The London Scots golf section opened the club’s account well on the Easter weekend visit to Jersey with a narrow win on Good Friday over golfers from Jersey RFC.
With a reduced number of LSFC golfers travelling, and even fewer bringing their clubs, tour captain, Joe Flaherty, was not challenged by selection issues.
Contrary to Joe's limited choices, Jersey's captain, Ken Hewitt, had no such lack of players and put out his strongest team of inform players, all of whom were on their home turf at La Moye GC.
Misjudging the transfer time from their base in St Helier meant that the Scots team arrived so early that they went to the range and hit nearly 150 practice balls each.
As the Jersey side arrived they were visibly stunned, not only to see the range filled with their opposition but also as most of the shots were booming straight and long.
This astonished the LSFC team too; however, they were match hardened enough not to show their surprise.
Despite trying to balance up the Scots' match preparation with a hearty lunch, preceded by several rounds of beer and accompanied by a very pleasant red wine, the Jersey golfers realised they had some tough opposition and the Scots had no illusion there was a tough afternoon ahead.
Teeing off first saw Sandy McIver take on Jersey's number one player.
Having a home club of Newbury & Crookham did Sandy no favours as the classic Links nature of La Moye GC showed its form with every hole exposed to the force 6 gales blowing straight off the Atlantic ocean.
Sandy hung on bravely against a barrage of pars to narrowly lose on the 17th hole.
Unlike Sandy, team captain Joe had played La Moye before and employed all his golfing prowess and course knowledge to be 3 up after 9 holes against Jersey's captain Ken.
This forced Ken to stretch for shots he would have preferred not to play and “steady Joe” relentlessly kept the heat on to increase his lead further and closed the account with an impressive win of 5 up and 4 to play.
Spectators quickly carried news of the delicately balanced match across the course to the final pairing of Lance Quantrill and Roger Trower.
Roger had put the pressure on from the start and was 2 up after only 4 holes.
Fortunately whilst meeting on the 5th Tee team captain Joe had the chance to give Lance a motivational talk.
Not wishing to suffer the “driver-ectomy” which Joe had threatened, Lance nervously played the next 9 holes in one under gross.
In a match where the handicaps were equal, Roger, selected to tee off last at 16 but ended up in the bunker.
Roger failed to get up and down from the sand by the 16th Green and LSFC won the match overall by 2 to 1.
The next match is against Royal Mid-Surrey GC, at Royal Mid-Surrey on Thursday 22nd May with the first match expected to be off at 1600hrs.
Selection is made on sporting attitude rather than golfing ability and is played in pairs.
A format of greensomes/better ball pairs along with stableford points means that players of all abilities are able to compete equally.
LSFC enjoys good relations with the golf clubs which host games and this extends to very enlightened green fee reductions.
To maintain this players are required to follow the club's rules for dress code and to deter slow play.
Current rugby players are particularly welcome to join the gold section as there are prizes in the Spring and Autumn meetings for which non-players are not eligible.
The prizes are solid silver tankards carrying the names of winners, some now very famous, from over the 50 years for which the golf section has played – longer than some rugby clubs have been in existence.
If you are a golfer and not on the circulation list for the golf section then email lancequantrill@hotmail.com or call Lance on 07818420465.
Forthcoming Fixtures:
Match v Royal Mid-Surrey GC, at Royal Mid-Surrey GC, Richmond, Thursday 22nd May at 1600 (tbc).
Match v Richmond RFC, at Royal Mid-Surrey GC, Richmond, Friday 20th June from 1645
Spring Meeting, at Royal Mid-Surrey GC, Richmond, Friday 18th July from 1700
The Autumn meeting will be arranged once the fixture calendar is confirmed. In the past this has been held at Fulwell GC, Middx.
