Stoke were drawn away at Forrester Park in the first round of this year’s Essex Seniors Championship.
It was a tough draw, but Captain Eric Fisher was sure he had a team capable of getting a result.
In the event, it was a very close fought match, which Stoke went down 6.5 – 4.5, but, in a dramatic few hours after the match, Essex Golf Union disqualified Forrester Park and Stoke are through to the next round.
Eric explained: “We knew we were doing well, but we had to concede the match as we were 6-4 down and only the last match to come in – which was eventually halved.
“But after we submitted the scores to EGU, they scrutinised the players and their handicaps and discovered that one player for Forrester Park had seen his handicap go up on the Monday before the match, giving him an extra shot, which was crucial in his match as he won 2 and 1 against Ian McKay.
“The rule in the team competitions is that handicaps are frozen on the Sunday before a match, so he played from the wrong handicap and they were disqualified.”
Arguably, had he played from the correct handicap, Ian might have won his match and it would have gone to a play-off, it was all that close.
So, after all of that drama, we are through to the next round and will play either Thorpe Hall or Rochford Hundred – but whichever one it is, it will again be an away fixture.
