Men's 1st Team vs Devon

The 1st Team at Teignmouth: Front L-R, Jack Charman, James Wiltshire, Luke Gorman, Jamie Amor. Back, Jay Kitching, Dom Seaman, Paul McMullen, Paul Green, Ali James, Garry Slade.

Following on from the first match of the season which resulted in a clear 10.5-4.5 win for us against Somerset, a young 2015 Wiltshire team travelled to Teignmouth for their second game against Devon. The weather forecast was for an overcast but fine morning which would probably deteriorate into rain in the afternoon.

The morning foursomes had Devon on top early on but Wiltshire fought back and at one stage it looked like a 4-1 to us, however, Devon staged an excellent fight back and turned the result with some superb putting over the back nine holes to finish the morning up by 3.5 - 1.5. The points for Wiltshire were gained by  a half from Jack Charman and Luke Gorman and a win for Jamie Amor and James Wiltshire.

By  the start of the afternoon singles the expected weather front had arrived and the players teed off in low overcast clouds along with persistent drizzle. Ali James led off and was soon in control of his game and won 4 and 3. Newly crowned county champion Gary Slade had a tough game and eventually lost on the 17th. Luke Gorman was in control throughout and won easily as did Dom Seaman, by 5/4, a great result on his debut for the side.

The remainder of the games were very close with the exception of county captain Paul Green who was struggling in his tussle with his opposite number and looked to be heading for a heavy defeat. Jack Charman was at one point 4 down and with another 3 points needed to achieve a halved match it was difficult to see where they would come from with nearly all of the matches being level or one up/down. Notwithstanding that, and despite a bit of pessimism from the crowd the momentum began to shift towards Wiltshire and with the exception of Jack Charman (who got back to all square but, lost a close match on the last) we won all of the remaining matches. Youngsters Jamie Amor and James Wiltshire hung in to both win on the last as did Paul McMullen and, following a superb rescue club shot to about six feet, on the difficult 230 yard 18th, Jon Kitching, also in his first appearance for Wiltshire) shut out his match 2 up. These results gave Wiltshire the afternoon singles 7.5-2.5 and therefore the match 8.5-6.5, or so we all thought! The news on course concerning the last match (Paul Green) was not encouraging and it was to much astonishment all round when he proudly strutted up the 18th fairway and announced that he had won 2 and 1! Having been 4 down with 7 to play he won the next 6 in a row to record an unlikely but, nevertheless, excellent win.

Overall then the result was 9.5-5.5 to Wiltshire.

This young Wiltshire team has over the last two matches laid down a marker to the other Channel League teams and have demonstrated that they are resilient, well led and up for the fight.

The next event on the county calendar is South West Week, at Bristol and Clifton, from 6-12 June.

Jerry Gegg - President, WCGU

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