WW2016 Tim Aberdeen Memorial Shield

 

Our FA Cup style knockout competition (formerly the Presidents Cup).

 

Report provided by Dave Coates

Upon seeing the draw for the first round of Tim Aberdeen memorial trophy I saw I was drawn against the lesser spotted Clive Whaley. Other than getting a bye this is the best draw you can get!! Sure enough Clive was unable to turn up to any other than the first match and I was placed into the hat for the second round draw. In this I was handed a game against defending champion Russell Byrne. Russell is only just spotted slightly more often than Clive and the one match we both turned up at was the Team Challenge day at Houghton. When the draw for the competition had been done it put Russell and I in different group pairings so we agreed that whoever made the highest score would progress. In the Team Challenge match I came off well beaten by an inspired Steve Grant but thankfully I outscored Russell 32-27 and progressed to the third round.

As fate would have it the third round draw paired me against Steve and a chance for revenge. I'd never played at Castle Eden before and always wanted to, so as this game was on a Saturday I gave up my usual game of cricket for golf instead. Walking round the course we could often hear shouts of “howzat” from the nearby Castle Eden cricket ground reminding me of what I was missing! Steve and I fought out a close game which saw me standing on the 18th tee with a two point lead. It took me four shots to get onto the green whilst Steve had a tricky downhill putt to take the game into a potential play off. He struck his putt well and I had a view which saw his putt right on line. Unluckily for Steve his putt gathered pace down the hill and hit the hole but stayed out and I gladly made my putt to squeeze to a 26-25 victory.

Next up was the highly anticipated semi final clash between the second and third placed players in the overall Championship standings, Ian Gunn and myself. We played at Beamish on Bank Holiday Monday after torrential rain had postponed our round from the Sunday. Ian got off to a great start hitting fairway after fairway and holeing some good putts seeing him hold a six point advantage after nine holes. Now if ever there was a game of two halves this was it and Ian's game disserted him on the back nine and I slowly clawed back the deficit and had a one point lead on the 18th tee. Thankfully I managed a par and completed a comeback of Lazarrus proportions to win by 26-23.

The final was played at Tyneside golf club and my opponent was Jim Rooks. Our rivalry goes back to our schoolboy football days as I was an ex Thornhill boy and Jim an ex Bede lad. On the day I holed some decent sized putts on the front nine and by halfway had opened up a four point cushion on Jim who, whilst playing his usual good game, was finding the handicap difference of 17 shots hard to overcome. Jim closed the gap getting a birdie on the 10th while I three putted from shortish distance. We matched scores over next three holes but my handicap saw me stretch the lead. Jim failed to score on the 14th and after throwing his club away after a poor drive on 15 I knew I had him ruffled. I closed the round in decent style and upon reaching the end the result was 37-27 in favour of the Thornhill boy!!

This was my first ever major golf success and am pleased it was such an important trophy in the society ranking. Thanks to all my playing partners for the good company throughout the season, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And thanks to John Ford for organising and running this years Tim Aberdeen memorial Shield competition.

Dave Coates

Preliminary Round Draw

Handicap shown in brackets. The player eliminated is highlighted in red

 

Second Round Draw