2017 Dacoity Cup Day 3

Morell Boost for England

After a weekend of dreadful weather it was England whose spirits were lifted as Eddie Morell gained the victory clinching point in the Dacoity Cup.

The final day's matches were reduced to nine holes due to the very late finish on Saturday and the predictions of even worse weather to follow on Sunday afternoon.

Rest of the World had it all to do, trailing by five points overnight and needing to win 7 1/2 points out of nine available on Day 3 to win the Cup. England needed only 2 more points to reach the 13 1/2 needed to retain the trophy.

Fourballs:

Hicks & Cartwright 25pts beat Stone & Dunbar 20pts - England move within a point of retaining the Dacoity Cup: England 12 1/2 - ROW 6 1/2

Hues & Morell 32 lost to Talbot & Brownlee 35
England 12 1/2 - ROW 7 1/2

Hay & Ives 19 lost to C McDougall & Dunbar 26
England 12 1/2 - ROW 8 1/2

A late rearguard action sees Rest of the World take the final Fourballs 2-1 and keep the match alive going into the singles, but they couldn't afford any more slip ups.

Singles:

Morell 18 beat Talbot 16 - England retain the Dacoity Cup!

In the first singles match, Ed Morell in his Dacoity Cup debut, secures the point England need.

England 13 1/2 - ROW 8 1/2

Hues 14 lost to A McDougall 19 - delighted Mac does the double over Dave.

 

Hay 7 halved with C McDougall 7 - an extraordinarily low score to gain a half but Stu with just 7 points, gains the half to win the Dacoity Cup match outright taking England to 14 pts

England 14 - ROW 10

Cartwright 12 lost to Brownlee 19 - Well done Vid for beating this year's Bandit.

Ives 12 beat Stone 8

Hicks 13 beat Dunbar 12
 

Final Score:

England 16pts     Rest of the World 11pts

 

So England celebrated, and Rest of the World were left once again wondering who they could get to change their nationality to even things up for next year.

 

Captain Ken raises the trophy with his England team once more

 

Well played everyone - See you at Dudsbury in 2018!

2017 Bandit Trophy

Hat Trick for Hoss

"Did it rain on Saturday? I didn't notice! Was it a really slow round? Seemed to go by in a flash to me!"

If there are two things golfers cannot stand it's rain and slow play, but neither bothered Paul Cartwright, who scored a superb 21 points on the front nine with some solid straight hitting and by holing some putts. He then hung on despite some erratic shots on the back nine, including two balls in two lakes on successive holes. Some good recoveries and some very lucky escapes enabled him to score points on every hole and claim his third Bandit Trophy victory.

Final scores

1. Paul Cartwright       39pts

2. Dave Talbot             32

3. Alan McDougall        28

4. Edward Morell         26

5= Derek Ives, Dave Hues, Mike Dunbar all scored 25

8. Ken Hicks                21

9= Vid Brownlee and Stuart Hay each had 20

11. Paul Stone             19

12. Colin McDougall     18

Paul also took the Longest Drive at the 11th with a drive just left of the marker post, thirty yards past his nearest challenger which was Dave Talbot in the group in front.

Nearest the Pin took place at the 5th and was won by Derek who got to 18 feet from the hole off the tee. Several others hit the green but no-one beat Derek.

2017 Dacoity Cup Day 2

On Day 2 of this year's Dacoity Cup it rained. And rained. And rained. Everyone was wet through just from a few minutes on the putting green, and as the day went on it got wetter and wetter. This contributed to a slow pace of play which resulted in the rounds taking more than five and a half hours! 

Nobody enjoyed being out in the pouring rain for any longer than necessary and there were some frustrated golfers by the time darkness fell, particularly as they were still out on the course when that actually happened. 

Despite teeing off at 2.30pm, the players were still late for dinner scheduled for 8pm, and this on top of the dreadful conditions made for some unhappy golfers arriving back at their hotel - never keep a mediocre golfer from his food!  

So who coped with the conditions best? Here are the results:

Fourballs:

Hay & Hicks 41 lost to Talbot & A McDougall 60
Ives & Morell 51 beat Brownlee & Stone 39
Cartwright & Hues 64 beat C McDougall & Dunbar 43

England 61/2 Rest of the World 51/2

So England edge the fourballs and take the lead. And then the draw for the singles was revealed:

Singles:

Hay 20 beat C McDougall 18
Ives 25 beat Stone 19
Cartwright 39 beat Talbot 32
Hues 25 beat Brownlee 20
Hicks 21 lost to A McDougall 28
Morell 26 beat Dunbar 25

England 111/2 Rest of the World 61/2

England win the day's singles 5-1 to open up a good lead going into the final day. Genius captaincy by Ken Hicks got them an almost ideal set up of matches. Talbot's more laissez faire approach had back fired. With a more fortunate draw, ROW might have won the session 31/2 to 2 1/2, but as it turned out England instead blew it open by taking 5 points out of 6.

During the day, and despite the appalling conditions, Ken made the shot of the week by holing out from 60 yards, to take the Johann van der Merwe trophy.

2017 Dacoity Cup Day 1

The Dacoity Cup visited Devon for the first time, to find the course at Woodbury Park in superb condition. Immediately the challenge was clear for all to see, with the clubhouse and terrace overlooking the beautiful but daunting looking par 3 18th hole, a 130 yard shot across a pond to a green with water on three sides.



18th hole at Woodbury Park

Captains Ken Hicks and Dave Talbot had little decision making to do for the first day, with pairings largely decided by who needed to use a buggy, such was the extent of injuries and age related decay within both teams. Ken seemed to have spent slightly longer thinking about his order for the secret singles, but would that mean he picked a more successful permutation? Time would tell.

 

Fourballs

Captain Ken led the way by going out in the first match with Derek Ives, a steady pair in contrast to the flamboyant Rest of the World combination of Alan McDougall & Mike Dunbar. Scottish flair won out, while Stu Hay and Dave Hues won the second match, beating Paul Stone and Dacoity Cup rookie Colin McDougall, who it's fair to say struggled on his first appearance. The final fourball was evenly matched and ended in a half so the scores were level after the first set of matches:

Ives & Hicks 48 lost to A McDougall & Dunbar 55
Hay & Hues 66 beat C McDougall & Stone 33
Morell & Cartwright 62 halved with Talbot & Brownlee 62

England  11/2  Rest of the World  11/2

Singles

Both Captains had submitted their order for the singles matches, which are not revealed until after play has finished. Here's how they came out on day 1:

Cartwright 37 beat Dunbar 18
Hay 32 lost to Brownlee 37
Morell 25 lost to Stone 30
Hicks 19 beat C McDougall 3
Hues 34 lost to A McDougall 37
Ives 29 beat Talbot 26

So honours even after day one:

England 41/2, Rest of the World 41/2