COMPETITION RESULTS

The Critchley Cup 2010:

Royal Liverpool Golf Club - Sunday 8th August 2010
Perfect golfing conditions, sunshine and light breeze, greeted a field of stalwarts and, very pleasingly, some new, much younger faces for this year’s competition.
The links, as befits an Open Championship venue, were in superb order, with wavy rough, ever deeper bunkers and fine putting surfaces. Scoring, despite playing over the shorter yellow course, was not easy.
John Currie, playing only his second game since the Halford Hewitt in April, retained his title and the Critchley Cup as well as the OSBC blazer (which avoids our having to take the decision as to whether or not we dare have it cleaned, for another year!), with an excellent score of 37pts. This score was matched by one of our three young guests, David Clark, playing off 8. David is currently in the upper sixth and therefore ineligible to win an OSB trophy, but rest assured his efforts will be rewarded and he can look forward to an instant invitation to play in the Hewitt the moment he waves goodbye to the school.
Chris Lamont with 36pts also retained Farquie’s Fortifier, as runner-up. The winner of the Bill Fox Cup for the best scratch score went to Mark Morrison with a fine round of 81 and 36pts. Neil Morton won the Ken Case tankard for those over 60 and Jonathan Crosland the Dick Harrison Cup for those playing off 12 or above. Our congratulations to all of them.
Also in the field were Mike Stamper and his son Jo, ably supported by mum, James Brindle, Tom Croft, Peter Bloomer, Adrian Peckitt, Ethan Spedding and Rickie Bewsher.
Please Click Here to see photos of the event.

The Cyril Gray Golf Tournament 2010:

Dinner Match v Glenalmond lost 3/0
Tim Morrison and Stephen Moss lost to John Gosdon and Anthony Stocker
Adrian Bagott and Brian Morrison lost to Tim Bull and Andrew Thomson
Mike Stamper and Michael Coffey lost to Bill McCall and Gordon Thorburn

First Round v Stonyhurst lost 21/2/1/2
Tim Morrison and Stephen Moss lost to T. Reid and J. Magner
Adrian Bagott and Brian Morrison halved with A. Towsend and P. Flaherty
Mike Stamper and Michael Coffey lost to J. Dewsbury and D. Llewellyn

First round of The Plate v Chigwell lost 2/1
Tim Morrison and Stephen Moss lost to S. Jones and C. Biss
Adrian Bagott and Brian Morrison beat A. Ruston and B. Green
Mike Stamper and Michael Coffey lost to M. Taylor and G. Coleman

The weather was glorious, if anything a little too hot! Our accommodation at the Hillside, where we entertained Glenalmond on the Wednesday evening at vast expense, having lost, was excellent in every way – no excuses, we played poorly as the results show. Many fine shots were struck, but while we have beaten Glenalmond (with a similar team) in each of the previous two years, this year we got off to a poor start and never recovered. It was particularly disappointing to lose to Chigwell.
However all is not lost, as we have unearthed some ‘new’ fifty somethings, so who knows, we may be back to winning ways again next year; we certainly hope so. The Cyril Gray is a fine tournament, played over a splendid course at a lovely time of the year; so come and join us if you are over 50 and enjoy a good time, both on and off the course.

Queen Elizabeth Coronation Schools Trophy 2010:

St Bees v Morrisons (Perth)
Top pair was John Currie and Andrew Goodwin playing against two young scratch golfers. The game was up and down but centred firmly around great bunker play from Currie, complemented by single putting from Goodwin. St. Bees started the game poorly and after three holes were two down to par golf from the Morrison pair. However, the fight back started at the long par 4th when a strong St. Bees par was good enough; back to one down. After sharing par at the next, St. Bees then took advantage of their opponents’ errors and by securing three consecutive pars over 6, 7 and 8 found themselves one up.
The Morrison pair secured the first birdie of the game, (St Bees missing their chance) at the ninth to level the game at half way. Unfortunately we failed to par the tenth, but with great recovery play still managed to hold on to one down by the 15th tee. The long 15th was a shared birdie and St. Bees piled on the pressure at the 16th reaching the par 5 in two. Shaving the hole for eagle forced the Morrison pair to concede and we were all square again on 17th tee. The Morrison pair gave us a chance by missing the green, but we failed to capitalise and disappointingly lost the hole to a 5! However, Goodwin found the green side bunker with his drive at the last, which was followed yet again by Currie 'bunker magic' to within three feet and this proved to be enough to secure a half.

In the second match, James Doggett and Andy Crummey got off to a slow start and found themselves three down after four holes. The pair picked themselves up and started to play good golf, but despite their best efforts, and holes being exchanged, they were unable to claw it back. As they stood on the 13th tee still three down, defeat was looking the likely result. However, a solid three at the 205 yd par 3 13th followed by another par at the 14th could not be matched by their opponents, and all of a sudden St Bees were back in the match at one down with four to play. With St Bees in the ascendency and with the honour on the tee, James proceeded to drive his ball straight out of bounds at the 15th - disaster !

So back to two down with three holes to play. Andrew’s drive unluckily found a fairway bunker at the right of 16, but with Morrisons in the trees on the left, both teams were hitting their third shots from the fairway 150 yds away. St Bees found the front edge of the green and Morrisons the greenside bunker.  James rolled a 40 foot putt to within inches and the opposition then hit a poor bunker shot to twelve feet and then missed the putt for another St Bees win. A solid par at 17 was enough to win the hole, with Morrisons again failing to chip and putt from the edge of the green. With all square, at the18th tee (250 yd par 4) Andy drove the ball to the green side, and with the top match looking on from the 1st tee, James chipped the ball to within eight feet and Andy rolled the putt in for a birdie 3. St Bees won one up – they were never up in the match until the final putt was holed - a good victory.

Our third pair were Adrian Peckitt and Charlie Crummey. The former handicapped by playing with a back injury. If this was not enough, their opponents were just fresh from playing in the Scottish Amateur Championship and contained Graham Lowson, a former winner (1991 Downside).

St Bees fought hard but with Morrisons out in one under par, they found themselves two down at the turn. A couple of loose shots were punished and our opponents ran out winners 5 and 4, standing at the time two under par.
With the 2nd and 3rd matches finishing 1-1 and the top match level after 18, the 19th hole was needed to settle affairs. A strong drive up the 19th from Currie was followed by a poor drive into the trees from Morrisons. However, a miracle shot from the opposition found the middle of the green and St Bees continued to find a greenside bunker from 150 yds. A poor bunker shot from Currie and a missed putt from Goodwin meant a two-putt par was enough for Morrisons to win the match and the game overall.
Match Result; St Bees 1 Morrison 2

We then spent an entertaining evening eating and drinking with our old adversaries Rossall, who were competing in their first Queen Elizabeth Schools Trophy.

The tournament was eventually won by Watsonians, who capped a miserable year for Charterhouse by beating them in the final.