Submitted by Lauren Thomas on Sun, 17/11/2013 - 13:39
Despite the tough matches of the recent weeks, the Blues were in good spirits when they drove down to Huntercombe Golf Club on Saturday morning, with some players even going for the full 3-day "treat-of-a-treat" weekend having played at Royal St. Georges for the Stymies the day before. The team was keen to send a strong message to Huntercombe, which has become the home of Oxford University Golf in the same way that Royal Worlington hosts the CUGC.
Huntercombe presented itself in lovely condition - especially the greens were firm and true, if only one was able to predict the fiendish breaks lurking on most holes. It is not the longest of courses, but accuracy was required off the tee, which one may have thought would be Cambridge's downfall. However, far from it, Cambridge showed some very steady morning play, and cruised to a 5 1/2 vs. 1/2 lunchtime lead. The wins included Simon Barrington, who was able to secure his first foursomes point for Cambridge, playing alongside captain James Cumberland.
In the light of the score, the Blues were urged not to become light-headed, being reminded of Bobby Jones who once famously said "I never learned anything from a match that I won". Nonetheless, the standard of play was kept high and the CUGC closed out the match before the darkness set in, with an overall result of 9 - 3.
The confidence booster on Saturday clearly worked its magic, as the Blues returned to Cambridge to play their home club Worlington. It was not a beautiful day, but despite grey weather, scoring conditions were great and there was no wind to threaten either party. Again, the morning results gave hope that the CUGC was having a late revival at the end of Michaelmas Term. The CUGC had surged ahead to a 4 - 2 lunchtime lead. The special occasion was marked with a record five Cambridge players being on track for the legendary 4-point-weekend: Cameron Smith, Jack Atherton, Jamie Giddins, Matthew Bellamy and Carl Rietschel.
But none of those dreams were to come true. Despite birdieing four out of the first five holes of the second nine to lauch what would have been the comeback of the year, Rietschel and Bellamy lost on the last to the opposition's top pair which was just too strong. The rest of the team also dropped the pressure significantly, and it needed the combined power of Lucas Birrell-Gray and Owen Williams to win the only Cambridge point of the afternoon. Williams managed to break his streak of 10 lost matches in a row, a commendable achievement! However, the team overall was not able to back the mornings play up, and narrowly lost the fixture 5 - 7.