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| Scratch & Handicap Teams L to R: Ray Donovan; Howard Moxon; Roger Pracey-Smith; Angus Reid; Pat Horkan; Brian Evans; Ron Nightingale; Stewart Zuill; Tug Wilson; Mike Miller; Graham Steel (missing Gerry Keane) |
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| Scratch Team L to R: Ray Donovan; Gerry Keane; Ron Nightingale; Pat Horkan; Howard Moxon; Graham Steel |
The two teams, Scratch and Handicap, plus a good number of partners arrived on the Monday evening at our hotel beside Lake Iseo in Northern Italy – a most beautiful setting. The hotel quickly arranged for a table of 18 and the meal and wine set the tone for the week. On each day the start times for the Scratch and Handicap were miles apart but this did nothing to quell the growing spirit of the team. Indeed, following the practice rounds on Tuesday it was fair to say that the UK fully bonded whilst appreciating the wine tasting provided by 15 of the 102 growers in this, the champagne region of Italy. This helped us through the Opening Ceremony, whilst we tactfully refrained from explaining that the Union Jack had been flown upside down.
The first day of the competition was Four Ball but due to thunder and lightning only the scratch team were able to play, with two of the three pairs counting. On Thursday, the Greensome was also affected but this time the handicap team played. On both days the round took some ten hours to complete.
The Singles day was rewarded with beautiful weather and both teams played and because of the starts being determined by position after the first round, both of our teams were in the last groups off.
With 4 out of 6 to count in the Stableford our Handicap team slipped from second to tied third but can be pleased to have done so well against a ‘foreign’ handicap system – no-one else uses CONGU. The winners were Portugal with 208 points, second Czech Republic 200 points and Germany and UK with 198 points. Well done to Angus Reid, Roger Pracey-Smith, Stuart Zuill, Mike Miller, Tug Wilson and Bryn Evans.
Our Scratch team of Howard Moxon, Graham Steel, Ron Nightingale, Ray Donovan, Pat Horkan and Gerry Keane had established a lead from the Four Ball medal and then completed the task with good singles performance, winning with 466, 13 ahead of Italy and 23 ahead of Spain. We have only taken part three times and now have two wins and a second place. Howard Moxon and Ron Nightingale also won the Four Ball competition.
The Farewell Dinner followed the presentation of salvers and was a happy affair.
Next year the competition will be in Bonn and in 2013 we will host in the UK.
Mike Miller