Bandit Trophy Archive

Before there was a blog, there was the Bandit Trophy...

The details of the first few events are lost in the mists of time. We know they all took place at East Dorset GC, and we think Dave Talbot won the first one in 1999. It was (one of) his stag weekend(s) so anything is possible. Details of the more recent events are a bit clearer.

Bandit Trophy Roll of Honour:

2018  A McDougall      Dudsbury                                   33 pts

2017  P Cartwright      Woodbury Park                          39 pts

2016  K Hicks              Bowood                                     34 pts (won playoff)

2015  A McDougall       Belfry (Brabazon)                      33 pts

2014  S Hay                 St Pierre Chepstow (Mathern)    36pts

2013  D Ives                Celtic Manor (Twenty Ten)         24pts (won playoff)

2012  D Talbot            Bowood Golf & Country Club      26pts

2011  P Cartwright      Wokefield Park                          37pts

2010  D Ives                Abbey Hotel Redditch                32 pts

2009  A McDougall       St Pierre Chepstow (Mathern)    30 pts (won playoff on Old Course)

2008  P Cartwright      Donnington Valley                      37 pts

2007  D Ives                Abbey Hotel Redditch                 38 pts

2006  D Talbot            Donnington Grove                       40 pts

2005  D Ives                Tewkesbury Park                        41 pts

2004  D Talbot            Belmont, Hereford     

2003  A McDougall       East Dorset GC

The Bandit Trophy

You will notice that nobody has ever retained the trophy. After the 20th Bandit Trophy in 2018, Dave Talbot, Alan McDougall and Derek Ives each have four wins, and Paul Cartwright both has three, but nobody has ever won two in a row.

The Johann van der Merwe trophy was first presented in 2017 in memory of our friend Johann. It is given to the player who by consensus played the Shot of the Week. This was first awarded in 2013, and Johann won it himself twice before the award was dedicated to him.

Johann van der Merwe

Shot of the Week Winners (Johann van der Merwe Trophy):

2018   Paul Stone for holing a long putt running from the lower tier to the upper tier of the 8th hole at Dudsbury
2017   Ken Hicks for holing out from 60 yards at Woodbury Park

2016   Mike Dunbar for chipping in from short of the 14th green at Bowood

2015  John Dangerfield: 6 iron from 138 yds to inches at the Belfry (Brabazon course).

2014  Johann van der Merwe for a 6 iron to 8 feet on the 17th at St Pierre Old Course. 

2013  Johann van der Merwe for chipping in for a birdie at the par 3 6th hole on the Montgomerie course at Celtic Manor. 

2018 Dacoity Cup Day 3

The rain started in the middle of the night, carried on through breakfast on Sunday, and just wouldn't stop. It was the Belfry all over again. Lengthy discussions took place over whether to play, how long to play for, and whether the results should even count at all. Four players (thankfully two from each side) called in the union and refused to play.

The captains press ganged their remaining players into participating in order to get a valid result. Both teams seemed to believe they could win, though with only 6 matches to be played, ROW were especially confident of getting the 3 points out of 6 they needed to reach the 121/2 that would now be enough to regain the Dacoity Cup. 

With Dudsbury Golf Club kindly agreeing to provide free buggies for everyone, it was agreed to play matches over 3 holes, the 10th, 11th and 18th, with 2 fourballs and 4 singles. The buggies meant that everyone would be a bit less wet and a bit quicker to finish (in theory).

While the eight intrepid golfers headed out bravely seeking sporting achievement, noble endeavour and honourable support of their captains, the four who had refused to take part sat in the clubhouse in shame, quietly coming to terms with how they had let their team mates down.

Day 3 Fourballs:

Hues & Hicks 10 beat Ramshaw & Talbot 8
Cartwright & Ives 4 lost to McDougall & Brownlee 6

So the fourball matches were split meaning ROW maintained their slim one point advantage going into the final four singles matches.

ROW 101/2 England 91/2

Day 3 Singles:

Hicks 5 beat   Ramshaw 4
Cartwright 2 lost to Talbot 4

With the first two matches split, the ROW lead the overall contest 111/2 to 101/2 and needed just one more point from the last two to clinch victory. 

Ives 2 lost to McDougall 4 - Rest of the World win the Dacoity Cup!

Again it was skipper McDougall who did the business and clinched a rain sodden victory on a shortened Day 3, just as at the Belfry in 2015. Dave Hues managed a win in the last match but it wasn't enough for England to save the day.  

Hues 5 beat Brownlee 2

Final Score: Rest of the World 121/2  England 111/2

ROW won the Dacoity Cup for the second time. England will be determined to win it back in 2019 but everyone will be hoping for just as close a game, and dry weather!

Paul Stone hits Shot of the Week

The Johann van der Merwe Memorial Trophy for the Shot of the Week was awarded to Paul Stone for his long putt on Saturday on the 8th hole. Having finished on the front of green, Paul sent his ball all the way up to the top tier and straight into the cup at the back of the green to clinch a deserved reward.

Rest of the World celebrate their win

2018 Dacoity Cup Day 2

Day two of this year's Dacoity Cup arrived and the narrowness of England's overnight lead seemed to encourage the ROW team who appeared very relaxed as they set off from the first tee. It must have been something about the morning spent in the spa pool that put Mac and Dave T in such a good mood.

