BUNGS Tour 2004 - The West Country
2nd, 3rd & 4th July 2004

The weekend tour for the 2004 season took us to The West Country where we played a three wonderful courses, Royal North Devon, The East Course at Saunton and Minehead and West Somerset. As usual, we were split into two teams and played a 'ryder cup' style match.

The teams and results for the weekend were as follows.

Captain's Red team	Current H'cap	Tours attended	Average points per match in previous tours	Challenger's Blue Team	Current H'cap	Tours attended	Average points per match in previous tours
Andy Smith, capt	14	5	0.390	Karl Hughes, capt	14	5	0.650
Graham Bilsland	3	3	0.467	Howard Holliday	5	2	0.638
John Newton	5	5	0.685	Steve Lloyd	5	5	0.700
John Shaw	6	4	0.694	Ian Talboys	10	5	0.635
Martyn Dodwell	8	5	0.820	Paul Weston	12	2	0.650
James Shipman	13	4	0.356	Ivan Heathcote	14	3	0.417
Paul Herrmann	15	1	0.900	Bobby Ho	16	3	0.417
John Bayliss	17	3	0.583	Tim Thacker	18	3	0.258
Anthony Jackson	18	2	0.100	Mike Fox	19	4	0.513
Darren Weston	19	2	0.425	Richard Stevens	19	4	0.375
Gordon Sullivan	22	4	0.775	Chris Craddy	23	2	0.400
John Mansell	28	2	0.313	Barry Whitmore	24	3	0.433
Alan Tolley	28	2	0.238	Graeme Black	25	1	0.400
Graham Adams	28	0	n/a	Brian Keates	25	3	0.250

 

Friday 2nd July 2004 - morning
Royal North Devon (Westward Ho!) Golf Club
1 x singles match (over 18 holes)
6 x foursomes matches (over 18 holes)

After much hype and waiting the 10th anniversary 2004 golf weekend was finally upon us, with BUNGS Captain Andy Smith pitting his wits against opposing captain Karl Hughes for the weekend.

Everyone travelled a day early, with one large group playing at Tall Pines near Bristol. Ivan Heathcote commented “The only Pines were on the f***ing drive into the club”. Two players took advantage of a twilight on the West Course at Saunton and a further group of seven broke the journey down to the West Country with a round of golf at the superb Burnham & Berrow Golf Club, just south of Bristol. Standing adjacent to the first tee waiting for the two doctors, James and John to tee off, the heavens opened. Not a good omen for the forthcoming weekend. However, by the time the other players had completed their tee shots, the blue skies had returned and the rain was nowhere to be seen. This, fortunately, turned out to be a pattern for the weekend, although there was no sign of the winds that we were to endure on Friday and Saturday.

On paper, Andy’s Red Team looked the stronger and also slightly more volatile (Steve Lloyd commented “It’s the fruitcakes versus the rest”) , although Karl’s team had Ian Talboys to balance out more than half the volatility of Andy’s team.

Before battle commenced both teams spent the night at the Trimstone Manor Hotel, although John Mansell’s snoring and Martyn Dodwell’s late night navigation caused Graham Bilsland and Steve Lloyd to spend the night in the bath and the chair respectively.

Both teams gathered for the traditional pre match photograph. It’s a testament to Steve Lloyd’s photography that the frostbite appearing on the teams cannot be seen, due to having to have the photos taken in shirt sleeves in 30 mph winds and temperatures barely in double figures.

The flags on the practice ground were almost horizontal, so severe was the wind, and as Westward Ho! is totally exposed with no sand dunes to protect you, it made for an interesting day fighting the wind, as Alan Tolley and Brian Keates hit the first tee shots of the tour in the opening singles match.

Alan’s team captain had taken him aside the night before to tell him he was opening the tour in a singles match against Brian Keates. A chance for ‘revenge’ for Alan as Brian had beaten him in the Sunday singles at his first weekend in North Wales two years ago. With Alan having to remove four layers of clothing to be seen in his Red shirt for the team photo, there was no time for nerves, especially after Brian Keates hit the fairway with his opening drive. Unfortunately for Brian, it was the 18th fairway he hit - something of an omen for Brian who had a ‘wayward’ day losing no fewer than fifteen golf balls. With the whole BUNGS weekend ‘crew’ watching from the benches alongside the 1st tee, and with no kids’ clubs to help him anymore, Alan faced an opening tee shot into a stiff breeze and a ‘carry’ over water some 130 yards ahead, but somehow managed to swing slowly enough to get one away. Pressure over for the time being - and good job Steve Lloyd didn’t tell Alan he was videoing the whole thing or he could have missed the ball completely! In brisk, windy conditions Brian was soon 3 up after 4 holes - the 4th presented a real challenge with the ‘widest bunker in the world’ facing them some 180 yards from the tee. Brian, already 2 up played a ‘strategic’ game and took a wedge from the tee but scuffed it a mere 50 yards. Feeling confident after his opening drive, Alan decided to ‘go for it’ with the inevitable result - the ball lying right up against the railway sleepers in the right hand bunker. Brian’s 7 iron second shot made it over with ease at the same time as Alan was taking no less than 5 to get out of the sandy lie (having visited both sides of the bunker). 3 down playing the short 5th, the Tolley fightback started and when his drive at the elevated 6th tee rebounded back into bounds from the fence down the left, he had a feeling this was going to be his day. Indeed from the 5th, Alan managed to win 8 of the next 9 holes with Brian having a torrid time finding the fairway but a much easier time finding those huge spiky bushes in front of the tees! It didn’t help that they were the first ones out and didn’t really know where they were going half the time, but another lost ball off the 14th tee for Brian allowed Alan to close out the game and a valuable first point for the Captain’s team!

