Day 226 - Banstead Downs 2

8 days: 8 rounds of golf, but given how wonderful the weather is, who can complain? Actually, I can - or rather more accurately, my body can!  I was back at Banstead Downs with Bryan today for our very late match against Paul and Colin in this year's How-did-I-Do competition. The closing date for this round was a couple days ago but the organisers (kindly?) allowed some flexibility as there was not a single date when both of our opponents were in the country in September. Bryan and I both thought that we should have been conceded a walk-over, but at the end of the day, the reason for entering these competitions is to play some competitive matches, so no real complaints.

Our opponents played off 7 and 12, but after the first half they had managed to go around in level par - and, in truth, should have been at least one better. We were hanging on by our fingernails (mostly due to Bryan's play, I should admit!) and were just the 2 down at the turn.  We managed to get it back to 1, but a number of killing 10+ foot putts by Colin during the round proved to be too much. By the time we had finished the 16th, we had lost the match and it will be Paul and Colin heading off next week to the regional finals.  Shame...  but there's always next year!

We had a pleasant drink in the sunshine afterwards - fascinating to hear about Pauls' future son-in-law: Nick Easter, who is back in the England line-up for the big game against Australia tomorrow. The nerves are jangling already...

Back to the club this evening for the first Bridge Supper of the season. We were playing with Brian and Margaret and had a very pleasant game. And if the Captain could remember some very simple instructions, we would even have won the slam pot...