THE HEMISPHERE CUP
Founded 2000
19th
Hemisphere Cup – Hunstanton, England
May 3rd/4th, 2018
The Hero’s of Hunstanton
The
detailed match summary is further below, but for the 19th Hemisphere
Cup here are the 19 things that made me smile (in no particular order):
1. Biffy Burns – Dave got the match
underway with a characteristic Biff straight
down the middle of the first. Scientists are still trying to work out
how club head and ball actually meet.
2. Asleep with the Cup – When
it’s your 7th Hemisphere Cup and you have never been on the
winning side, it’s good to get your
hands on the cup.
3. Red or White – We were all
impressed with the waiter in the Mariners Pub when he said he knew the wine
list off by heart. We were less impressed when he then said “we
have only two, Red or White”.
4. Coup d’etat
– Having not won the cup since 2013. Having been responsible for
all team picks and order of play in this time. For having picked
supposedly dodgy coloured tops. Pete was under
pressure from Dave B to shape up or ship out. Fortunately the result went the right way and Pete retains
the support of his team (for now….).
5. Ollie’s 50 – Ollie
became the 4th person to play 50
Hemisphere Cup matches with his Friday morning round with Max. That’s
a lot of golf.
6. Who needs Sarge – Was Sarge
missed in this year’s Hemisphere Cup? Obviously not and comparisons
to the great team player that is Kevin Pietersen were
raised. All is not looking down for Sarge though as
the great goat question was asked of Max on Friday night and there may be yet
be another member.
7. Sock Off – Alex explained how
his son settled disagreements at school by playing a game of ‘Sock
Off’. Whoever could get the other persons sock off first won.
Alex fell asleep and Pete took off
Alex’s sock. Alex then threw Pete’s shoes outside.
8. Who stole my laces – Whilst
throwing Pete’s shoes outside,
Alex’s shoe laces went walkabouts. They
were eventually returned at breakfast.
9. Verruca Dave – Painful and difficult
to get rid of, that is how the South see Dave - V. D. Burns or the Wart of the
North. Here he is looking very
pleased with his tee shot at the 7th.
10. Maiden Victory Max – Julian amassed
one point in 18 Hemisphere Cup games.
Max took one game to equal this total.
11. 3 from 3 – Alex won all his matches, and by some
margin. 5&3, 5&4, 7&5. Clearly in the Hemisphere
Cup form of his life, and well on his way to a mighty handicap cut for 2019.
12. Viking Thunder Clap – Dave B
decided that we should celebrate the North victory with the Viking Thunder Clap.
13. First taste of losing – Royal
St Davids, St Enedoc, Cruden Bay, Aberdovey, Rosapenna.
Played 5, won 5. Jan had only ever drunk
from the cup of victory (having avoided Castletown)
and thus came to an end a quite unique record.
14. David and Goliath – Ollie beat Bronson in the singles match on
the first day to break a long run of pointlessness (is that a word?).
Having 2 shots on some holes certainly helped as the HC moved to full handicap
difference, but a job well done.
15. Max’s Marvelous Chip –
He may have lost the match 8&7 but he brought a round of applause from
those behind the 18th green with his deft chip to the last from deep
rough. (We don’t have a picture of this, but we do have one playing out of the bunker on 16)
16. Bat Out of Hell – For those of
us with too much time on our hands and of advancing years, Pop Master on radio
2 at 10:30am every day is a regular listen. On the way up in the car Dave said that the
final question of ‘Give me three hits from a certain band in 10
seconds’ was really hard and the only band he could do was
Meatloaf. Bat out of Hell, Two out of Three Ain’t
Bad and Paradise by the Dashboard Light were the three Dave said he could
name. Call it fate, or destiny, but the final question from Ken Bruce was
‘Give me three hits from Meat Loaf in 10 seconds’. This was
the first time the North spoke about maybe this was their year….
17. Two Putters – Having fought
(and lost) with the putting yips for as long as we can remember, Dave B turned up with two putters in his
bag. One right handed and one left handed. We can confirm that he
does putt better left handed.
18. Marking a rare victory –
Driving down the A1 with the cup in hand, the North decided to mark this in a
more permanent way with team tattoos.
Here is Dave’s
permanent reminder.
And last, but certainly not least…….
19. Reach for the Stars – The
North celebrate in the only way they know how. This year it was the S
Club 7 classic Reach for the Stars that got slaughtered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLVNPSElDNo
The
Match Summary
Round 1 – Foursomes (Thursday PM)
Dave got
the match underway with a ‘Super Biff’ at the first playing with
Alex. They were up against Dave and Andrew and the North prevailed to
come out eventual winners 5&3.
Max then
hit his first competitive shot in Hemisphere Cup golf straight down the middle
as he partnered Pete against Brandon and Jan. Some uncharacteristic
bad driving from both Brandon and Jan helped the North to a 4&3
victory. Max’s approach to the 6th deserves special
mention.
Could the
North make it three wins out of three? Ollie was up against Bronson and
had not delivered a full point since Castletown in
2013. Bronson played great, but helped by the largest number of
shots in Hemisphere Cup history (24 playing 2), Ollie came out eventually the
3&1 winner.
3-0 to the North.
Round 2 – Foursomes (Friday AM)
The South
are too good a team to not pull their socks up and try to turn the match around
and arrived in confident mood on Friday morning. Ollie’s talk of a
‘whitewash’ was surely a bit premature and a bit over confident.
We did
not have to wait long for the fightback with Ollie
and Max crashing 8 (eight) & 7 (seven) to Bronson and Brandon.
This earned Ollie and Max a place on the wall of shame in
the HC records for those who have lost by seven holes or more.
Dave and
Pete then had a fantastic match against David and Jan where the lead changed
hands seven times and went to the 17th all square. One
‘Biff’ later, followed by four hacks, a lost ball and several more
average shots the South had taken the 17th with an 8! They
then went on to win the 18th to take the match 2 up.
It was left
to Alex in the final game to keep a bit of momentum with the North winning his
match against Andrew 5&4.
The North
would go into the single with a 4-2 lead.
Round
3 – Singles (Friday PM)
Needing 3.5 points out of the 5 to retain the cup, the South looked for
some strong match ups in the singles and the draw produced:
Dave vs David
Alex vs Bronson
Ollie vs Brandon
Pete vs Jan
Max vs Andrew
Out on
the course it was difficult to keep track but it was clear that Alex was in the
Hemisphere Cup form of his life. He quickly went up against Bronson and
secured a point for the North with a 7&5 victory. News then came
forward that Max was in trouble against Andrew and would go on lose his match
6&4.
The
matches between Dave & David and Ollie & Brandon looked like they would
go the distance and it fell to Pete to hole the
winning putt for the North as he closed out his match with Jan (who was still
struggling big time off the tee) 5&4.
Five
years of hurt were over and the North had at last won back the cup.
It was down to personal pride in the last two games and Dave & David went
on to halve their match on the 18th, whilst Ollie & Brandon took
a ‘Gentleman’s Half’ on the 18th tee with the
match level as no one deserved to lose.
The
Captains Cup
The
Captains Cup was awarded to Bronson (1 points) for easily being the best
golfer, but coming up against some high handicapers
from the North on their one good day in five years.
Photographs
Photographs from the 19th Hemisphere Cup
Detailed Results
Detailed Results from the 19th Hemisphere Cup