Two county games on the same day with the County Squad needing to win against Hertfordshire, plus the Southeast of England Links Championship, holiday commitments, plus three withdrawals from the initial selection gave us the opportunity to select several new faces and include some who have been on the fringe of the team. Oliver Lovejoy and George Woodhead both of Colchester made their first appearances for the County, while Harry English, Jake Hinton and Michael Gilbert made their first league appearance this year.

Essex Team as follows: Sam Carter, Harry English, Michael Gilbert, Jake Hinton, Oliver Lovejoy, Dominic Picollo, Zac Tayor, George Woodhead.

As anticipated the morning foursomes were close but home advantage and some solid golf gave Middlesex 2½ to 1½ lead. Oliver and Zac won the opening match and Dominic and Michael gained ½ a point having been two up with two to play when their opposition produced two putts of a significant distance to win both of the last wo holes. Sam and George took the opponents to the eighteenth green before missing out.
Traditionally we have always performed well in the singles, and I was confident we could still win the match.
Unfortunately, on this occasion Middlesex proved too strong finishing the eight singles 4½ - 3½. Four of the eight singles went to the 18th green. Zac gained a half and there were wins for Michael Gilbert, Sam Carter and Harry English. It was excellent to see Michael’s return to form gaining 1.5 points out of his 2, Sam played some excellent golf in the afternoon winning 8&7 while Harry defeated probably their best player Joe Smith on the 18th green.
There were many notable performances, and the standard of golf was excellent. As always, the Middlesex Team captained by Joe Smith were a pleasure to play and every match was competed in great spirit.
A big thank you to Wyke Green GC who superbly hosted the event.

Match Result Middlesex 7 Essex 5

Back to previous results