Tony Smith’s claret and blue army fell agonisingly short of victory against their French rivals in the 33rd Wryter Cup.
The PGS, superbly led by an inspirational Smith, went down 17½-14½ to their powerful APG rivals on the wonderful Granville Dunes course.
West Ham fan Smithy, whose team wore sky blue on day one and claret on day two, said: “I could not be prouder of my team. They played their hearts out and tried as hard as they could against a team with lots of low handicappers.
“I’ve had one of the greatest weekends of my life. It was wonderful! The match was played in a great spirit and there is true friendship between the teams, which was lovely to see.”
The PGS stormed into a strong position after day one, which was played in truly atrocious conditions. The winds were gusting to more than 40 miles an hour and the rain came down in horizontal sheets, making even connecting with the ball a very challenging prospect.
Smith’s team took the morning foursomes 5-3, with wins for Nev Appleton and rookie Neil White, Smithy and Khalid Javed, and Felix Duckworth and Colin Hancock. Tim Allan and rookie Mike Waker battled heroically to claim a half after being five down at the turn!
It is a quirk of Granville that the stroke indexes mean higher handicap players get all their shots on the back nine, so fightbacks were always on against a French team with a lot of low handicappers.
In the afternoon fourballs, the PGS won 4½-3½, with wins for Jonny Bramley and Nev, Steve Lewis and Mike, Smithy and Tim, and Paolo and Colin. Ollie McCormack and Khalid played superbly to claim a half against a strong French pairing.
Sadly, the more benign conditions on Tuesday seemed to favour the French, who won the singles 11-5 to seal victory. Incredibly, nine of the matches went to the last hole, but the PGS were only able to win two of those.
The singles wins came courtesy of Smithy, who won all his matches; Tim, Paolo and Mike, who all scored 2½ points; and Andy Glen.
Mike had a Wryter Cup debut to remember, as he struck up a very promising bromance with the APG’s Edouard Combette and also claimed the Vic Woodman Trophy, awarded to the PGS player who best exemplifies the spirit of the Wryter Cup. He also has a new nickname, after his new friend Edouard noticed his resemblance to Harry Potter!
The course, town, nightlife and food were all top-notch. It’s always good when we stay in a seafront hotel next door to a casino on one side and an English pub that stays open till 2am on the other.
The French now lead the Wryter Cup overall standings 17-16….but we’ll have the chance to get it back to all square at Royal Dornoch next year.
Full Scores: Click here to see the full results from Granville Dunes