Old Loughburians v Old Nottinghamians Match
Old Loughburians v Old Nottinghamians Match – 2 November 2017
The annual match versus the old boys of Notts High school eventually took place at The Notts Golf Club (Hollinwell) on Thursday 2 November 2017 after being postponed from the original date of 19 October because of torrential rain.
The weather was much kinder on the 2 November and The Loughburians team was captained on the day by the Society’s vice captain for 2017, Paul Graveling, in the absence of the 2017 captain, Robert Hallam who was unavailable for the revised date.
The fixture has been keenly contested for the last 10 or so years and Nottingham held the trophy having won the fixture quite comfortably at Longcliffe in 2016.
Paul & Ian Burle, who hadn’t played in an OL event for several years, took on the Nottinghamians captain, Julian Gunn and his playing partner, Keith Hayes. After a close fought game, Julian and Keith prevailed to take Nottingham into an initial lead. The second match was between Simon Cockbill & Phil Scott representing the OL’s and Terry Dilks (2017 captain of Hollinwell) & Dave Boultby of Nottinghamians. Simon and Phil led all the way round but with Nottingham pulling them back to all square on the 17th hole, they lost the last, the only time they were behind in the whole match, to lose one down. So this made it 2 matches to nil and with there being 4 matches, it meant Nottingham were guaranteed to retain the trophy.
The third match was a tightly contested affair with the OL team of Dave Barnett and Steve Foister coming out on top 2&1 on the 17th green.
The final match was always looking good for a Loughborough win as Stuart McQueen & Stephen Hilton were always in front, with Stuart playing some great golf. They eventually won the final match 4&3, thus making the overall match score 2:2 draw meaning Nottingham retained the match trophy, by virtue of being the holders.
Nottingham & Hollinwell yet again proved to be excellent hosts, and a special thanks must go to Old Nottinghamians player, Michael Rowen who not only bought both teams lunch when the match was postponed on 19 October, he also bought the wine to go with the post-match meal on the 2 November.