In the first of the foursome matches, Tim Thacker and Howard Holliday had a torrid start against Graham Bilsland and John Newton, with Graham making single putts of 15 feet, 10 feet and 25 feet on the first three greens for par, birdie and par. What looked like being a close game was anything but as Howard and Tim were soon three down. Further pars followed at four and five to make the Red Team 1 under gross and five up after five. A shell-shocked Blue Team managed to keep their game together and win two of the next four holes to pull back to three down by the turn. That soon became five however, as they promptly lost ten and eleven. The game looked all over on the 13th as the Red Team found the green in three to the Blue’s four, however a rare three put from the Red’s ensured the match survived to dormie five on the 14th tee. A good tee shot from John found the green and when Tim clattered his ball into the ladies tee and watched it shoot up and apparently into the gorse, it seemed all over. Graham and Howard had walked in front whilst the tee shots were played and when they both carried on to the green, Tim and John laughed that Howard hadn’t seen Tim’s shot and would have to come all the way back. It transpired that Tim’s awful shot had leapt up of the ladies tee – jumped all the gorse and ran 100 yards to the green all along the ground. Both teams two putted for a half to leave the Red’s victorious 5/4. The last four holes were played in for the lunchtime drink, however with the Blue’s having won to restore a little pride they then had to sub the Red’s, both of whom had forgotten their wallets.

Third out was the Blue Team captain Karl Hughes, ably partnered by Paul Weston against Graham Adams and John Mansell. Off the 1st tee, Mansell smashes the ball 50yds into a ditch – a prophecy of what was to follow? On the 4th, Adams miscues off tee & lands Mansell in “Cape” bunker. “To get out, I’m going to play this off the face of the sleepers” says John. In doing so he leaves Adams a very awkward shot, with the ball only 9" from the precipice! At the turn, the match had turned into a rout, with the Blue Team playing solid golf compared to the Red Team hacking about like pure beginners (Adams regularly miscuing, Mansell playing recovery shots!) resulting in a crushing 9&7 defeat for Graham and John. It was then that Graham realises he only has 13 clubs in his bag. He decides this is tempting superstition too much, and retrieves his driver from boot of his car at lunch.
In the next match, Ian Talboys let his partner drive the odds and Ivan Heathcote driving into shit, literally (sheep to be precise), on the 1st was a taste of things to come from this potentially solid pairing in their match against Paul Herrmann and John Bayliss. The hacking, topping, slicing, and hooking continued throughout the front 9, The farcical golf culminating in both Ian and Ivan managing to top the balls into rushes on the par 3 ninth to go 4 down at the turn. They battled gamely on the back 9, although assisted by Herrmann and Bayliss bitching like a pair of old queens. In the end they managed to hold their resolve with Paul holing a difficult, downhill par putt on the 14th to gain a half, leading to a cry of “You Bastard” from Ian after he had put his tee shot on the par three to four feet, with Ivan missing the birdie attempt. Paul and John eventually closed the match out with a birdie 2 on the 16th to win the match.

Steve Lloyd was confident of an opening win as, along with Barry Whitmore, they were only giving three shots to Anthony Jackson and Darren Weston. Things didn’t turn out as planned though, with Steve finding the right hand ditch off the first tee, setting something of a precedent for the match. The golf was nothing to write home about but Steve sank a good birdie putt on the seventh to keep the match tight. Very steady play from Anthony and Darren resulted in a win at the 9th with a shot, putting the pressure on Barry’s tee shot over gorse at the tenth. Having to wait an age for Ian and Ivan in front to finish ‘hacking’ and with Steve and Anthony walking down the 10th fairway to ‘ball spot’ Barry, who had now been joined on the tee by the ‘noisy’ match behind, topped his shot into the gorse. Steve came running back to the tee to ‘reload’ and promptly carved his driver way right into more gorse, meaning the Red’s were two up without having to hit their second shot. If there was a lack of play on the tenth, the eleventh was ridiculous, with both Anthony and Steve finding the gorse from the tee resulting in an agreed ‘half’ without another shot being played. Steve and Barry managed to reduce the deficit to one by the time they reached the 16th, but another ‘top’ from Baz into the gorse on the par three made the Red’s dormie two. On the 17th, with the Blue’s just off the green in three and Darren facing a difficult fourth from the dry ditch in front of the green, Steve and Barry thought the match was going down the 18th until Darren hit a miraculous shot from the ditch just short of the putting surface to secure a half and a 2/1 victory.

The match between John Shaw/Gordon Sullivan and Mike Fox/Bobby Ho looked a close one on paper, but with Gordon struggling for the first four holes, the Red’s were two down. However, Gordon then started to play resulting in a 4/3 victory for John and Gordon, who kept telling John “not to count your f**king chickens” when they had a possibility of winning 6 and 5, something he kept reminding John of in his own way for the rest of the weekend!

The final match of the morning saw the Red captain, partnered by James Shipman take on Graham Black and resident psychologist Chris Craddy. Chris immediately commenced psychological warfare with his orange balls. In fairness he had been warned that Graeme’s accuracy was about as good as Beckham’s penalty kicks. Balls were everywhere and by the 8th no holes had been halved. The Red Team were 4 up after 4 but some super play by the Blue’s pulled them back to 2. The ninth was the turning point. Red’s, conceding a shot on this par 3, put a drive down the middle (James Shipman’s driving being unusually accurate). Andy hit a neat 2nd to 60 yards short of the green then James and Andy watched as Chris and Graeme in turns hit and searched for their ball into the reeds on the left several times. After losing one of the precious Craddy orange missiles, they conceded the hole after 8 shots for the Red Team to go 4up at the turn. Heads dropped and despite a small come back, the Red’s prevailed 6/5.

