Harrow assembled its doughty team of six for the annual foursomes challenge of the Grafton Morrish finals at Hunstanton and Brancaster on 7-9 October.
The pairings were Jan Brugelmann and Dan Carver, Hamish Morrison and Jeremy Fricker, Rupert Harmsworth and Miles Ruffell.
The first round at Brancaster pitted us against a strong Lancing team; indeed there are no weak teams in this competition as all have had to qualify earlier in the year. Pairs 1 and 3 played very well and brought in the necessary 2 points for victory while Morrison and Fricker staged a great fight back from 4 down at the turn to 1 down, but were obliged to take a halved match when Harrow had already won.
Next was Stowe. We won at 2 but lost at 3, leaving 1st pair Brugelmann/Carver fighting in a high-class game against strong opposition.
Unfortunately it ended with a very bad bit of luck for Harrow when an excellent looking second shot to the 19th green found a rather invisible bit of rough on the left of the green from which only a forceful and unpredictable recovery shot was possible. The gods were unkind to Harrow on this occasion and Stowe came out on top. However, they did go on to beat Eton next morning and had a very good run, losing to eventual winners Birkenhead in the semi-final.
All in all it was a very promising performance by Harrow and all three pairs tasted victory.
Jeremy Fricker
Harrow Captain
