2013 League matches

SECF Association A League (4 losses)
Opponent Location Date Result Individual Results
Medway Away 9th May Lost 3:4 After a slight delay while Medway raised their final player we had a reasonable day’s play, despite the breezy weather. A morning in which we lost all 3 games was redeemed by an afternoon in which we won 3. Unfortunately we lost one and so lost the match narrowly.

Jolyon Creasey and Jon Diamond (1.5) lost to Robert Alexander (-.5) and David Parkins (1.5) -22, Mick Belcham (4) lost to Paul Miles (2.5) -10, John Hobbs (3.5) lost to John Bateson (6) -24

Jolyon lost to Robert – 26, Jon beat David +6, John beat Paul +12 and Mick beat John +5

Surbiton Home 30th May Lost 1:6 For the first time we had the pleasure of seeing George Noble playing on our lawns! (He normally comes to advise us on how to maintain them properly.) He confimed that they are indeed flat, but somewhat slow, which we already know and are planning to do something about this autumn.

The end result shows a convincing win for Surbiton, but the reality was that three of their wins were with our player having both their balls through all the hoops and having failed with a peg-out. So, if these had all succeeded we would have won…

Morning: Jolyon Creasey (1.5) & Mick Belcham (4) beat George Noble (-1) and Graham Brightwell (2.5) +13, John Hobbs (3.5) lost to Eugene Chang (1) -20, Jon Diamond (1.5) lost to Mary Knapp (2) -2

Afternoon: Jon lost to George -13, Jolyon lost to Eugene -15, John lost to Mary -2 and Mick lost to Graham -2

Sussex County Away 31st July Lost 2:5 We arrived before they did, so were greeted with some locked gates. Luckily, they were in the car behind, so we didn’t actually start late!

Apart from the Doubles all the other games were quite close and could easily have gone the other way – it just wasn’t our day…

Morning results: Jolyon Creasey (1.5) & Jon Diamond lost to Luc Berthouze (-0.5) & Jonathan Isaacs (2) -24, Mick Belcham (4) beat Mark Hamilton (2), John Hobbs (3.5) lost to Richard Jackson (4) -11
Afternoon: Jolyon lost to Luc -10, Jon beat Jonathan +5, John lost to Liz Farrow (11) -5 and Mick lost to Richard -7

Dulwich Home 12th September Lost 1:6 Our final match of the season and a whitewash is the conclusion:

Morning: Jon Diamond (1.5) & Jolyon Creasey (1.5) lose to Mark Oremerod (-1.5) & Pierre Beaudry (1.5) -25, John Hobbs (3.5) loses to Ed Dymock (1.5) -7 and Mick belcham (4.5) loses to david Collins (2) -3t

Afternoon: Jon loses to Mark -20, Jolyon beats Pierre +6, John loses to David -10 and Mick loses to Ed -7

SECF Association U League (4 wins)
Opponent Location Date Result Individual Results
Compton Away 8th August Won 4:3 Another lovely day at Compton, with their lawns in good shape, and our players too, especially Mick!

Morning results: Jon Diamond (2) & Mick Belcham (4) beat Mike Cockburn (5) & Hilary Smith (6) +12, Richard Mann (8) lost to Roger Wood (0) -3t, Geoff Croxford (9) lost to Graham Pegley (4) -9
Afternoon results: Jon beat Roger +18, Mick beat Graham +26, Richard lost to Mike -4 and Geoff beat Hilary +23

Medway Home 29th August Won 4:3 Summer continues, with our lawns in great condition (apart from having to widen a hoop as a ball got stuck in it).

