Having scored 106 hoops to 99 and won 10 games to 8, Dulwich lost to Woking 4-3 in the SECF Golf Level League.

Simon, Pierre, Ed and Ray for Dulwich played Malcolm Bigg, Mike Town, Ross Goodman (no relation) and Bernard Jones at Woking Croquet club for our second SECF match. Battling against newly reset hoops in a solid ground as well as their opponents, Simon and Pierre run away with the doubles match in what is becoming a suspiciouly good partnership. Meanwhile Ed comfortably won against Ross Goodman, and when Lunch was called Ray and Bernard were 1-1.

The afternoon saw Simon loose 1-2 to Malcolm who played a patient and consistent game. The firm hoops negated Simon’s trademark long hoop running and impatience seems to have set in. Malcolm’s technique was to run hoops with a little jump, going through the more flexible top of the hoop rather than risk bouncing off the solid base. The very technique Pierre was using to defeat Mike 2-0. Ray and Ed having swapped partners, both lost 1-2 in tighly fought games.

At 3-3 and the unfinished morning game 1-1 Ray and Bernard moved to the front lawn and in front of a dozen spectators  played an even cat and and mouse game, trading hoops after long clearance battles all the way to hoop twelve. All seemed lost but at 6-5 Bernard bounced off the wining hoop leaving Ray a 2 yards shot to level.  A hampered shot prevented Bernard to take immediate control of 13, Ray’s first shot was short and after a short battle Ray was left  with 4 foot straight shot. A gasp of disbelief in the crowd followed as Ray scuffed the ground sending his ball on the wire. The end came swiftly,  Bernard running an angled 5 footer to wild cheers from the otherwise well behaved crowd.

The disappointment for Dulwich could not dull the memory of the excellent lunch provided by our pleasant host.

A good match, wrong result!

Ed Dymock, Mark Ormerod, Pierre Beaudry and Simon Whiteley had to take on an equally strong overall team from Woking on 30th June, in the Mary Rose Inter-Club Trophy.

Ed (1.5) and Simon (1.5) took on Mike Town and Alan Edwards (both scratch) for the doubles. In a very slow game with mistakes on both sides, Ed and Simon made it to rover and peg, but we gave a number of chances to hit in. Mike Town was in very accurate form, only missing one shot all the game, kept Woking in play, who won narrowly +3.

In the two morning singles, Pierre was in imperious form, beating Geoff Cuttle +26 with three peels of his TP completed before getting stymied at rover. Mark was never in serious difficulty against Collin Southern, winning +13.

After a late lunch, the afternoon games followed the pattern of the morning, with Ed and Simon not making much impression and losing -23 and -16 respectively. Fortunately Mark had the measure of Geoff Cuttle +16, and Pierre was reasonably comfortable against Collin, winning +6.

The result mirrored the Murphy Shield Golf Level match against Bury St Edmunds, with the C & D players wrapping up the match, underlining the importance of fielding a consistent team in these positions, as well as good players in the top two positions.

On a lovely sunny day Dulwich, represented by Michael Goodman, Pat Goodman, Dick Cooper and Sallyann Johnson, visited Surbiton to play them in the SECF Golf Handicap League. Lawns 6 and 7 (the others were in use for a large tournament) were a bit like ours after the foxes have got at them and one was allowed “lifts” if it was going to be like playing out of a pothole!

We played Doubles in the morning, Michael and Sallyann losing to the first Surbiton pair 4-7, while Pat and Dick won 7-4. Four Singles were then played, Michael winning 7-6, whereas Sally lost 4-7, as did Pat 2-7 and Dick also 2-7. So Surbiton were leading 4-2 in games at lunchtime

Lunch was provided, as always, by Surbiton’s cordon bleu chef George Noble and was much appreciated by the war-weary Dulwich players. Sad to say, lunch did not improve our play and we lost all three remaining matches, Michael going down 5-7, Pat 4-7 and our doubles pairing of Dick and Sallyann 3-7. Surbiton therefore won the match 5-2

Nevertheless we greatly enjoyed the day and the warm welcome we received from the Surbiton team and others we met during the day.

Better luck next time!