R.O.W. Lead 8-4 after the first day’s Foursomes and Fourballs.

But it was closer than it looked. On Friday Long Marston come from 5-10 down to within 1 point at 9-10 before finally surrendering to a 10-14 defeat.

Big singles match (Pennington v Luker) goes to R.O.W.

Player of the Tournament Dave Winkle partners Green to share a 100% record over the two days.

Captain’s singles match is won by Hodges to put the first point of the day on the board for Long Marston.

Walters point in singles takes R.O.W. past the elusive 12-point mark.

Conclusions by Dave Silvester Captain Team Rest of the World (ROW)

I am really over the moon about our victory, it’s just great to get revenge for last year and wrestle the Wyder Cup away from Long Marston.

It was never going to be easy and it certainly wasn’t in the end. I did everything in my power to motivate and instil this into my team. I used the new C.R.A.P. leadership and man management skills learnt on a recent Course to enhance my pep talks.

It was really closer than the final score suggests and I don’t want to take anything away from any individuals in my team but I think there were two distinct turning points which won us the cup!
On the Thursday morning there were two tight battles which went marginally our way, both matches went to the final hole, in Match 3 Richard Green & Dave Winkle just beat B.Francis & B.Bluck with the final putt and then in Match 5 Martin & Andy Winkle beat T.Edmunds & C.Holmes by the same margin. If these two matches had gone the other way, we would have been 4-2 down instead of 4-2 up for the mornings play. With everything following the way it did this would have given a final result of 12-12 which meant Long Marston would have retained the cup!

Then in the singles on Friday afternoon Long Marston put 4 wins in a row together (after previously falling further behind at 5-10) to stage an almighty comeback to 9-10. At that point my tactics worked brilliantly for me, I had a gut feeling that the singles matches 8 & 9 would be crucial so I saved the successful pairing of Dave Winkle and Richard Green for those slots and they succeeded in stopping the rot with two fine victories to take the pressure off and take it to 9-12.

Mick Wassell and Steve Luker ground out 2 points early on in tough matches against Bob Bluck and Mike Pennington. Mick’s victory cancelled out my early disappointment in the Captains match where I lost to Anthony Hodges 4 & 2, having given away 4 holes in the first 5 and it was always an uphill struggle after that. Steve’s match against Mike was regarded as the match of the tournament and Steve did really well being the slight underdog. Scott Walters had the honour of taking it past the winning post to 13 points with his win against Des Jones, before Alan McGlade earned our final point with a good win over John Mathews.

Just to mention Martin and Andy Winkle, Mike Jeffries, Dave Innes and Malcom Ward who played well and helped to earn valuable points in the Foursomes & Fourballs on Thursday.
Again I would like to thank all the team for a great team effort, everyone in the team was involved in winning at least 1 point. My commiserations go out to Anthony Hodges and the Long Marston team and I would like to thank everyone for the friendly and sporting spirit shown by all. I don’t think there were any arguments or real disagreements except when I fiddled a hole out of Bob Bluck and Spencer Farrell in our Fourball match (Ha! Ha!) This report is nearly as bad as Roy Keane’s book now!

Joking apart I had a great time and I think I speak for everyone, and I can’t wait until next year to have a crack at retaining the trophy.

Dave Silvester.