But before I get onto that issue, we have to celebrate the return of Peter Read to the fairways. Buggies were banned today but Peter bravely elected to use his trolley and played 12 holes of golf with us to a standard which suggested that he had never been away from our regular Wednesdays. He looked as though he could have done the full 18 but wisely opted for caution and tomorrow he will learn whether or not he was cautious enough.
Because buggies were banned, Mike S was unable to play and so we became 5 in number but Michael in the Pro Shop said that it would be fine for the 5 of us to go round together and, so it proved, because the course was distinctly empty despite it being easily in the best condition compared to all other local courses. Because Peter was out for a short practice round, the other 4 of us were able to play a pairs match.
With playing numbers fluctuating all over the place, I had invented all sorts of different novelty formats in the last few days but had given no thought to a straight 4-ball. At Roger’s suggestion we decided to play On the Perch. A pair had to win a hole to go onto the perch, if they then won the next hole they won 1 point, if it was a halve then they stayed on the perch but if they lost, the perch then became vacant. This meant that it was very difficult to win any points and a very tight game ensued.
The issue of whether or not the game was a Game of Two Halves was brought up over lunch, where one of the protagonists raised the question of whether or not we had been playing for BashCoins on the normal front 9, back 9 and overall basis and suggested that this was indeed the case.. Obviously this suggestion was not popular with the team that had won overall, who felt that it was quite clear that we had only been playing for the whole stake on the overall game – and indeed that was decided to be the case.
The balls had fallen so that Nick and I were partners and Roger and Bill were the other pair. We were playing Better Ball and Nick and I struck immediately on the 1st hole with my par which put us straight onto the perch. We had also decided to play off the green tees and we all enjoyed the short green-to-tee walks and the different angles they presented. The 2nd hole was halved with Nick sinking a monster putt to keep us on the perch. He then parr’ed the 3rd to score a point and then Roger gave us another on the 5th with 3 putts from quite close in.
The 6th and 7th were halved with some high quality golf and then Bill used his extra shot on the 8th to knock us off the perch. So Nick and I reached the turn 2 points up, but off the perch, which they immediately occupied after the 10th and then, after narrowly missing an opportunity to win the Par 5 12th, they had the temerity to win the Par 3 13th quite comprehensively with Nick and I both in the left-hand bunker. They volunteered the idea that, since they had both parr’ed the hole, they should win 2 points but we politely declined that offer.
As a result Roger was less than generous with his praise when Nick sunk another good putt on the 14th for a half to keep them at bay. Roger was, by now, thumping his drives a country mile and used his double-shot on the 15th to claim another point and bring us back to all square.
So now we stood on the 16th green tee all square and Roger and Bill were on the perch. Bill put his tee-shot into the bunker in front of the green and Roger went well-left. An opportunity thereby presented itself for Nick and I to shove them off the perch. But Bill studied the state of the bunker which, with all of the recent rain, resembled Blackpool beach at low tide, and used his putter to good effect to get out onto the green. He left his first putt short at about 4 feet from the hole, but against all of the odds that I would have given, he sunk this putt and with his two shots was down in Nett 2.
All was not lost because Nick and I had two very makeable par putts which would have at least kept the game going up the 17th, but we missed both of them and suddenly Roger and Bill were 1 point up with 2 holes to play and still on the perch so even if we knocked them off the perch on the 17th, we still had to win the 18th to get back on the perch. In other words Roger and Bill had come steaming back on the back 9 to steal the match.
As the rain was starting to appear, we played the 17th on the way back to the car park and retired to the clubhouse for the normal excellent Temple lunch. Nick celebrated our defeat with many sausages and eggs and a couple of bags of Cheese and Onion. His attempt to limit our BashCoin losses fell on stony ground because I felt that I had to agree with the opposition that the wager was on the whole match.
Regardless of that, we had all enjoyed the titanic struggle and, moreover, despite the gale force winds, had once again enjoyed good, positively balmy weather on a Wednesday surrounded by rain-soaked Tuesdays and Thursdays.
As usual. Brilliant.