First Day
Very early on the morning of the 9th of October 2014 Jeremy Fricker and James Amies (2010 finalists), and Huw Jenkins and Mark Lyttleton (2012 finalists) left Heathrow heading for Gibraltar to play the Rix-Hill finals at Valderrama golf club.
We were accompanied by our host Anthony Speelman, and made it across the border into Spain with no difficulties.
We dropped our kit off at Anthony’s house, and proceeded to Valderrama Golf club, for some lunch, and a warm up game. It was decided that the 2010 finalists would take on the 2012 finalists in a 4 ball better ball match. The match was competitive, and Jeremy Fricker was playing very well. The 2010 finalists won the match. The course was looking superb.
We returned to Anthony’s magnificent house to change and went to an excellent fish Restaurant. Table tennis was played after dinner, and I was quickly dispatched by Anthony. I believe Mark and Anthony battled on the table into the wee hours.
Finals Day
We decided to play our Singles match play finals in a group of 4. The matches were tense, and hard fought.
In the 2012 final Huw Jenkins seemed to be playing very strongly, and opened up a 3 hole lead, fairly early on. Whenever Mark holed a put, or hit a good drive, Huw would match him and the match was all over by the 16th; well played Huw Jenkins.
In the 2010 final, Jeremy Fricker was not quite as fluid as the day before, and James Amies, who was being given 7 shots, capitalised and went 2 up after 3 holes. The match swung strongly back to Jeremy, and by the 18th Jeremy need to hole an 8 foot putt to win the match, but it lipped out. All Square after 18 holes! We were all hungry, so we went and had lunch! The lunches at Valderrama are amazing, and not to be missed!
It was decided that Jeremy and James would play further holes to decide the match. Jeremy prevailed on the 5th Extra hole. Well done Jeremy.
Last Day
The next day we worked out that if we arrived at Valderrama at 8.00 am in the morning, we could play foursomes, in buggies, and still make our flight back to the UK which was at 1.00 o’clock. This turned out to be a really good idea, and we had another titanic battle, again Fricker and Amies vs Jenkins and Lyttleton…We managed to do 18 holes in under 3 hours!. This time the 2012 Finalists won the match, so honours even.
We managed to play 3 formats of Golf at Valderrama, day 1 Four Ball better ball, day 2 Singles Match play, and day 3 Foursomes.
We were then on a flight home, and arrived at Heathrow at 4.00 pm UK time… What a fantastic 3 days of golf.
Anthony Speelman was a brilliant host, and we all had a wonderful time. Thank you for having us.
(Commentary by James Amies)
