Our third Stovold Trophy match took our team to deepest Kent, requiring an overnight stay in Canterbury ready to meet our early 8am tee time at Canterbury GC. We knew we had a tough away match on our hands and we weren't wrong! The morning foursomes matches got underway in very windy and quite cold conditions. First out was the Stoneham pairing of Louise Caplen and Bex Scott, followed by Tracey Willmont-Coles (Blackmoor GC) and Tammy Rowe (Corhampton). Georgina Carter (North Hants) and Sammi Keen (Freshwater Bay) were paired together again in our third match. It's fair to say our pairings took a while to adapt to the undulating fairways and unpredictable greens and local knowledge definitely helped the Kent pairings, but Hampshire battled hard and fought back to win the morning round 2-1. All the matches were very tight and after a quick turnaround, the afternoon singles matches were underway.
The top match of Louise (Hampshire) and Ali Ord (Kent) was a real humdinger of a match with 2 eagles, 2 birdies and one par in the first 5 holes! A fantastically close match ensued with both players playing under par, but Ali, playing on her home course eventually claimed the win. Bex Scott had a convincing 8&7 win over her opponent but all the other matches were very nip and tuck. It all came down to the last match on the last hole, with both teams having secured 4 points each. It really was an epic encounter with Kent's last player (another Canterbury GC member) managing to secure a half point for her team, and a halved match overall.
Canterbury GC were wonderful hosts and the course proved a fitting venue for a spectacular match. Congratulation to both Hampshire and Kent players.
Our final Stovold Trophy match is vs Surrey away at West Surrey GC on 27th August. All to play for,,,,,