match despite the additional blow of losing regular and first match victor Ben Hall due to illness, with Oadby veteran and reserve Dave Sewart filling in for Ben. Tidge Gharial showed that his game was in better shape than his communication and organisation levels with a thumping win 5&3 playing the tough Leicestershire course in level par to get Oadby off to the best possible start. The second match brought an intriguing contest between Oadby’s vice-captain Dave Goodman and ex Oadby member Marc Palmer which was a keenly fought contest with never much in it, but Dave eventually prevailed with a win on the 17th 2&1 giving Oadby a 2-0 lead. Third off for Oadby was Adam Jacques looking to make amends for his first round defeat but unfortunately never got going, and the ever consistent Christian Dean managed to defeat Adam 3&2. Dave Sewart, filling in at short notice, despite competing early on collapsed to a comprehensive defeat of 5&4 leaving the match finely poised at two apiece. So last off was Oadby’s stalwart Ed Eley up against regular county first team representative Riyaz Ahmed who had to concede four shots to Ed. The match got off to an edgy start with Riyaz moving 2 up after 8 with a stunning tee shot stone dead on the par 3 8th. From this point on the standard of the match drastically improved in the next 7 holes with Ed playing in level par and Riyaz 1 under, but with Ed’s 3 shots managed to move back to all square, with both players playing the 16th in fine fashion to the green but Ed unfortunately could not convert from 8 foot, but Riyaz using all of his composure rolled in his 5 foot birdie attempt to move 1 up. On the penultimate hole Ed bravely holed a downhill 6 footer to keep the game alive and onto the last where Ed needed to win to force a playoff, where he unfortunately found trouble down the right off the tee and despite holing a courageous par putt Riyaz’s steady par was enough to win the match for the home side. Despite the loss the day seemed to be enjoyed by all and all the games played in a competitive and fair spirit on a golf course in its always fantastic condition. Oadby wishes The Leicestershire the best of luck in future rounds, but maybe will always have the lingering thoughts of what would of happened if the match had taken place at Oadby! EE