Talbot & McDougall leading off on Saturday

England on the other hand struggled to maintain their form. Their day was epitomised by star player Dave Hues who having been cut a single shot after recording 40 points on Friday, could not repeat that superb performance and scored 15 Stableford points less than the previous day. In fact Paul Cartwright was the only member of the England team to improve on his Day 1 score.

Ed Morell addresses the ball aggressively on the first tee

Day 2 Fourballs:

Hues & Morell  47 lost to Talbot & McDougall 60
Ives & Hicks 55 halved with Ramshaw & Brownlee 55
Cartwright & Hay 48 lost to Stone & Dunbar 53

ROW didn't lose any of the three matches and took the lead:

ROW 61/2  England 51/2

The singles draw worked well for England, with their top three scorers all getting a win  (their lowest two scorers would not have beaten anyone from ROW). This enabled them to split the singles 3-3 and stay just one point behind ROW at the end of Day 2.  

Day 2 Singles:

Ives 29 beat  Talbot 27
Hay 17 lost to Stone 24
Morell 22 lost to Dunbar 29
Hicks 26 beat Brownlee 25
Cartwright 31 beat Ramshaw 30
Hues 25 lost to McDougall 33

ROW 91/2  England 81/2

It was skipper McDougall winning the last match that ensured a lead for ROW going into Day 3. They had only had a lead after Day 2 once before - at the Belfry in 2015. On Day 3 that year at the Belfry it rained...and rained...hard.

1st Green, Dudsbury Golf Club

2018 Bandit Trophy

Mac wins his 4th Bandit Trophy

Alan McDougall joined the exclusive club of three people who have won the Bandit Trophy four times with a decisive victory at Dudsbury Golf Club. 

Another warm dry day greeted the golfers, with Dave Hues remaining the favourite after a 40 point round on Friday, even with a one shot handicap cut. But his form mysteriously evaporated and he finished in a tie for 8th, leaving others to fight for the Trophy.

Not much wrong with that one! - Bookies' favourite Dave Hues teeing off on the first hole

Vid Brownlee wins Nearest the Pin

The first prize of the day was won by Vid Brownlee, who got his tee shot closer than anyone else to the 8th hole.

Paul Cartwright retains Longest Drive Title

Paul claimed the longest drive for the second year running with a 280 yard missile fired up the 18th fairway. It went 11 yards past his nearest rival Dave Talbot. 

The choice of the 18th for the longest drive competition was controversial but Paul would have won on the par 5 6th too, where he hit another exocet to the fairway and was just short of the greenside bunker in two.

Dave T hits another big drive...but not quite big enough

Mac was extremely consistent. After 37 points on Friday, he managed 33 on Saturday, which was enough to hold off the challenge of defending champion Paul Cartwright, who was in contention until finding trouble at the par 3 15th and then water on his approach to 16. Though he found a winning drive on 18, it was too late to catch Alan.

There was a tremendous debut performance from newcomer Ricardo Ramshaw, who finished in third place with 30 points. Mike Dunbar managed to bring some of his Friday form into Saturday - enough to finish fourth with 29 points, after scoring 33 on Friday.

Macca looked good right from the start

Bandit Trophy Results 2018

1st  Alan McDougall      33 points
2nd Paul Cartwright      31
3rd Ricardo Ramshaw   30

Mike Dunbar                 29
Derek Ives                    29
Dave Talbot                  27
Ken Hicks                     26
Vid Brownlee                25
Dave Hues                    25
Paul Stone                    24
Ed Morell                      22
Stuart Hay                    17

So Mac joins the four win club and wore his Hawaiian shirt with even more pride than usual. Still nobody has retained the Bandit Trophy - could Mac be the first to achieve this with another win next year? 

The Bandit Golfer of 2018 - Alan McDougall

2018 Dacoity Cup Day 1

Weeks of hot and dry weather preceded this year's Dacoity Cup, creating fast running conditions on brown fairways at Dudsbury Golf Club near Bournemouth. This is the scene that greeted the teams at the first tee on Friday:

1st Hole Dudsbury Golf Club

The format for the Dacoity Cup was unchanged with three fourball matches (combined Stableford scores) getting things underway: 

Day 1 Fourball Results:

Cartwright & Morell 56 lost to Talbot & Dunbar 59
Ives & Hues 70 beat Stone & Brownlee 32
Hay & Hicks 59 lost to McDougall & Ramshaw 63

Rest of the World 2 England 1

This was the first time since The Belfry in 2015 that ROW had led after the first set of matches. Back then they went on to win when the final day was cut short by torrential rain. This year the forecast for Sunday was pretty bad - Could history be repeating itself?

Vidal Brownlee blasting off at the first hole

As well as the pairs playing each other, each captain submitted their six man singles order which was sealed until after the rounds were completed. When the secret draw was revealed, the results were as follows:

Day 1 Singles:

Hay 29pts lost to McDougall 37
Ives 30 beat Ramshaw 26
Hicks 30 beat Talbot 26
Cartwright 30 lost to Brownlee 32
Morell 26 beat Stone 20
Hues 40 beat Dumbar 33

Two great rounds by Dave Hues and Alan McDougall, making them the favourites for Saturday's Bandit Trophy, but the team situation was very evenly poised at the end of Day One.

England 5 Rest of the World 4