Friday 2nd July 2004 - afternoon
Royal North Devon (Westward Ho!) Golf Club
7 x fourball-betterball matches (over 18 holes)

Playing Foursomes in the morning, Andy had given some considerable thought into the morning’s pairings and coming out a massive 6 – 1 ahead at lunchtime, he was already starting to write his acceptance speech for Sunday evening. However things took a turn in the afternoon fourballs.

The first of the fourballs turned out to be one of the best matches of the weekend between Alan Tolley/John Newton and Richard Stevens/Howard Holliday. After watching Brian Keates in the morning singles match, Alan decided the best route to the 1st hole was down the 18th fairway - as demonstrated by an opening 6 nett 5 to make the Red’s 1up. At the 4th, faced with ‘that’ bunker again and remembering his morning misfortunes, Alan showed what a gutsy character he has become(!) by pulling out the driver and putting one straight down the middle, bettered by a mid rescue to 6 feet and a ‘4’ was good enough for 2up, soon to become 3up at the next. At this point it became clear that no matter how well Alan was playing (and he was playing about as well as he can possibly play) Howard Holliday was even better, outdriving John Newton on most holes with some great 1 iron play and by the 14th they had pulled it back to all square. A sublime up and down by Howard from the back of the 15th for a 4 was enough to put their noses in front, and it stayed that way as they played the last. Howard was on the green in 2, with Alan 20 feet away in 3, needing to sink the putt for a 4/3. The putt drifted past the hole however, and the Blue’s won the match by the closest of margins.
The second match saw the Blue Teams’s captain and vice captain, a pairing that had been successful on the Norfolk tour, take on Graham Adams and Graham Bilsland - a dangerous looking pair with Bilsland’s steady par play and Adams’ sometimes erratic but ‘shot filled’ game. Tim was pleased to get an immediate chance to avenge his morning defeat, and the Blue’s got off to a fast start winning the first two holes and when Tim who was just off the front of the third in two, rolled in twenty footer for birdie (nett eagle) that became three. The Red’s hit straight back with Graham Adams making gross par (net birdie) on four to pull his team back to two down. An excellent up and down from the bunker in front of the tough par 3 fifth took the Blue’s back to three up and despite solid play from Bilsland, they were 4up at the turn. Very steady golf from the Blue’s took them to five up after 13 and when Tim found the front of the 14th (with a rather better shot than he managed in the morning) and both the Red’s hit their tee shots into deep trouble, handshakes were exchanged on the tee on a 6/4 victory for the Blue’s. Graham Adams retreated to the hotel jacuzzi considering options for giving up this stupid game halfway through his first tour! VERY frustrated and despondent after an almost vertical learning curve for him (Links course, Matchplay, WIND!)

Roommates Ivan Heathcote and Brian Keates had a good game against John Mansell and Paul Herrmann (I bet some golf balls were lost in that match). It was Ivan and Brian who coped with the conditions the better, being 2up at the turn but a win for the Red’s at the 10th reduced the deficit. However the fightback was quashed immediately as Ivan and Brian won the 11th and the advantage was reduced to three at the 13th. Paul and John did manage to reduce this to 2down at the 15th, but halves at 16 and 17 secured victory for Ivan and Brian.

Ian Talboys manage to continue his dreadful form going into the afternoon fourball with Paul Weston in a fantastic match against John Shaw and James Shipman. Tallie lost his rag on the second, hacking his second at several worried sheep, horses and a greenkeeper. The greenkeeper must have said something to Ian as from then on his play and behaviour was nothing short of exemplary. However, by missing a couple of short putts going out, Ian did his best to ensure that Shipman and Shaw took a lead going into the back nine, although this had been reduced from at one time 3 to just 1. Indeed every hole was halved until the 17th, often with pars, excellent golf in the high winds of Friday afternoon. It did look to be in vain on 17 when Ian was playing his 4th on the par 5 from over 200 yards from the hole with John Shaw on the green in regulation 3 shots. However, with a fairway wood onto the green by Ian, pressure was applied to John who 3 putted leaving Paul Weston to sink a ‘parabolic’ putt to take the hole with an excellent pitch and putt 5, and bring the match all square for the first time since the opening hole. On the last Ian hit an excellent drive, only to duff his second into the burn in front of the green and when John put a superb second to four feet for birdie, an excellent match was won by the two doctors.

The conditions on the day were typified in the next match on two of the par three holes played in the afternoon. The 5th is a 136-yard hole, playing into the wind and uphill. Andy Smith won the nearest the pin prize hitting a full 5 iron. The 8th is a 184-yard hole and was playing down wind, Andy was through the back of the green with a 9 iron – links golf at it’s best (or possibly worst!). In hindsight, Andy Smith felt his tactics for the afternoon fourball pairings were completely wrong, not least pairing himself with Anthony Jackson. Although this is nothing against Anthony, the fact that he carried Andy for the majority of the middle third of the round eventually took it’s toll, and although they hit the turn 4up against Graeme Black and Mike Fox, the Blue pair hit a fantastic run of holes that saw them win the match 2 & 1. How Andy never managed to play the 18th will haunt him at night for years to come!

