The last match of La Liga Seniors, between Los Arqueros & La Cala, took place last Monday, 16th April 2018.
In our latest La Liga match at La Cala it became very apparent that the other teams are making it much more difficult for us this season. Like several other teams, La Cala played a different team at home to the one that came to Los Arqueros – one strong pair playing in the third match at LA and then bringing in much stronger players for their pairings at home. This damage limitation approach is not really in the spirit of La Liga, in my opinion, where the same pairs usually play both legs, but it is effective in stopping us from gaining more points.
In this match Mike and Steve played a very balanced new pair with a five handicapper playing with a very steady sixteen handicapper and, when taking into account that the pins were in very awkward positions and the strong wind was blowing in an unusual direction, they did well to get a half, especially rescuing a point having been dormy two down. Mike managed to two putt the last two greens from at least twenty meters on both occasions.
Unfortunately the second match was a much more one-sided affair with Dean and Ian going down 6&5 to a pair who single putted eleven times on the tricky greens. Markus and Alan are renowned for their fighting spirit and needed to dig deep to rescue half a point in their match coming from two down with three to play to halve on the last green. Their highlight was Markus’s birdie two on the almost unplayable short fourth hole on the America’s Course.
As we found out last year, every point counts and I would like to think of this as a point gained rather than two points lost because La Cala will be very difficult to beat at home if they play the same team every match and all teams will struggle there.
The results were (lost 2-1):
– Mike Jordan / Steve Bailey all square
– Dean Cox / Ian Conquest lost 6&5
– Markus Ruulio / Alan Vowls all square
Steve Bailey,
The Captain
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