Last week the Rossall team won the Cyril Gray for the first time since 1996. Here's more on how the day went, along with a photo of the winning team.

Match report

The pairings for the tournament were Christian Butler & Alasdair Bowman, Noel Muscutt & Ronni Schrevel, Jeremy & Jonathan Smith – which we left unchanged through-out.

In Round one we were drawn against Epsom, to whom we lost in the final of the plate last year. Epsom are always strong and not shy of coming fwd to say as much (!) so we were delighted to get our revenge, beating them 2-1. This was a very close start to the tournament with the Captain and Alasdair winning on the 19th in sudden death.

The Second round was against Liverpool college, another potentially strong side who had beaten us twice in recent finals. The opposition’s team included Bill Bickerstaff from Birkdale known to a couple of us. We all played steadily and unbeaten to secure a 2.5 - 0.5 victory. 

On Thursday afternoon in the QF we played Trent, which was a lot closer. Unfortunately the Captain and Al struggled against a fine pairing including Nick Peplow, a Blackwell member and a good pal of Noel’s who won 2&1 but Rossall were rescued by Noel and Ronni making it 1-1. Finally the Smith brothers sealed the deal with another victory winning 2&1.

It was then on to the Friday morning with a semi-final against Whitgift. After an early night (!) for us, this match was surprisingly comfortable with the Captain and Alasdair winning out in the country, followed by the Smith brother’s winning 4/3, which meant and Ronni and Noel could call it a half. This allowed the team a long rest on a scorching day at lunchtime before the final, which we believe was a factor in our success. 

In the final we were going to be playing either Wellingborough or Dulwich who were battling it out in the other semis. We were rather hoping it would be Wellingborough as Matt Allen (OR)’s father, Martin, was in their team which would add to the drama. Martin and his partner walked past us on the patio with each of us holding a glass of Pinot Grigio, on his way to the 19th for the first sudden death playoff….there was further stress for their team, when the second Wellingborough match also went down 19. Fortunately they won both to get into the final to face Rossall! However we did feel the longer route to the final for them might impact on the fatigue if the final was a close run affair, as well as the fact the Lunch for Wellingborough was very a brief respite!!! 

In the Final, in Match 1, the Captain and Alasdair played finely in the afternoon to win the top match easily. Ronni and Noel were having a very close battle in match 2 and were all square going down the 18th ……news from match 3 was also close with the Smith brothers also all square on 16th tee ….it was seemingly going to be very close.

In Match 2, both were looking to make 4 on the 18th, meaning we were, in all likelihood, going down extra holes…….and then news came that the Smiths had won back to back holes to win 2/1… Overall a very tight finish to the Final, not reflected in the 2.5 – 0.5 record, but in the end it didn’t matter as Rossall had won the Cyril Gray for the first time since 1996!! Particular credit must be given to the Smith brothers, who were unbeaten all tournament – no mean feat indeed.