Match:                 Derbyshire v Warwickshire

Venue:                 Sutton Coldfield Golf Club

Date:                   Sunday 19th May 2019.

As we all gathered at Sutton Coldfield for our first chance to try out the new County Week format we were hoping for good weather.  Little did we know that the weather was the least of our issues for the day.

It was lovely to finally meet Julia and her Warwickshire team after several months of e-mail communications. 

As Derbyshire couldn’t muster the full first team County Week selection, we took several of the second team players as a good chance to practice match play drills.  Thanks to everyone for making the effort to drive down to Warwickshire for our first 36 holes match of the season.  

As Julia and I had decided to play the County Week format, we had an opportunity to swap our players round morning and afternoon. 

Thanks to Derbyshire President Paul for providing us with some much-needed support for the day. How well he herds cattle – who would have known it. The greens and practice putting were surrounded by electric wires (not live – thank goodness) to prevent the cattle gaining access to the greens.  That didn’t worry us, but the cattle on the first fairway did in the afternoon.  By the time the matches had progressed to the 18^th  the herd were on the fairway in front of the tee and the players had to seek to find some innovative tee shots. 

Watching on from the 18^th green waiting to support our players, it was a sight to be held watching the Warwickshire Captain using the golf buggy to drive the cattle away from the fairway.  President Paul did a wonderful job running down the fairway waving his arms around and shooing the cattle on. A Presidents role is never easy you know! 

Some great shots from both sides but Warwickshire were just a little bit too hot to handle and managed to make every putt count.  The scores didn’t do the squad justice however, and they played extremely well but some were giving several shots in a scratch match play situation. After a 5 - 0 loss in the morning, we did have a switch around in the afternoon and managed to secure a 3 – 2 loss.  Well done to Sandra Maxwell and to Catrin and Beth for securing the wins but also to the rest of the players who gave their all and some matches were extremely close. 

Thanks also to those players who were free to play however, we couldn’t accommodate them in a match play against Warwickshire.  They were still invited to attend a free round of golf and have some much-needed practice as they started a friendly 4BBB match play but ended up as a more challenging foursomes match play.  They almost missed the cakes and coffee as a result. 

Thanks also go to Margaret Brooks.  Usually able to attend many of our matches but this time she sent her Sutton Coldfield course notes from 27^th May 1997.  Lesley says they were almost all still relevant.  Well done Margaret. 

Thanks to everyone for their efforts on the day and to our merry band of supporters.  Thanks especially to Janet T for acting as buggy chauffeur and to Sutton Coldfield Golf Club for hosting the match.  

Janet Carlin

County Captain.

24^th May 2019

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