Worplesdon Golf Club 10 - 5 University of Oxford

The last weekend prior to selection saw the Blues travel to Surrey to take on Worplesdon and West Hill. After being cancelled due to snow last year, all in the team were especially keen to sample the delights that Worplesdon has to offer, but unfortunately for the Blues this included a very strong side comprising two recent Oxford captains and an ex-England cricketer.

Due to an administrative mix-up between WGC and OUGC, the day started badly when Oxford turned up two players shy, and preceded to get worse with the foursomes as the Blues slipped to a 3.5-1.5 deficit. Hamish Jackson, partnered with Calum Slowther, holed a crunch 8-footer on the last to provide the only win of the morning session.

The afternoon brought little more joy for Oxford. There were an incredible four halved games out of the ten singles, and the majority of remaining six games went in favour of the hosts leading to a five-point defeat. The Blues, however, should not be downbeat about this loss - Ed Oddy´s (Capt 2009) singles performance was symptomatic of the challenge in hand as he was an incredible seven under par through 14 holes to dismiss Robert van Wijk.


West Hill Golf Club 11 - 7 University of Oxford

The journey back to Oxford on Saturday night between fixtures at clubs, that in the words of Treasuer Hugh are just ´a nicely struck 6-iron´ apart, was perhaps emblematic of a weekend of hard work and misfortune. Despite leading 4-2 at the luncheon interval, the Blues failed to capitalise on this advantage and slumped to a second defeat in as many days.

Good wins from the likes of Wells/Heathcote and Slowther/West established a lunchtime lead for Oxford in much preferable conditions to those of the previous day. The hosts, however, lunched incredibly well and surged back in the afternoon to take the singles session by nine points to three, with only Gems, Hoolahan, and Ghorpade providing resistance for Oxford. The match could have swung the other way, but promise from the likes of self-styled George ´The Hurricane´ Croft failed to produce add to the Dark Blue tally.

Maybe the sub-par performance was attributable to pre-selection nerves, with the announcement of the 122nd University Match twelve taking place in the ensuing days. The chosen team then have the marvelous prospect of a trip to Sandwich as the Club enters the home straight towards the Varsity Match.