Halford Hewitt Cup

Strong, very strong! Who would have thought that would have been the motto of the week for the Watson’s Halford Hewitt team in 2011. The club made its annual pilgrimage to Deal for the biggest tournament in the club’s calendar and in so doing managed to win the trophy for the sixth time.
The team saw three changes from 2010 with Jamie Kennedy and David Crummey making their Hewitt debuts and Brian Tait returning after missing a few years. Hopefully, all three will be available for many years to come. They were joined by Brian Bingham, Andrew Helm, Andrew Hogg, Martin Hopley, Scott James, Richard Johnston, Greg Nicolson and non-playing Captain Andrew Weir.This year we were drawn at Sandwich for the first time since 2006 and we experienced unseasonal Hewitt weather with glorious sunshine and a light wind throughout the week, perfect conditions for golf.

Round 1 - King Edward's Birmingham (5-0)
Round 1 saw us face a team we had never played before so it was a new experience for everyone involved. It was vital for the team to get off to a good start after losing in the 1st round last year and we were ably led off by James & Kennedy and Helm & Crummey with both getting significant leads early in the round. Fortunately, this was done throughout the team and all pairs were able to win comfortably apart from the experienced Tait & Bingham who won at the last hole. The pairing of the round went to Helm & Bingham who were sub par for the holes played and provided David with the perfect start to his Hewitt career.

Round 2 – St Pauls (5-0)
Another 5-0 win for the team provided us with further impetus as we moved to Deal for the 3rd round. We understood this match would be a tight affair from our Varsity insider who knew a couple of their team so it was a great performance from everyone to win all the matches. Although a 5-0 win, with 4 matches being won 2&1 it shows that the match was tighter than the result showed. Perhaps the only disappointing aspect was young Kennedy’s inability to count and declared 15 clubs in his bag after the first hole, it transpired that there were only 14 clubs in his bag and he played the remainder of the tournament with 13 clubs until he checked on the Sunday – it can’t have been his education!

Round 3 – Glenalmond (5-0)
An all Scottish tie with Glenalmond, who had beaten Fettes the day before, coincided with our transfer to the home of the tournament, Royal Cinque Ports. It was another close affair apart from in the top match where Nicolson and Hogg threw a plethora of birdies at their opponents and never looked back as they covered the holes required for a comfortable 8&7 win (or was it 9?). The remainder of the team kept up their unbeaten record as we reached the business end of the tournament and a quarter final against one of our main rivals for the tournament.

Round 4 – Epsom (3-2)
With 7 of the top 8 ranked teams in the 10 year Anderson scales in the quarter finals, there would be no easy games from now on. After the obligatory quarter final photograph it was back on the course to face Epsom who we defeated in the 2007 final and there is always very little between the teams and this was proved by the match result. Unfortunately, we lost our clean sheet record, but with great wins from Nicolson & Hogg, Johnston & Hopley and Tait & Bingham we made it through to the Sunday and the semi-finals.

Semi Final – Bradfield (4-1)
Bradfield were semi finalists for the last two years and with the sons of European Tour players Torrance, Gallacher and Rafferty on the team sheet we knew it was going to be a close match. Unfortunately, our top couple of Johnson & Hopley came up against some very good golf and lost whilst the other four couples were all square as they went past the hut at the 9th so it was all in the balance. Some very good golf on the way home from all the pairs allowed for one win at the 19th and three at the 18th which shows just how close it was for everyone.

Final – Malvern (3.5 – 1.5)
The final was played against Malvern, our conquerors in the semi final of 2006 who had disposed of Tonbridge and Charterhouse on the way to the final. Unfortunately, the curse of playing first couple was to strike again as Nicolson & Hogg succumbed to some fine play from the Malvern pair who won 6 out of 6 in the week which is a great achievement. This was soon cancelled out by a win from James & Kennedy and this was closely followed by a great win from Johnston & Hopley from 1 down with 5 to go to win 2&1 against arguably the best pairing from Malvern. News from the turn reached the top couples that Tait & Bingham were marginally up in their game but Oxford Blue Crummey and Luffness stalwart Helm were 5 up as the excitement grew.

As the pairs left the 16th green Helm and Crummey were 1 up and Tait and Bingham were 2 up which just goes to show how quickly matches can change on the back nine at Royal Cinque Ports. It was therefore left to the experienced pair of Tait & Bingham to half the 17th and win the title for the club. This win was a great result after the disappointment of last year. It also created a piece of history as not only did Brian Bingham become the most capped Watsonian to play in the tournament with a perfect 6-0 record, he also claimed his fifth medal in five different decades, a phenomenal achievement. As we all packed up and left Deal with large smiles, medals and Waton’s on the board, there is no doubt the memory of the 2011 team will remain to be Strong, very strong!

Click Here For 2011 Pictures

Past Reports