Played again under the light aircraft/helicopter ridden skies Taunton’s six man team were looking for a promising day.  The wind was up the temperature was down and the rain threatened.  14 schools turned up looking to score and be placed in the top 7 qualifying slots.  Each team plays 3 pairs, scratch stableford foursomes and it is the aggregate points that count.  Taunton had a poor day scoring only 71 points, however once again, as in many years before, Taunton was the best Non Qualifier missing out by 1 point!

Final Results

Merchant Taylors’    86
Bradfield                     84
Bedford Modern        78
Haileybury                  73
Clifton                          73
Chigwell                      72
Forest                           72
Taunton                       71

Great turn out with 10 for lunch and 13 playing in the afternoon.  A very good effort from those who travelled from Somerset, although Terry Davidge had to as last year’s back-to-back winner for the Fairwater Cup!

Final results:

1st         Greg Whalley   35 points,
2nd       Gary Hector      33 points,
3rd        Terry Davidge   32 points

Another year another well organised event by captain Gary Hector for arranging the weather conditions and pulling the team together, especially back-to-back with the Brent Knoll Bowl.  This year we were back at Deal for the first round (it would be good for the draw to be kind on OTGS and have us play at Sandwich for a change) against Marlborough.  Marlborough are a good team ranked 17th over the last ten years performance versus Taunton’s 61st place.  Taunton lost 3.5-1.5, however, it should be pointed out that three pairs went down the 18th so the score line doesn’t really reflect how close this match really was.

On to Princes for the 1st round of the Plate against Stowe which Taunton won 2-1, however we lost in the 2nd round to Ampleforth    2-1.  We were on our way home Friday night, frustrated once again!

Team consisted of: Gary Hector (C), Pete Whalley, Greg Whalley, Richard Willacy, Iain Westwater, Matthew Pyke, Mark Jenkins, David Higginson, David Morgan, Martin Knight.