The team (left to right) is as follows:
David Price (7.69-73)
Simon Dalby (3.72-76)
Guy Davis (8.72-76)
Bruce Streather (C) (8.59-64)
Peter Desmond (3.67-72)
Philip Manduca (SH.73-75)
Mark Dunn (8.71-76)
Match report
Malvern arrived at Woking for this year’s Senior Darwin with probably the best team with which they had ever entered that event. Indeed, with handicaps ranging between 2 and 4, it might well have been the best team ever entered by any school into the SD.
So, hopes were high when we commenced our campaign with a match against Radley. Their top pair comprised Robert Seward (a contemporary of our non-playing Captain in the Oxford team of 1968) and his partner, who, despite his 85 years, hit the ball long distances and had the touch of an angel round the green. They played exceptionally well to be all square after 15 holes with our top pair of Dalby and Dunn. A half was then agreed since our other 2 pairs had already won handily.
Then we met Uppingham. Chris Gotla, their one handicap Captain, announced that this match was effectively the final. He certainly played as if it was, he and his partner starting(from the 15th) eagle par,par,birdie. This left our second pair of Manduca and Price, who themselves had birdied the 18th, 3 down. And when Uppingham were 3 feet away on the next with a putt for yet another birdie (, to go 4 under after 5) with our pair 40 feet away, it looked bleak indeed. But Manduca holed from 40 feet and Uppingham missed .The deficit was thus reduced to two holes which ultimately proved the margin of victory for the Uppingham pair. Elsewhere ,however, the news was good and our other 2 pairs won comfortably. We thus reached the semi-final.
Our semi-final opponents were, (surprisingly- as even they were to admit),Highgate. They had vanquished Harrow at extra holes the previous afternoon. But Malvern proved too good and won comfortably by 3 matches to nil.
And so to the final where, perhaps inevitably, our opponents were Tonbridge, already multiple winners of the Senior Darwin. This year, however, they realised that we were the stronger team. So they played their weakest pair against our top pair of Dalby and Dunn .After 8 holes,however,it appeared that the Tonbridge plan was working. For ,while out top pair was in control of their match, our second pair of Manduca and Price were 3 down to the plus one handicapper Richard Partridge and his partner and our bottom pair of Desmond and Davis were having a close fought tussle with Spurling and Saggers.
Your correspondent joined the contest on the 14th green where the titanic struggle of Desmond and Davis with the Tonbridge pair was in full flow. In response to the two massive shots hit green high by our pair, Tonbridge had just hit a wedge close to the hole. As Davis viewed his difficult chip, Desmond informed us that Dalby and Dunn were 4 up with 4 to play against Jenkins and Hubbard and that, when last they heard ( on the 13th ), Manduca and Price had won 4 holes in a row to go one up. Davis then played a lovely chip across the green but with the rock-hard surface and the speed of the surface it went to 15 feet from where Desmond could not convert. Tonbridge then knocked in their putt to go one up.
So, it seemed that we had one match in the bag and were one up and one down in the other two.
By this time Price and Manduca were well up the 15th.So we headed to the green of the short 16th in order to join their match there. As we set out, we saw that our top pair was now on the 17th and still playing! Happily, our consternation lasted only momentarily as they soon shook hands indicating the first point on the board for Malvern.
When we reached the 16th green Price was approaching the 16th tee. If he had the honour, there was reason for optimism. He walked on first, our spirits rose. But then walked off again and our hearts sank. But then, happy days, he walked back on and hit a splendid tee shot to the heart of the green. Manduca who was already halfway towards the green walked brisky towards the spectators beaming. “We’re 3 up “he announced. “We won 6 holes in a row from the 9th.” So their winning streak of 4 holes, which started by Price hitting their 3 wood second to 4 feet at the 9th and finding the difficult short tenth with his tee shot at the 10th, had been extended with excellent par golf through the 11th,12th, and 13th and then a birdie at the 14th where Manduca hold from 10 feet for a birdie.
Back to the 16th tee whence Partridge could not match Price’s shot and was bunkered. Their recovery trickled through the back and they failed to hole from there. With Malvern having 3 putts to win, Tonbridge graciously conceded. Two matches to Malvern. So Desmond and Davis now approaching the 15th green took a half thus maintaining their unbeaten record.
After 31 years and only one previous victory Malvern had, at last, won again. And how they had won, losing only one match throughout their campaign.
It remained only for the champagne to be poured and the non-playing Captain (whom Private Eye would have described as “tired and emotional”) to thank both the Club and the organisers for providing such a splendid course and well-run event. The happy team posed for photographs before heading off to their respective destinations. Even Tonbridge seemed happy with a Malvern win.
by Bruce Streather (8.59-64)
Captain of the Senior Darwin