The County’s first match of the season was away against Gloucestershire “A”. This was a friendly fixture played outside the usual inter county fixtures. A return match is scheduled for 19th December. At the conclusion of the match it was agreed that the home and away fixture arrangement should become a permanent feature in the diary. Our County President and Captain, Richard Payne, offered to provide a cup to be awarded annually to the overall winning team of the two fixtures.
This first match was a hard fought affair against a typically strong Gloucestershire team but with the overall result and shot score not really reflecting the County’s performance. In the end Gloucestershire won by 28 points to 12.
In the morning session the County got off to a disappointing start. The Singles and and Pairs lost their matches although Richard Payne in the Singles and Richard Rose and Trish Clifford in the pairs were only four shots adrift after very tough matches.
The Singles and Pairs get under way during the morning session
The Triples and Fours teams fared much better with wins for Anthony Ruddy’s Triples team ( 12 shots to 9 ), Mark Bourne’s Triples team ( 20 shots to 2 ), and Steve Tyler’s fours team by 10 shots to 8.
In the afternoon session the singles and pairs teams lost their matches, but in the case of Richard Rose and Trish Clifford ( Pairs ), they only missed out by one shot. In the Triples, Malcolm Saunders’ team had a comfortable 18 shots to 5 win with Terry Clifford’s Fours team winning by 13 shots to 9. Mark Bourne’s triples team had a narrow defeat by one shot.