The penultimate match saw Steve Lloyd play Darren Weston for the second time that day, ably partnered by Bobby Ho and John Bayliss respectively. I say ably partnered, but for the front nine it was two against one, as Bobby Ho was abysmal going out and it was steady play by Steve and wayward play by the Red’s that saw Steve and Bobby standing on the 10th tee 1up. Darren, who was very steady off the tee in the morning was getting more and more wayward and eventually Steve had to comment “I’m not helping you look for that” after Darren had hooked another miles into the deep gorse on nine. After messing up the tenth in the morning foursomes, Steve was determined to get a good drive away, but he hit a huge hook into gorse giving Darren Weston the chance to say “I’m not helping you look for that” with huge smile on his face. With Steve in deep trouble, Bobby finally decided to contribute as he won the tenth to go 2up. A huge drive, bisecting the gorse, by Steve at the 11th resulted in the Blue’s going three up, and with Bobby now in fine form, they closed out the match on the 14th 5/4. After Steve had done some ‘sheep worrying’ earlier in the round by chasing one of the fluffy creatures along the fairway with a low one iron, Bobby decided to do some wildlife target practice himself whilst playing-in on 17. After already moving his ball closer to the fairway to avoid the wild horses that roam the course, he took out a metal wood and began his back swing followed by a lovely connection to the ball, but it only travelled 30 yards. This was because he hit one of the horses on the back leg, when the horse lifted his head, stayed still for a split second then ran across the fairway probably thinking “that fu**ing hurt” just to see Bobby smiling and saying “I can’t believe I hit that horse”. The horse did seem OK before anyone reports Bobby to the RSPCA.

The final match of the day saw Martyn Dodwell finally start his tour after work problems the previous evening and on Friday morning. However, Martyn’s partner was starting to tire and without a buggy, Gordon Sullivan didn’t contribute much to the match. It was steady play from their opponents, Barry Whitmore and Chris Craddy that eventually wore down Martyn and Gordon’s resolve with a 3/2 victory for the Blue pair.

After a very successful afternoon for the Blue Team, the match was all square at seven points each after the first day. After the disappointment of the morning foursomes, the look on Karl’s face was a picture in the locker room afterwards and he certainly enjoyed reminding Andy of all the comments the Red captain had made to him and his vice captain, Tim Thacker, at lunchtime.

OVERNIGHT SCORE
Captain's Red team 7 - Challenger's Blue Team 7

Saturday 3rd July 2004 - morning
Saunton Golf Club
1 x singles match (over 18 holes)
6 x foursome-greensome matches (over 18 holes)

Friday evening saw Andy and his vice captain, Graham Adams, have a rethink over their thoughts for the Saturday pairings. Playing foursome-greensomes in the morning turned their thoughts back to the previous Friday morning selections and the principles that had served them so well. So with some minor tweaking the pairings were revealed to all over dinner on Friday evening.

However this resulted in the evening being rocked by possibly the first corruption scandal within BUNGS, and probably the biggest internationally since Watergate. In this case, Andy ‘Milhouse’ Smith, captain of the Red’s was accused of being hell bent on his friends within the ‘Inner Circle’ (easily identified by their frequent use of the word fore and wanker), claiming the cherished Player of the Weekend award and the glory and worldwide adulation that goes with it.

The Woodward and Bernstein of Trimstonegate was John Bayliss, who rather than using the same time consuming research and his own Deep Throat (although Graham Bilsland’s involvement hasn’t been ruled out) to discover Andy’s conspiratorial plans, just used the more direct approach of 4 double brandy’s to draw his own conclusions.

After much chair-knocking, sulking, and wanker calling, the events of Trimstonegate came to an uneasy truce, although it would be fair to say a cloud was left over the weekend by the events of Friday evening.

Saturday morning arrived bright and breezy as BUNGS arrived at the wonderful Saunton Golf Club, surely one of the best courses any of us had visited. As on Friday, the weather was good with the wind blowing, but the dunes outlining the course certainly gave us some relief.

Off the white tees, the East at Saunton is a brute of a golf course at 6,427 yards with some very tricky carry’s just to reach the fairway. Despite being told that the course was designed to be played off the ‘white pots’ by the course marshall, we felt that this would slow-up the already snail like pace of the BUNGS contingent too much, so took the decision to play off the much easier ‘yellow course’ at only 5,741 yards. This seemed to play into the high handicappers hands as some of the low stroke index holes did seem unfair to be giving a shot (the 9th, stroke index 3 is only 339 yards). It would remain to be seen if this decision had any significance, and the Saturday started with the teams scores level.

With Richard Stevens and Alan Tolley ‘resting’, there would again be a singles match to lead us off between Graeme Black and Paul Herrmann.

Graeme got off to a flyer and was 2up after four before Paul started to turn the screw, squaring the match after seven but a win for Black at 8 meant he hit the turn 1up. It was then that the match turned, as some typical wayward shots from Graeme and some good play from Paul, meant Herrmann won 4 holes in a row. Despite losing the 14th, Paul proceeded to win 15 and 16 for a 4/2 victory.

In the second match, Andy Smith had again paired himself with James Shipman for the greensome against Chris Craddy and Brian Keates. Brian’s improving bag positioning ensured for a reasonably paced, well mannered game, however, he still struggles to understand the concept of ‘shots’ and the format for greensomes. The format that all players hit their tee shots and then each team chose the best drive and play alternate shots from there was explained to Brian. After Chris had hit a slight hook and Brian a little short down the left side on the opening hole, James hit an absolute screamer down the centre of the fairway (yes, he does hit the fairway occasionally) and Andy was not that far behind him, both balls a long way ahead of the Blue Team’s tee shots. Leaving the tee, Brian turns to James and enquires “Can we choose one of your drives?” – priceless. The Red’s were soon on top with some good quality golf and wrapped it up on the short 13th much to the annoyance of Mr Keates whose tee-shot landed on the path on the right and was disgusted that the nearest point of relief was in a bush and, after protesting that the rule was unfair, picked up. Andy and James pointed out to him he put it there and his other option was to play from the path. This did not amuse Brian who was still grumbling about the rules in the afternoon. Another highlight of the match was when Chris Craddy managed to putt a ball from one side of the green into the bunker on the otherside when a win looked a distinct possibility. Chris played a la Thomas Bjorn from the trap to lose the hole. James & Andy thought after a 7/6 drubbing the non-appearance of Keates and Craddy meant they’d sulked off to the bar. The Red dream team carried on to see what the rest of the back 9 held for the afternoons adventures to find the aforementioned pair sitting on the 16th tee protesting how they’d got very lost.

