As I write this, I can barely believe we have just held our 27th Wedge Trophy.
This biannual event that takes place at Deal in March and Walton Heath in October is now crayoned into everyone’s diaries as one of their favourite fixtures of the year.
The matches are typically 10-aside and 36 holes foursomes. Bacon rolls on arrival, AM foursomes, nice liquid lunch accompanied by appropriate fare. PM foursomes and back in for the obligatory presentations and post match analysis.
Each player picks up 2 caps at each fixture – and we are interestingly in a position where the next debutant will be the 100th Wedge Player. We are also at a stage where we have a plethora of players who can celebrate their 25th caps – as well as a handful about to pick up their 50th caps too.
This original under 35 fixture is clearly still going strong – so much so that we only had 1 player in the Walton Heath side that was still actually compliant with the age category!
Anyway, enough of the background, now onto the golf.
In the run up to the fixture, Mike Hedges and I had the usual battle of trying to get the teams to match up in terms of numbers, and now in terms of trying to get relatively equal handicaps across the matches.
For this invitation only fixture, where the selection criteria is realistically based on; would I like to spend the day with this person, the standard is now worryingly high. The Walton Heath side had an average handicap of 2.54 across the ten players, whilst the Deal team had an average of 3.04.
After the obligatory bacon rolls and Guiness, we made our way down for the early 8am tee times. Some fairly big games out first, with Oli Daws and Arthur Shipton for Deal, who had a combined handicap of +2, took on a talented Walton Heath side of Andrew Berryman and debutant Luke Hogan. Never would you have thought that these Walton boys would be receiving shots, let alone 3 shots! Anyway, this power battle of the big hitters ended with Deal drawing first blood in a relatively convincing 3&2 win. (first in the bar before 11am)
The electric pace around the course continued, with a fierce game in match 2. Young guns Jake Spearpoint (check out his photo on the Team Deal page) and relative Wedge newby Nathan Shaw took on the experienced guard of Matt Webster and John Carroll. A very competitive game here, honours shared – and another early entry to the bar for match 2.
The Captains drew battle in match 3 – where Hedges was partnered by the most excellent Patrick Glynn, and Waudo was joined by the official Walton Heath Under 40s captain – Finlay Hutchinson. This was a ding dong battle in the finest company (David Hedges on the bag for his son Michael adding to the fine company) – and Deal managed to grab hold of the game down the stretch as Michael holed out for birdie from range on the 17th green, to take the match 2&1.
As we make it through the engine room into the morning back matches, the boom bust pairing of Tommy Faz and Alex ‘Corky’ Cork from Deal took on the old guard of Nic Gates and Chris ‘2n’ Young Wooton. At last some purple on the board, as Walton took this very tight match on the 17th, 2&1.
The last match out was another excellent line up – with the new Deal Head Professional, Sam Smitherman, partnered by Harry McGahan, took on David ‘House of’ Payne and Mark ‘Shawsy’ Shaw. (note to self, must work on this nickname!)
Amusingly, Deal’s new Head Pro was receiving shots in this game (2 shots for clarity) – and in another tight game, RCP snuck another game on the 17th green, being victorious 2&1.
Maybe we should nick name the 17th as the ‘Glory hole’ given the number of matches decided on it this morning???
Anyway, into lunch we went, and an excellent pie and mash was served and enjoyed by all. It is fair to say that the culinary standards at Deal have improved immeasurably in recent years – alongside an excellent wine list now. All players took advantage of the 2 hour lunch between rounds. Deal were sitting pretty with a commanding 3.5 – 1.5 half time lead.
At this point, it is probably best to mention absent friends. One absent friend in particular was noticeably absent – the Deal Assistant to the Captain, Sammy ‘You old Slag’ Mason was apparently stuck in Essex. No one really understanding how, or indeed why… but unfortunately for Sam, with a rather damning recent Wedge record, it will be interesting to see what the Captains selection policy is for October back at Walton. FORE RIGHT!!!
The teams made their way back onto the links for the PM foursomes – the first few holes a little bit of a blur after a most excellent lunch session. Team Walton, with what looked on paper like an excellent lunching team, were taken down quite significantly in the afternoon – with the scores as follows:
- Hedges & Smitherman (RCP) beat Webster & Hogan 2&1
- Daws & Spearpoint (RCP) beat Waud & Carroll 1up
- Berryman & Gates (WH) beat Farrell & Shaw 5&4
- Glynn & Shipton (RCP) beat Young Wootton & Payne 3&2
- Cork & McGaham (RCP) beat Hutchinson & Shaw 1up
Congratulations to Team Deal for a giving the Walton teams a Royal stuffing winning the 27th Wedge Trophy by 7.5 points to 2.5 points, clawing back another point in the series as Walton’s lead in the series is now cut to 16-11.
Notable performances from both sides for the day:
2 point day for most of the Deal Team – Hedges, Daws, Shipton, Glynn, Smitherman & McGahan
2 point day for one member of the WH team – Gates
0 point day for WH boys – Waud, Hogan, Hutchinson, Payne, Shaw.
0 point from RCP – standing alone, the legend that is Tommy Fazz.
As is now tradition, the Captain of the losing side gets to pick his LVP for the day to serve the pre-dinner drinks to the winning side – and I decided to fall on my sword and took the honour of serving drinks on the new Tray-phy. (pictured below)
Following the very surprising England win in the rugby against Ireland, we sat down for dinner in the Aisher Room – where we were treated to a stunning 3 course dinner. Scallops to start, Lamb Cutlets for main and a soufflé for dessert – a fabulous effort by the kitchen at RCP – and quite rightly deserved the team round of applause. Superb.
Another fine day down at Royal Cinque Ports – that is looking in fine fettle as preparations ramp up for the second biggest event in the Deal calendar – the Halford Hewitt.
Team Walton Heath look forward to welcoming the Deal side back to Surrey in October where we cannot wait to do battle once again.
Charlie Waud
WH Wedge Captain (and Captain for the biggest Walton loss in Wedge history!)
Click here to read the full match day results.
