OBGS - Spring Cup

Old Breconian Golf Society (OBGS) Spring Cup

Langland Bay Golf Club 19th April 2024

A nice early meet gave the majority who made it through some roadworks traffic plenty of time for the usual bacon sarnies and pre-match catch ups; with the banter continuing through the announcement of pairings and groups and out onto the first tee.

By popular demand (well, theirs, at least), last year’s champions, Martin Like and Rhodri Parry, were given the opportunity to defend the cup; after that, the pairings were randomly put together: Roger Tamplin with Kevin Noble, George Lee with Rob Calcaterra, Anthony Balance with James Davenport, Jonathan Spencer with Nigel Jones and Gwyn Jones with Peter Owen.

The round started off wet and blustery; unfortunately, turning the hilly first few holes into a ‘bit of a slog’, which, unfortunately, did for Peter and he retired early to the warm and dry of the bar. After a while, the rain clouds got lighter and higher and then cleared to sunshine for most of the round, giving us fabulous views across the course and off the top of the cliffs.

The blustery wind blew throughout the day, which, for those of us who are directionally challenged on the best of days, made club and shot selection interesting and challenging, on an already interesting and challenging course. The course itself was in great condition.

The format for the golf was better-ball, off full handicaps, and the headline news is that Martin Like didn’t win! Is links golf Martin’s kryptonite ??  Rhodri played very steadily and the pair posted a score which, in the blowy conditions around a tricky course, where ‘local knowledge’ would have been very helpful, might have felt like a solid target.  

As it was, they were just beaten by their playing partners, Roger and Kevin, and there was some really good golf played out behind them. Gwyn posted a score of 30 points on his own and might have felt it to be a case of ‘what might have been’ but for the even better scoring by others around him. Anthony, making his very welcome debut with the OBGS, posted an impressive 34 points but he was beaten to the Peter Owen Trophy for the best individual score of the day by Rob Calcaterra’s brilliant 37 points. Rob can put the trophy next to the Heads Cup on his mantlepiece, for a while at least!

With the better-ball format, some neat dovetailing within the pairs and reasonably steady scoring by everyone, considering the conditions, the overall scoring was tighter than doomongers Nigel and Jonathan might have thought; but it did, ultimately, come down to a Cradoc v Southerndown shootout with James and Anthony being pipped by the links specialists George and Rob’s fantastic 41 points to win the Spring Cup (I’m told George kept the cup because Rob ‘has enough on his mantlepiece already’). Congratulations both.

So, on to the London and South East meeting at Coombe Wood GC, Kingston-upon-Thames on Friday 17th May; where we have so far confirmed as coming: Mark Wilson, Ian Wilson, Steve Brown, Kev Noble, Dylan Kelly, Llyr Raw Rees, Steffan Raw Rees, Iolo Morgan, David Leyton, Jamie Thompson, Max Proctor, Josh Pitchford & Alfred Smith. There is room for more.

The other fixtures are :

The Heads Cup at Cradoc on Friday 28th June and

The Harris Cup at Royal Porthcawl on Thursday 3rd October

Please let me know as soon as possible if you want to play in any of these : kev.noble@yahoo.com / 07954895630