Day 20 - Go Rest of the World!

Today was the fourth round of the Nations Cup: a competition that we run which is loosely based on the Six Nations Rugby championship.  To allow for ethnic diversity, we have teams representing the four Home nations, plus one for Europe and a Rest of the World (RoW) one to make up the Six Nations.

It's a round-robin tournament, with each team playing the other in foursomes format: this year we expanded the teams to being 7 pairs each and are even considering making it 8 next year. Each match takes place as shotgun starts over Saturdays in January though March, roughly corresponding to the grown up Rugby weekends, and culminating in a grand lunch at which all who have played are invited and where the prizes are handed out.

Today was my first chance to play for the RoW team, as I had had to miss the first three rounds through absence/illness. No pressure at all... as I was partnered with Kiwi Alistair Niederer who, last time out, had managed to record an 11 hole up victory together with my son, Andrew.  We had a see-saw game and, fortunately, we managed to eke a 2 Up win so the family honour was saved!

All of the teams' results were  very close, which means that things are very evenly balanced. The final day will be very exciting, with 4 teams in with a realistic chance of winning this year.  As things stand, the scores are:

England 32
Rest of the World 30
Europe 29
Wales 29
Ireland 25
Scotland 23

The final round is in two weeks time...

Afterwards, many of us gathered on the balcony watching the Burhill Mail on Sunday team record their second round win against local rivals Thames Ditton & Esher: congratulations to our boys as they recorded a convincing 5-0 victory!

Sitting outside in the sunshine you could almost fool yourself into thinking that it was warm outside... long may it continue!