Morning: Jon Diamond (2) & John Hobbs (3.5) beat John Bateson (6) & Richard Lea (10) +8, Richard Mann (8) lost Liz Maltby (14) and Geoff Croxford (9) beat Allan Card (11) +18

Afternoon: John lost to Richard +15, Richard beat Allan +22 and Geoff lost to Liz +17

With the match tied at three games all Jon was struggling against John with balls on 1 and 4 back against penult and peg. However, all the bisques had been used and John carelessly gave Jon a lift. With 20 minutes to play Jon made it 1 and peg and then followed up with a classy 3-ball break to win by 4 hoops as time ran out. Phew…

Canterbury Away 2nd September Won 4:3 Summer on a foreign lawn was trickier than playing at home – allowing for the slope and the slower speed… Nevertheless, despite only having 3 players and therefore ceding 2 games, we managed to eke out a win.

Morning: Jon Diamond (1.5) and John Hobbs (3.5) playing poorly throughout lost to Frank Hughes (11) & Brenda Porrer (11) +14, with Geoff Croxford (9) playing steadily and redeeming us by beating Yvonne Hill (11) +18. This left us with the task of winning all 3 games in the afternoon…

Afternoon: Jon started badly again, but after nearly 2 hours woke up and with the bisques gone ran out winning against Brenda +7, John was not quite so slack and managed to beat Yvonne a little quicker, although by the same score. It was thus left to Geoff, again playing steadily, to run out the winner against Barry Sales (1) +13. Phew!

Surbiton Home 13th September Won 4:3 Out final match of the season shows us in continuing form in this league. Mick continues slightly out of form and Jon doesn’t have a good day, but Richard and Jeff do their stuff and so we finish with a clean sweep!

Morning: Jon Diamond (1.5) & Mick Belcham (4.5) lose in an exciting finish with Andy’s ball pegged out and Trudy without any bisques left to Andy Dibben (2.5) & Trudi Pulsford (18) -2, Richard Mann (8) beats Martin Pulsford (9) +3t and Jeff Chapman (16) beats Hugh Stephenson (11) +2t

Afternoon: Jon loses to Andy -25, Mick loses to Martin -2, Richard beat Hugh +21 and Jeff beat Trudi +15

SECF Golf Level Restricted League (won 4 lost 0)
Opponent Location Date Result Individual Results
Merton Home 10th June Won 5:2 Our first match of the season – in the morning both Mike Gentry and Duncan Cox won their singles whilst John Moore and Derek Crocombe won the doubles.

After a good lunch provided by Mike, he and Derek went on to win their singles so despite both John and Duncan losing at the golden hoop of their third games we won the match 5-2. A good result and a very enjoyable day.

Ivychurch Away 17th June Won 4:3 On a beautiful summers day the Level play team travelled to Ivychurch for another dose of their excellent hospitality.

The morning consisted of one doubles in which John Moore and Derek Crocombe were defeated over 3 games by Geoff Croxford (also a member of our club) and Eli Frith, but in the two singles Duncan Cox and Derek Heath both won in straight games.

In the afternoon there were 4 singles and both John and Derek Crocombe lost in 3 tight games, but Duncan and Derek Heath both won, again in straight games to give TW a 4-3 victory.

Ivychurch are a very friendly club and today also a family club as Duncan and Derek’s opponents were the wives of Geoff and Eli!

Sussex County Home 23rd August Won 6:1 At home on a lovely day, our team was Mike Gentry, John Moore, Frank Gunstone and Duncan Cox. John and Mike played the opening doubles and were soundly thrashed and warned us of dire things ahead.

Despite this we went into lunch 2-1 ahead after Frank just pipped their fourth player who was allegedly an 11, but played more like a 6, and Duncan won his match.

It must have been John’s excellent lunch that did the trick because we won all four of the afternoon singles to win convincingly by 6-1. This means with one match to go we are still unbeaten.

Medway Away 5th September Won 5:2 On a lovely sunny day the unbeaten R League golf team set off for Medway in high hopes and this looked well founded when the opposition produced a 6, 7 and two 10s – but we had forgotten Medways infamous handicaps! Duncan Cox and Derek Heath rapidly lost in short order, but Mike Gentry and John Moore won their doubles so we went into lunch 2-1 down and in some trepidation.

