Jim Smith Memorial Cup 2009

 

After Jim sadly passed away last year, we decided it would be a great idea to remember him playing the game he loved by having a golf tour in his memory. So a trip to St Pierre, near Chepstow was organised.

20 aspiring golfers left the shire on a sunny Wednesday morning heading south. The format was simple, ten a side going head to head over three days of golf, what could be better.

Stormin was to captain Boormans Bandits, and DB was to captain Buckleys Buccaneers. We have arrived at lunchtime, team colours were assigned and the afternoons four balls were drawn. After a leisurely lunch and a beer or two (or a nice glass of Sancere if you had brought a second mortgage with you), we all trundled off to the 1st tee. That afternoon we were to play the Mathern course and Stormin was to lead from the front.

 

 

Unfortunately for captain Boorman, even after Chappers had smashed his drive off the first into a stream, he and Gibbo were stuffed by the Plymouth boys 3&2, one up to the Buccaneers!.

Second up was club captain Powell and Ashton boy Woody, paired against the Buccaneers dream team, namely Hammill and Hunter.

 

 

The dream team was too much for the Bandit boys and led from the off winning 3&2, two up to the Buccaneers!

 

The third tie was an intriguing tussle between youth and experience. Young Mr Rennie and Harrell Jnr tackling Broadway duo Knight and Harrell Snr.

 

 

Although starting well and going 3 up, the boys stamina was useless and they blew up, leaving the experienced Norman and Dave to cruise to a 3&2 win, match score now 2-1!

 

Fourth out were Simmo and Harves up against Greid and Tom.

 

 

This turned into a game of two halves, literally! Simmo was 2 up after 8 (Matty walked around with us carrying his clubs and wafting them a bit!), but preceded to lose the next 7 holes to go down 5&3, great result for the Bandits to level the match score at 2-2!

 

The last match out on the first day saw and intriguing clash between DB and Hoppy pitted against Les and Venner, with some outstanding golf expected!

 

 

DB led from the front and secured a 5&4 win for the Buccaneers giving them a first day lead 3-2, happy days for Buckley, but would they last?

 

Day 2

Morning broke and needless to say, great fun was had by all over dinner on the first evening and quite a late night was had culminating in the obligatory spoof and card schools late doors! Some quite jaded looking golfers appeared on the 1st tee the next morning where we were to play the Old Course, a challenging championship course that has held many prestigious tournaments over the years.

Pairs Stableford was the name of the game today.

DB and Matty led off the Buccaneers against Sharpie (on his 17th holiday of the year and in for Gibbo as he had to go home and see Gail who had been away for a week.....) and Woody.

 

Sharpie was on form, and he and Woody won comfortably to take the match score level at 3-3.

 

Next out were Chappers and Joe up against Powelly and Greid.

 

 

Joe had a stormer and played some super golf ably assisted by Chappers, whilst Greids form deteriorated after his previous days exertions, giving the Buccaneers another point to go 4-3 up.

 

Enter Plymouth Paul and Hoppy taking on Stormin and Tom.

 

 

 

Captain Boorman had a lot to do to make up for day one's defeat and did so in style with TG repeating his form of day one, levelling the match again at 4-4!

 

Fourth up were today's so called dream team for the Buccaneers, Hammill and Rennie,the days banker pairing in many eyes, taking on Deano (in for Snr Harrell) and Les.

 

 

Les had a blinder at the first picking up 4 points, and he and Deano never looked back winning comfortably (even though Les did 5 putt on one green and picked up without holing it!) Match score now 5-4 to the bandits!

 

Last out on day two were Simmo and Punts against Norman and Venner.

 

 

A tight game ensued with the Bandits being ahead after 13 holes, but a strong late fightback from Simmo and Punts over the last 5 holes led them to a comfortable win, leaving the match score 5-5 and setting up a thrilling last days singles!

 

The problem we had now was that all the days matches had now finished and it was only 3.30ish and with dinner not being served until 7.30pm left a few hours to kill, what would we do?

 

 

 

So we did what we do best!!

 

 

Day 3

 

Morning arrived and so did the ailments, Rens had been up all night damaging the Dalton (food poisoning he reckoned!), Tom and his delly belly, and Hoppy, Matty and Deano nursing hangovers after their trip to Bristol and its nightclubs the night before (being barred from one such club for all being too old is a new one on me!!)

 

We finally got 20 fittish blokes to the first tee on the Mathern course at around 10am for the singles which had been drawn out of a hat the night before.

 

Plymouth Paul was up against Norman in match one, and Hoppy played Venner in match two (going out as a fourball)

 

They all teed off and were halfway down the first fairway when it was noticed that Venner was charging back towards us, what had he left behind you may ask? The answer was nothing as he tore past us all in search the nearest convenience, thus halting play for five minutes!!

 

Once he had rejoined his group, we carried on!

 

Norman went on to beat Paul by 1 hole after Paul let a 3 hole lead slip. Hoppy produced the round of his life to beat Venner (who even had a stolen club!) 4&3 leaving the match score level still at 6-6!

 

Matches three and four paired Chappers against Sharpie and a physicaly weakened Rens against Greid.

 

This fourball was pivotal to the match, Sharpie taking out Chappers 4&3, and Greid beating Rens 6&4, giving the Bandits an 8-6 lead!.

 

Match 5 saw Simmo up against Powelly, match 6 pitted Neil against Tom.

 

 

An in form Simmo beat an incredibly off form Powelly 9&8 to bring the score back to 8-7, but after being up early, Neil let slip a two hole lead, and a disaster in the bunker at 14 helped him go down 2&1 to Tom, leaving the Bandits on the verge of victory 9-7 up!

 

The seventh and eight matches saw Matty take on Les, and the battle of the skippers, DB against Stormin.

 

 

Stormin gave DB a 4&3 hiding, but Matty and Les fought out an epic, Matty being one up on the last, Les had two putts to halve the match but his putting yips struck again and three putts gave Matty the win, 10-8!

 

This left it down top the last two matches, Punts playing Woody, and Joe playing Deano. Word had spread that Punts had won 3&1 taking the match score to 10-9 , but nobody had any idea of the score between Joe and Deano, the all crucial decider.

 

 

 

As they came down the 18th , it was discovered that Deano was one up guaranteeing the half which secured victory for the Bandits, Deano eventually winning the hole to win by two holes, the match ending 11-9 to the bandits!

 

 

2009 Winners..........Boormans Bandits

 

 

 

 

 

A great time was had by all and we hope to make this an annual event and look forward to seeing those who couldn't make it next year too!

 

Results