Bath GC, at Sham Castle, was the venue for the 2011 Seniors Southern Counties foursome qualifying matches. The weather was forecast to be overcast and showery with temperatures down to 8 C.  Perched on the summit of one of Baths highest hills, the 6500 yard course promised to give the senior golfers of Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire a good test of their golfing abilities. The result was to be determined by most point earned with 2 for an individual win and 1 for a half.

The morning series of matches saw Gloucs paired against Dorset whilst Wilts  took on Somerset. In the first match of this seasons Senior Channel League Wilts lost to Somerset at High Post so a tough match was in prospect. However, In the top game Paul Bloomfield and Jerry Gegg (Chippenham) were hardly troubled and won 4/3 whilst Bill Cardno (Chippenham) and “lookalike” partner Henry Burt (Salisbury) managed an excellent win on the last. In the fourth match out the new pairing of Richard Jeffrey (Salisbury) and Nigel Phillips (Kingsdown) were easy 5/4 winners to give Wiltshire 6 points and the morning lead as Gloucs and Dorset had halved 5 points each.

The afternoon matches saw excellent wins for Guy Piercy and Mick Green (Marlborough), 1 up against the Gloucs captain and his partner and Jim Stent (Chippenham) and Michael Saunders (Tidworth) overcoming their Dorset opponents 2/1. This gave Wiltshire a total of 10 points which was just behind Dorset with 12 and the winners Gloucestershire with 13. Gloucs go on, once more, to represent the Southern counties at the EGU finals, at North Weald GC, in October.

I am pleased that everyone played a part on the day, by scoring a point, and a close third is a creditable effort that could have been bettered if a couple of results had gone slightly differently. The event next year will be hosted by Wiltshire at Kingsdown and the last event of the 2011 season will be the Channel league match against Cornwall, at Chippenham, on 31 Aug.

Jerry Gegg