Immediately after Easter 2018 six hundred and forty golfers plus reserves, supporters, and even the odd WAG descended upon Deal and Sandwich for the annual Halford Hewitt festival of foursomes on the great links of Royal Cinque Ports and Royal St George’s Golf Clubs.
Harrow’s team of five foursomes pairs comprised a healthy balance of youth in recent Oxford Blues Henry Howard-Jenkins and Freddy Bruce and experienced old campaigners Jamie Warman, Nick Tindall, and (captain) Jeremy Fricker. The first pair and spearhead of the attack were Jan Brugelmann and Dan Carver, and the local St George’s boys Hamish Morrison and Rupert Harmsworth went second. We were also delighted to see the return to Hewitt action of Jerome Ponniah and Olly Spry.
It was, therefore, a team of high-quality competitive players in all pairs, and each one of them had made great efforts to prepare for Hewitt week with practice games at Rye, and Deal, a practice match with Rugby, and the annual official trial match with Eton in February, at which we were as usual soundly beaten, Eton being twice recent winners of the Hewitt and a team for which some very good golfers fail to be selected.
However, with excellent preparation and no weak pair in our five, we could rightly be confident of matching any opposition falling into our path.
The draw, unseeded, had set up a Local Derby with Highgate, a school which like many has not featured much in the Hewitt finals, but nevertheless boasts some very good players, and the essential point to be borne in mind is that you only need three points to win. Indeed we failed to emerge unscathed from the encounter, but won 3.5 to 1.5, thanks to solid play against stiff opposition by Brugelmann/Carver at 1, Morrison/Harmsworth at 2, and Warman/Tindall at 5.
This win, as fate would have it, brought Harrow up against our 2017 victors Merchiston, another recent Hewitt winner; but this accomplished Harrow team was thinking only of correcting the 2017 error, and duly did so with a well-earned 3:2 scoreline in Harrow’s favour.
Harrow v Eton
One dares not look ahead when facing opposition as strong as Merchiston, but while Harrow was fighting to win that battle, Eton achieved an impressive victory over the illustrious Tonbridge, whose record in the Hewitt since 1990 dwarfs the achievements of any other school.
So as delicious fate again would have it, the Friday results set up a Harrow v Eton match with all the rich chemistry they create, whether it be on a cricket-field, a football pitch or a rackets court; no practice game this time, and the first one in the Hewitt since 1995, incidentally the last time Harrow won the Cup.
Reminded by their captain that they had already beaten a recent winner, knowing that they were thoroughly prepared, and feeling well-set in their pairings and team order, this Harrow team went into battle confident and ready to deal with anything its high-class opposition could throw upon it.
The 3:2 winning scoreline reflected all of that. They had known it would be close but were up to the challenge. It took us all the way to the eighteenth hole of the fifth match, score at 2-all: Warman/Tindall against Eton captain Billy Ismael and seasoned campaigner Rupert Krefting. Warman/Tindall did it the hard way, getting a handsome lead but watching holes being seized from their grasp as the eighteenth hole at Deal with its beckoning burn and plateau green drew nearer. The wind was a difficult one, making the second shot inevitably a test of nerves under pressure. Nick hit a solid second shot with a rescue club but it was not his best and left Jamie with a fifty-yard wedge to the flag. So unless Harrow could get up and down from some way off, a par four for Eton would probably take the match down 19, and their second shot in was twenty yards shorter. To the relief of the Harrow camp, Billy Ismael pushed his long iron slightly and it left Eton with thirty yards to negotiate from off the green.
Harrow duly made the five, and the Eton captain is left with an eight-footer to keep the match alive. Everyone in both camps knows he is capable of making this putt, and he hits it solidly, but the ball does not disappear. Harrow have beaten Eton.
Standing:- Rory Giddins, Adrian Gracey, Alex Leslie, Harry Blake, Edward Greenhalgh, Olly Spry, Tom Greenhalgh, Ted Innes-Ker, Freddy Bruce, Rupert Harmsworth, Jan Brugelmann, Henry Howard-Jenkins, Daniel Carver, Fred Irwin, Hamish Morrison, Jerome Ponniah, Jamie Giddins Sitting:- Rupert Krefting, Billy Ismail, Jeremy Fricker, Jamie Warman, Nick Tindall
After a quick lunch and a photograph and a brief celebration of a memorable win over their great rival, Harrow then had to step up to another plate and take on the holders, Epsom. There are very few easy matches in the Hewitt these days, and we were certainly not going to get one on that Saturday afternoon.
Once again Brugelmann/Carver produced the goods, reaching four points in four games, a really tremendous achievement at first pair. Henry Howard-Jenkins and Jeremy Fricker, playing his hundredth Hewitt match, also brought in a point at third pair, but unfortunately, we lost the other three. It may be fair to say that Epsom was just a bit too good for us, but the post-match reflection on our day seemed to be that we played better against Eton and could not repeat it in the afternoon.
Overall however it was a week that brought encouraging successes for Harrow’s Hewitt campaign. It is almost impossible to field the strongest possible team at a set time, but this year Harrow came very close. The hard work by dedicated captain and players will continue, looking forward to next year and building on the achievements of 2018.