Mike Fox and Barry Whitmore had a daunting task against John Shaw and John Newton and with Newton consistently straight off the tee, things were difficult for the Blue pair. Newton even managed to drive the aforementioned short par 4 ninth, so perhaps giving a shot wasn’t so bad afterall for the two John’s. The Red Team eventually closed out the match on the 15th for a 4/3 gain.
For the third match in a row, Darren Weston and Steve Lloyd were pitted against each other. Darren was again partnered by Anthony Jackson, a pair who had beaten Steve in the foursomes on Friday morning. To partner Steve in his search for revenge was Ian Talboys, making one of Karl’s potentially stronger pairings of the morning greensomes. This was far from easy however as Anthony and Darren played consistently good golf, and it was only Steve Lloyd’s solid chipping and Ian Talboys’ consistent driving (yes, consistently good, not consistently wild for a change) kept the deficit to only one through 15 holes, and after Steve missed a tricky (yes tricky) two and a half foot putt for the win on 16, the Red pair stood on the 17th 1up with two to play. 17 was the turning point however, with the 186 yard par 3 into a strong head win, both Ian and Steve found the green with one irons, and without a shot on the hole, Anthony and Darren could not find a response. The match went to the 18th all square, and further pressure was applied by 2 solid drives by Steve and Ian down the 18th, but excellent scrambling by Darren and Anthony left them an opportunity of a 5, which would require Ian to hole a tricky 4 footer on the 18th green for the win. Thankfully for Ian, Anthony’s brave putt for a 5 slid by and Ian and Steve won an excellent match one up.

After comments from previous evening, Graham Adams went out with streak of determination a mile wide for his match with John Bayliss against Ivan Heathcote and Tim Thacker. Graham’s confidence rose immediately when he outdrove playing partner Bayliss on the first 2 holes and any ideas that Ivan and Tim might be in for an easy game were dispelled when John hit a great four wood from Graham’s drive to 12 feet to won the first hole easily. In fact only a tough up and down from the scrub through the back of the 2nd green by the Blue’s stopped the Red Team from going two up. The Blue Team took heart from the half and played steadily to be 3 up by the turn, helped by John’s tee shot at the 8th which went so high that the wind was actually bringing it backwards as it finished just 40 yards in front of the tee. The Red Team remained fired up however and won both ten and eleven to cut the lead to one. A rattled Blue pair had a hasty team talk and realised that the Red’s had shots on both 14 and 15 and the way the Red’s were playing, they really needed a bigger lead before the 14th. A par for the Blue’s secured the 12th to restore the lead to two. A vigorous discussion on golf rules had taken place the previous evening around whether people would call a penalty on themselves if they had addressed the ball and caused it to move by a millimetre. This was bought into focus on the 13th, when the Red Team having hit their tee shot through the back of the green failed to notice Tim messing his shot up from the front bunker leaving Ivan to escape at the second time of asking. Any potential moral dilemmas were resolved when the Red’s made a complete hash of the hole – firstly chipping right through the green then leaving their third short of the green, before finally getting on in four. When Graham’s first putt didn’t make the slope and rolled back to their feet the Blue’s were able to finish out the hole for a win having told their opponents they had miss counted. The 14th was halved before the Red’s won the 15th to cut the lead to two. Both teams hit good drives at 16 but whilst the Blue’s were able to hit their second just short of the green, the Red’s got into deep trouble on the left of the fairway needing a penalty drop and were forced to concede the hole when still in trouble after 4 shots, giving the Blue’s a hard fought 3/2 victory. Despite the loss, Graham did comment that this was his best and most enjoyable partnership of the weekend, with good chat and consultation with John from the 1st tee.

The penultimate game of the morning saw a potentially close game between Martyn Dodwell and Graham Bilsland against Karl Hughes and Bobby Ho. The match proved anything but close however and Graham and Martyn played excellent golf to secure an easy victory 5/4.

The final match looked a banker for the Blue’s with Howard Holliday and Paul Weston taking on Gordon Sullivan and the wayward John Mansell. You can never discount Gordon though as he is a very good matchplayer and ably assisted by John, they took a close match 1up at the 18th.

The weekend’s controversy raised it’s head again to marr an otherwise excellent lunch at Saunton with further rumblings of discontent (although this may have been rumbling stomachs given the slow pace of play on Saturday morning) and other members concern to avoid a sunburnt head over the smooth running of the weekend as whole.

The Red Team once more had gained the advantage by winning the seven matches 5 – 2 to take a 12 – 9 overall score into the afternoon fourballs.

Saturday 3rd July 2004 - afternoon
Saunton Golf Club
7 x fourball-betterball matches (over 18 holes)

The opening game saw a strong Red pairing of Andy Smith and John Shaw against Graeme Black and Barry Whitmore. In John’s words “Andy played crap” and the Blue’s were two up after three after Graeme drove the green at the first. However, in typical Graeme style, his wayward tee shot drove the green on the wrong course. He dropped from the green however and put it to ten feet (there in nett one).  After the third hole, John started to play some serious golf and carried Andy all the way to a relatively comfortable 4/2 win.