The afternoon proved very different however and all our players won their matches quite comfortably in two games to win the match 5-2 and end the season with 4 wins out of 4.

SECF Golf Handicap League – Team A (won 3 lost 1)
Opponent Location Date Result Individual Results
Surbiton Home 31st May Won 5:4 Our team of Richard Mann, Barney Lewis, Derek Crocombe and Barbara Tasker scored our first won of the season!

The visitors even wrote a complimentary note in the Visitors Book – a first too!

Sydenham Away 22nd May Lost 3:6 Despite being an Away match, Sydenham requested that we host it as their lawn was not in good condition, so we had to play in cold TW.
Our hospitality extended to the match also, with us losing all three Doubles and sharing the Singles.

Doubles: Jon Diamond (1) & Barbara Tasker (10) lost to Simon Carter (0) & Ann Laver (4) 7-2, John Moore (5) & Ray Meech (7) lost to Claire Bowden-Dam (6) and Robert Laver (8) 5-3, Ray & Barbara lost to Ann & Claire 3-5

Singles: John lost to Simon 5-7, Ray lost to Ann 5-6, Jon beat Claire 7-3, Barbara lost to Robert 2-7, Jon beat Simon 7-4 and John beat Robert 7-4

Cheam Home 22nd July Won 7:2 Hottest day of the year so far, and no one wilted thank goodness. Cheam, in their first year of competitive play, were generous opponents… They have one lawn for their 80 members, so it must get crowded there sometimes!

Round 1: Jon Diamond (1) & Derek Heath (6) beat Iann Cobbold (2) and Richard Martin (9) 7-5, John Moore (4) & Derek Crocombe (4) beat Beryl Hughes (10) & Ken Hughes (10) 7-4
Round 2: Jon lost to Ian 5-7, Derek C beat Richard 7-2, John beat Beryl 7-3 and Derek H lost to Ken 6-7
Round 3: Jon & Derek C beat Ian & Richard 7-4, John beat Ken 7-0 and Derek H beat Beryl 7-6

Canterbury Away 22nd August Won 5:4  
SECF Golf Handicap League – Team B (won 1 lost 3)
Opponent Location Date Result Individual Results
Caterham Home 3rd June Lost 4:5 At last! a beautiful sunny day. The day started well with John Hobbs & Sandy Smith and Duncan Cox & John Skates both winning their doubles, after which we started on the singles but only Duncan managed a win, so we went into lunch level at 3 games all.

After lunch Duncan won his singles but the two Johns lost in the doubles, so it was all down to Sandy. She was level at 6-6, but lost on the golden hoop, so Caterham took the match five games to four.

Woking Away 2nd July Lost 3:6 Our team was John Hobbs, Mike Gentry, Duncan Cox and Mike Sander. The current league champions provided generous hospitality, but not matched on the lawns and by lunch time we had already lost being 5-1 down; with only John recording a victory against their number one, although several matches did go to 7-6.

Lunch must have done us good as we won the afternoon session 2-1 with John and Mike G winning their doubles and Duncan inflicting a second defeat on their number one. A pleasant day especially as we avoided the rain.

Ivychurch Away 8th July Won 7:2 The sun was shining for our match, but there was a stiff wind that made a sweater an asset. Their handicaps were 9 or 10, so we were giving extra shots in every game, but many were not used wisely. We had to get used to the slower and slightly erratic lawns, but all the team of John Hobbs, Mike Gentry, Jeff Chapman and Richard Smith played steadily and our only losses were one doubles and John’s singles, where he had to give 7 extra shots.starting
Parsons Green Home 12th August Lost 2:7 The visitors proved just too strong for our team of Mike Gentry, Duncan Cox, Richard Smith and Sandy Smith and our only victories strangely enough came against their number one who was a 1 handicap, but was beaten by both Mike and Duncan.

We have no complaints about the result but some of the handicaps did seem a bit off, to the extent that they asked if we thought they were correct (they are largely an Association playing club).