Well done to Paul Keane’s Fitzgibbon team who took a step closer to making the final of the 2023 competition this afternoon with a win against a good Powerscourt team.
As usual we had three home and three away for the afternoon tee off.
Tee off in Powercourt was at 13.15 and the first pair out were Brain Murray and Walter Gilbert who started steadily and wins on the forth, fifth and ninth, in pretty miserable conditions, had them two up after the first nine, a nice position to be in.
Second out were the “Byrne Team”, David and Anthony ( no relation ). This pair won the first and were unlucky to lose the second after a lovely pitch by David just checked up. The lads bounced back straight away however, winning the next two holes only to lose the next two to bring the match back to all square. Another win on seven was followed by half on the eighth and an excellent up and down from 100 yards for another half in par on the ninth. So heading for the tenth our noses were in front in the second match also.
Our final away pairing of Murt Davis and Declan Murray got off to a fast start finding themselves two up after four holes, but wobbles on the seventh and ninth and the match was back to level and their opponents were managing the deteriorating weather conditions better. Murt and Declan found themselves two down standing on the thirteenth tee box.
Meanwhile in Greystones Des Cullen and Trevor Phillips lead the team out and went one up after a win on the third, but were pegged back to level after losing the seventh. Eight and nine were shared and the pair walked down the lane as they started on the first.
Second out were Derek O’Regan and Michael Smullen who were in control of their match from the off, with wins on the first and fourth and a two hole advantage heading to the back nine. After eleven, this lead had increased to three and our pair kept the match in their control responding to losses on twelve and fourteen with wins on thirteen and fifteen to move to dormi three up. A half on the sixteenth closed the match out 3&1.
Our final pair in Greystones was that of Ben Crowley and Niall Stokes who it appears had plans elsewhere for the early afternoon ! They halved the first and then reeled off eight successive wins to find themselves eight up after just nine holes. Halves on the tenth and eleventh and Greystones had our first point of the day by a whopping margin of 8&7.
Meanwhile back in Powerscourt Brian and Walter moved to three up with a win on the fourteenth, Walter hitting a glorious seven iron in to find the top tier of the tricky green. It was clear that they had a fight on their hands however when they lost the very difficult fifteenth after Walter’s tee shot found the trees on the left and their opposition made par for the win. Two up and three to play. Another loss on the par five sixteenth, after losing a ball, and it was all getting very close indeed. An excellent up and down on the par three seventh for a half steadied the ship and the match headed to the eighteenth tee with Greystones one up.
As this was playing out, just behind Brian and Walter, David and Anthony had moved to two up with a win on the tenth and then further extended their lead with another win on the thirteenth. Their lead was reduced to two after the fifteenth but crucially the Greystones men were now dormie three up. While all they needed was a half on the seventeenth for the match, an excellent tee shot from David gave the team a win on the hole and a match 3&1 victory.
Having turned two down, Murt and Declan looked in a bit of trouble but they dug deep and trotted off three wins in a row to get to the eighteenth having moved from two down to dormie one up. As it played out however the eighteenth was a bridge too far and a Powerscourt par produced a halved match.
While this was unfolding Des and Trevor were finding the back nine in Greystones more challenging than the front nine with a run of losses from thirteen to fifteen putting them dormie three down. While they won the sixteenth, a half on the seventeenth gave Powerscourt their first win of the day.
The overall match now stood at 3.5 to 1.5 in Greystones’ favour with just Brian and Walter still on the course. At one up with just one to play the pair played the last very well but a lip out from two feet allowed Powerscourt the win the hole with a par.
Overall an excellent result away from home, 2 points, while a solid 2 points at home produced a 4:2 victory ahead of the final match in the group stage which will be against Woodbrook.
Well done to all involved today.