James Shipman and John Newton versus Mike Fox and the in-form Brian Keates looked close to call on paper and so it proved. Brian still insisting he didn’t have a shot on No.15 shot hole and that James Shipman had one on No. 8. We all hope he can calculate his financial advice more accurately! The match was close with the Red Team getting to 3up at one point only to be pegged back by a fantastic shot to the short 13th (into a hard breeze) from Brian banishing his misery from the morning to win the nearest the pin prize. With Mike Fox playing some steady stuff it took a gross 3 on the very tricky 16th from John Newton to put the Red’s 1up. Further great play from John Newton allowed the Red’s to cling on with an eclectic 77 for a hard fought victory.

With Paul Herrmann and Alan Tolley playing Ivan Heathcote and Chris Craddy, Ivan and Chris really fancied their chances in this one - especially after they went 1up at the 2nd, but a 4 from Paul at the next hole immediately brought it back to all square and some solid play soon found Alan and Paul 2up, thanks to one or two wayward drives from Ivan in particular. The Red’s managed to get to 3up at one stage before Ivan and Chris reduced the arrears on the 15th so it was 2up with three to play but whereas Alan found the right side of the 16th fairway from the ‘blind’ tee shot, both Ivan and Chris’s drives had a touch too much ‘fade’ given the wind. Despite a 5 minute search (and remember Chris was playing with an ‘orange’ ball so it would be easier to spot) neither ball could be found and so it was a little disappointing for the Red’s to win in such circumstances but a win is a win all the same, and another point on the board for the Captain’s team!

2003’s ‘Dream Team’ of Richard Stevens and Ian Talboys was resurrected for the afternoon fourballs. Anthony Jackson couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have Ian’s company again in the afternoon (according to Ian!), and was partnered by tour ‘virgin’ Graham Adams. Graham was one virgin who gained experience very quickly, by dovetailing superbly with Anthony, with Jackson digging in when Adams screws up, and vice-versa. Graham played a ‘Career Shot’ Rescue Club from light rough 200+ yds from green with the ball ending up on the fringe at back of green to win the hole and eventually gaining a 3up advantage with 6 to play. A combination of a great par 3 by Ian on 13, and 2 lost balls on 15 reduced the deficit to 1 with 3 to play. Anthony was obviously effected by his altercation on 16 with Paul Herrmann whilst ball spotting, and was out of the hole, but with Graham playing solidly a half at worst seemed likely. However, cometh the hour, cometh the old man, as Richard Stevens sank a huge, swinging putt to win the hole. It looked liked the Dream Team had stolen the match on 17 when Ian hit the green for the second time that day to win the hole and go 1up with one to play. However, on 18 all were struggling off the tee. Ian’s approach disappeared, probably in the first alien abduction of a golf ball if he is to be believed (try watching the ball on occasion Ian). Meanwhile, Graham and Richard were battling out the hole for the destiny of the match. Richard, was up in the dunes, playing like a mountain goat as well as looking like one. However, in the end it was to no avail as Graham sank a very tricky downhill putt for the hole and to halve the points in an excellent match. Graham said “This is the most pressure I have ever felt on a golf course!” and his focus was high as demonstrated at the 16th when he stated “I am REALLY going to concentrate on this putt” leading to a response of “Oh No!!!!!!!!!” from his partner.

Karl decided to stick with his successful partnership with Tim for the afternoon fourball against Darren Weston and Martyn Dodwell. This looked a good decision when the Blue’s won the 2nd and 4th to go two up. A fine collection of tee shots at the fifth saw Karl miss the green left, Martyn 20 yards long, Darren in the front bunker and Tim worst of the lot, 6 inches past the ladies tee. A fine up and down from the sand from Darren secured the hole. The Blue’s won the 6th to move back to two up and looked like winning the 7th until Darren canned an eight footer and Tim missed a two footer resulting in a halved hole. A gross par – nett birdie at the 9th meant the Blue’s reached the turn 3up. Karl made a four at the 10th for at least a half and Tim was able to then convert a downhill 15 footer for the birdie to win the hole and move 4up. Martyn almost drove the green on the 306 yard 11 and although he chipped and putted for his birdie, Karl hit his 2nd to 6 feet and made the putt for a half. The Blue’s won 12 to go five up, but the Red’s struck straight back winning the 13th. When Karl hit the 14th in two and Darren was 100 yards short, the writing was on the wall. Darren made the green with his third – about 30 feet away and Karl putted up to a couple of feet. Martyn told Darren that Karl wouldn’t miss and he needed his 30 footer to continue the match. Darren coolly knocked it straight into the centre of the cup for the half. Tim’s celebrations on the next were cut short as the 10 foot down hill put for the hole that looked to be in, caught the edge and span out to around 3 foot. Tim managed to hold his nerve to hole the return 3 footer for a half to secure a 4/3 win for the Blue Team.

John Bayliss and Gordon Sullivan got off to a great start against Steve Lloyd and Paul Weston as Bayliss got nett birdies at the opening two holes to take an early 2up lead. This was quickly reduced to one, and a tight match was in prospect. Gordon was having a torrid afternoon and only contributed on two holes, meaning John was playing two against one, and he certainly did the business. Some excellent par play from John kept the Red pair ahead, helped by Steve and Paul miscalculating Paul’s shots, meaning he missed out on two shot holes, something they didn’t realise until the 14th. The match was finally won on the 17th, when at dormie 2 down, Steve couldn’t match his excellent one iron from the morning, and a half in four was enough to secure a 2/1 victory for John and a delighted Gordon.

