We were fortunate to receive a bye in the first round of this year’s Finals, and found ourselves drawn against Framlingham in the second round, with a favourable 11:00am tee time.

Our first pair of David Barwell and Chris Hampton played steady golf and won their match 3&2. Our second pairing of Angus Stewart and Harry Rimmer ran riot and were victors by an impressive 6&5 score line. With 2 points in the bag, the third pairing of Adrian Sharpin and Mark Stewart felt compassion for their partners and therefore “allowed” them to win (in fact Framlingham’s golf was very impressive and they won 4&2 without any assistance). With a 2-1 victory, Eastbourne were into the third round.

The team enjoyed a well deserved meal at a local pub, and after only a few beers made their way back to the house for a relatively early night.

Saturday morning arrived and found us pitted against Bedford at 8:00am.

Keeping the same order that had brought us victory the day before, Chris and David set off first, brimming with confidence from the previous day’s play. However, the Bedford team were stronger than we were hoping and sadly Chris and David lost 5&4. Harry and Angus had a hard fought match in game 2. With the score 1 down going down the last, Harry rifled a second shot towards the flag on the raised 18^th green, only to see it fall a few yards short and plug in the greenside bunker. The hole was lost and the final score being recorded as 2 down. The third pair of Adrian and Mark also took their match to the 18th, but with a loss on that hole and a 2 down loss being recorded, we were out of this year’s Grafton Finals.

The team had a thoroughly enjoyable time at Hunstanton. All matches were played in the right spirit and fingers crossed for a better run next year.

The tournament was won by Birkenhead who beat Millfield in the final.

Adrian Sharpin