Well I think it is official I am New Zealand's drought breaker as yet another inter club fixture was affected by the weather albeit not to the same effect as the Dunedin match.
The Christchurch Team arrived in Wellington late on Friday morning to be greeted by Royal Wellington members and a grey overcast sky holding more than the hint of moisture (it was raining!!). Heading straight to the course our vista from the Clubhouse disclosed significant surface water on the fairways with intermittent showers persisting. A light luncheon allowed time for those to dissipate and the practice round to proceed unhindered although more than slightly wet under foot.
For those of you who have not played Royal Wellington it is the absolute epitome of a parklands course with substantial plantings of specimen trees that frame the fairways and boarder the rough to provide a delightful environment in which to play the game. The greens conceal significant undulations and slopes which make determining the line and pace a challenging task.
Saturday saw the arrival of the remainder of our team and the hope that play would not be too much disrupted by the conditions. Traditionally the fourball competition takes place on day one and we hit off full of anticipation unfortunately our hopes were not to be realised with our Tuson Cup team being comprehensively outplayed and ending the day 4 games down. The Veteran Salver did not fare much better trailing 7.5 to 3.5. Wins were recorded by the pairings of Brian Ronan & Brian Andrews, Ben Frampton & Peter Guthery, and Mike Gibbon assisted by David Drage of RWGC. The two Davids - Blair and Robinson came from behind to snatch a well deserved half. Unfortunate to lose was the team of Gowans/Buist where Grahame shot a gross 74 & Roger shot a nett 68 to still be on the wrong side of the ledger 2/1!! The rains were held at bay until late afternoon and the final grouping were drenched as they struggled back to finish their rounds.
If we were to retain the silverware it was going to be necessary to have a big effort on Sunday. Overnight the course was once more saturated with rain but this lessoned to infrequent showers by tee off time.The Tuson boys came out firing with Tom Turner winning at one (against Fraser Callaway a former Christchurch member), Peter MacDougall securing a half at two and Nic Fry securing a one up win at three. In the battle of the Captains Charles Whitwham was successful over Felix Zamudio but unfortunately through the rest of the order the exceptionally young and talented RWGC team was too strong ending 4.5 /3.5 in front for an overall 8.5 to 3.5 victory. Accordingly the Tuson Cup returned to Wellington.
In the Veterans Salver following a fiery speech from Captain Peter Guthery at the Saturday Dinner we still retained visions of overhauling the deficit but unfortunately those were to also quickly perish. Wins were recorded by Geoff Beadel, Roger Gowans, David Hicks, Brian Ronan (who defeated Tony Vincent a brother of Andrew & uncle to Mitchell 7/6), and David Drage. Halves were posted by Cran Bull, John MacVicar, & Peter Law so all in all the singles to RWGC 15.5 to 6.5 with the Salver changing hands 23 to 10.
We await 2010 with anticipation to welcome RWGC to Shirley and reverse the results of 2009!!
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