The final fourball match of the weekend pitted a strong Blue pairing of Bobby Ho and Howard Holliday against Graham Bilsland and John Mansell. Graham couldn’t match his morning performance and some excellent play from Bobby and Howard resulted in a 4/3 victory for the Blue’s.

OVERNIGHT SCORE
Captain's Red team 16½  - Challenger's Blue Team 11½

Saturday was thankfully a much quieter evening due probably to exhaustion but great hilarity was afoot when Richard Stevens was discussing John Mansell’s multi-accessorised Powakaddy, suggesting it has a mower attachment to help him find balls in rough, and leave ‘stripes’ all over the course!
The draw for the singles threw up many potentially close games, and numerous matches stood out after the draw had been read out on Saturday evening, Graham Bilsland v Steve Lloyd, John Shaw v Howard Holiday, Darren Weston v Bobby Ho, James Shipman v Ian Talboys being just some. At the other end of the scale, Anthony Jackson v Graeme Black was one where it was likely that he who lost the least amount of golf balls would probably end up victorious.

The match could go either way, despite the Captain’s team holding a five point advantage ahead of Sunday’s singles.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and after a fantastic drive around the coastline up to Minehead, it was down to the singles matches, with the Red Team determined to ensure they kept their momentum and the five-point lead they had worked so hard to gain on the Saturday.

The course, although not up to Saunton, was certainly challenging and definitely a lot more dangerous! In the opening match of Ian Talboys v James Shipman, the game swayed from the sublime to the ridiculous over the course of the match. Typified by the 1st with Ian driving through the green on the par 4, James topping his about 30 yards, and eventually the hole being halved in par. Holes were thrown back and forth with Ian getting back to all square, at the 8th, eventually. The slightly confusing layout of the hole lead to James driving his into the field and Ian driving onto the beach. After much sulking and swearing, Ian headed back to the tee, and after finally, noticing the waving arms, BUNGS very own Mr Magoo hit an excellent second tee shot, leading to birdie with his second ball and the win. James however, was 2up again after an excellent chip-in birdie at 9 and short missed putt by Ian on 10. Ian hit two marvellous woods onto the uphill, into the wind, par 5 11th to win with a two putt birdie, and was soon all square after James followed the general pattern of the match by finding the beach on the 12th to return the match to all square. However, some sloppy play by Ian on 14 and 15, and James taking advantage of his shot on 16 gave James the match 3 and 2. However, perhaps the most surprising result was that this wasn’t the match to witness a driver being thrown into a river!

The second match between Bobby Ho and Darren Weston was a tense affair. Bobby gave the first hole away with double bogey and on the 2nd Darren wouldn’t give Bobby an easy 2 foot downhill right to left putt for the half which Bobby naturally missed. Despite being twice winner of the BUNGS matchplay crown, missing that putt obviously got to Bobby and he was soon two down. After that, the match was bit of a ding dong battle. All along Bob showed Darren his generosity by giving him lots of 3 and 4 footers..... until they were all square on the 17th green. Darren had a 3 footer to half the hole and Bob remembered the 2nd hole, Darren missed so Bob was 1up on the 18th tee with a totally dejected Darren. Well the rest was history!

The third match between the two team captains was the only ‘rigged’ match of the weekend, and one that both of them had looked forward to for along time – Karl finally had the chance to play Andy without giving any shots and playing with Graham and Steve, a good afternoon’s golf looked in store. Despite some friendly banter towards Andy recommending he changes his grip, hitting with a hooded club head and resembling Milhouse from the Simpsons, John Shaw (a member of Andy’s own team) finally stopped the barracking and left the tee box, allowing the match to get underway. With Karl teeing off first and driving the green on the short par 4 first hole, Karl had immediately put the pressure on Andy. How Andy managed to hit the ball, never mind hit it through the back of the green, he’ll never know. As usual, Andy made a hash of chipping and putting and was thankful to Karl for four putting, resulting in a half in five. Some terrible golf followed with both Karl and Andy handing holes to each other, rather than winning them. Although neither Karl or Andy ‘enjoyed’ the game, there was always only one hole in it and was up and down more often that the roller coaster at the nearby Butlins. With Karl winning the 18th, the individual match finished all square.

Steve Lloyd beat Graham Bilsland in the opening singles match in last years tour, so Graham was looking for revenge when they were drawn against each other again. An opening tee shot carved way out to the right was a sign of things to come for Steve, and with Graham driving the green for birdie, Steve was quickly one down. Things looked bleak when Steve topped a three wood at the second, but he somehow hit the green with another three wood for his second. With both Steve and Graham three putting, Steve was only one down despite a dreadful start. Graham went on a birdie and par frenzy from this point, winning the third and Steve was thankful for a 20 foot par putt on the 4th to half the hole, but still stood on the seventh tee four down. Despite having problems with his driver on the early holes, Steve finally managed to get the swing speed, launch angle and trajectory right on this tee as he finally completely lost his temper, and despatched his ERC2 over the first water filled ditch and batch of weeds and into the river beyond. Unfortunately, Steve was not aware of the layout of the land before this act of desperation and, despite two separate attempts wading near waist high through the first ditch, the driver is still lying there. With his wayward driver no longer an option, Steve managed to stop the rot by winning the 8th and 10th, but this was Graham’s cue to turn the screw however and he won four in a row to claim the victory 7/5.

Graham Adams versus Chris Craddy started with a half in five after Graham hooked (again!) off the first tee to just short of 18th tee. He played a 9 iron back onto green, and promptly 3-putted! At the 2nd, Graham hit his best contact all weekend with his second shot, but lost his ball over the back of green to go one down and things didn’t improve for Adams who had a terrible front nine and turned 4 down. Things looked to improve at the par 3 tenth as Graham was the only one of his ‘four’ to hit the green, but another three putt meant a half and a win for Chris at the 11th made him 5up. A small fightback ensued with Graham winning 12 and 13, but Chris eventually finished the match on the 16th 3/2.

Playing alongside Chris and Graham were Paul Weston and Alan Tolley, who had played really well on the first 2 days but his form deserted him on Sunday, with some awful second shots and plenty of disasters around the green. Paul wasn’t at his best either, but he was more that a match for Alan. The standard of play was pretty dismal at times. Twice, Paul had to take 3 off the tee with Alan down the fairway and on both occasions Alan somehow lost the hole. On another hole they halved with an 8 from Paul and a 9 from Alan - it was that bad at times! When Tolley three putted the 12th from no more than 15 feet it was all over and Paul was a worthy 7/6 winner on the day.

On last years tour, John Shaw went to bed early to re-charge his batteries for his singles match, only to get dicked by Derek Pells. This year, John decided to stay up late (it must have been at least 11pm before he went to bed) and this seemed a good decision as he was one up on the first after putting a 3 wood on the green and two putting for birdie in his match against Howard Holliday. Things then went pear shaped for John with Howard’s irons down the middle as usual and John’s woods in the rough/out of bounds. Although the group ahead didn’t help - Paul Weston went to the correct tee on the second last par three but his three playing partners went to the next tee.  The correct tee was adjacent to the green, the next tee was 150 yards away!! Despite all the confusion, Howard’s game remained a steady as ever and completed a comfortable 5/4 victory. In a relaxed frame of mind, they played-in and Howard kept saying how his was looking forward to playing the par 3 18th (197 yards, into the wind with the beach on the right and the clubhouse on the left). Howard must have been as excited as Leslie Phillips in a Nurse’s dormitory on the 18th tee as his straight iron play deserted him and he sliced two onto the beach.

Accompanying John and Howard was the eagerly anticipated match between Anthony Jackson and Graeme Black. Play was surprisingly steady and ‘loud’ at times, but not the expected cries of FORE. In fact, Graeme was enjoying himself so much that John Shaw, slightly ironically, had to tell him to “Shut Up” at one point - something Barry Whitmore was too polite to say to John on the 10th tee at Westward Ho! in the morning foursomes. Back to the match, and Anthony was the far more consistent and took the game 4/3 with some excellent golf.

After his dismal performance on Saturday afternoon, Gordon was certainly not optimistic about keeping his 100% singles record against Ivan Heathcote. However, once he gets ‘mono a mono’, Gordon is a different player and took the match 4/3. After Steve Lloyds crushing defeat to Graham Bilsland, this makes Gordon the only ‘long standing’ attendee of the tours with an unbeaten singles record leading to continued “How do I keep doing it Steve” comments from ‘old man’ Sullivan.
John Mansell and Mike Fox had a very good match and those in the near vicinity must have wished they’d brought crash helmets being so close to Mansell at the, in many places, dangerous Minehead. It was Foxy who kept his game together the best to win 2/1.

Barry Whitmore had a great front nine against Paul Herrmann and was 4up at the turn, leading to Paul taking a walk on the beach whilst waiting on the 11th tee. We’re not sure if a suicide bid of Reggie Perrin proportions was in the offering, but Paul did return to complete the match, and a superb fightback ensued. Somehow Barry stood on the 17th tee all square after having the match in the bag. However, Baz won the last and the match by the tightest of margins.

Brian Keates didn’t have the best of days against John Bayliss and his ‘ball losing’ skills again came to the fore at Minehead. Despite all players seeing where Brian’s tee shots were landing, none of them could be found making John’s job much easier and he eventually triumphed 4/2.

In an attempt to convince himself that it was true, Tim Thacker spent Saturday evening telling anyone that would listen that in the form he was in, John Newton could not give him 13 shots and win. When he had played the first five holes in one over gross and was five up Tim actually began to believe it himself. Having been heard to mutter that it was a massacre, John stopped the rot on the 6th with a par to win the hole. However dropping only one shot in the next three holes Tim moved to 6 up by the turn. John was particularly miffed at the 9th where he had hit a fantastic drive just short of the ditch crossing the fairway whilst Tim having hit by far his worst drive of the day was 80 yards back in the left hand rough. Unfortunately for John, Tim proceeded to hit his best shot of the weekend with his best club of the weekend (rescue 4 iron) straight at the pin, finishing around 12 feet short of the flag for a certain 4 nett 3. Tim won the 10th to go seven up and then blasted his tee shot at 11 over the cliff to return to six. John holed a brave 8 footer on the 12th and Tim was unable to convert a tricky curly two footer for the match. A half on the 13th however gave Tim the match 6/5.

Bringing up the rear in the last match of the weekend was Martyn Dodwell and Richard Stevens, two players who must have been ‘fresher’ than most after missing the foursomes on Friday morning. After some erratic performances in earlier games, Martyn was back to his consistent best and was too good for Richard, in his last BUNGS tour, to take the match 4/3.

Despite a spirited fightback from the Blue Team, Karl’s men had not closed the gap sufficiently and ended up on the wrong end of a 23 – 19 battering.

Congratulations also go to James Shipman for becoming possibly the first player in BUNGS Weekend Tour history to have consecutive 100% records. It a shame last years was for losing all five of his matches!

FINAL SCORE
Captain's Red team 23 - Challenger's Blue Team 19