Nations Cup presented by The Spectrum IFA Group – Malta.
The consistent feedback from Sunday’s inaugural event was that it worked and a full clubhouse, with the teams enjoying a great deal of banter reflected our vision. My thanks again to Nicky Urpani for the idea and concept.
A brutally cold, wet and windy morning suggested that the GB and I team had brought the weather.
In the golf, Scandinavia and the Nordics prevailed on one side of the draw.
Highlights included Tore Lindtveit with 6 birdies but none were needed given the form of his partner Tony Kjaldstrom as they defeated dream team Nicky Beck and Luc Schembri.
Multiple major winner Ruud Crittien and David Urpani, acting as supersub for Victor Denaro prevailed in the anchor match, against Toni Westerholm and Captain Alex Hillblom.
The Naudis battled back to win their final hole to tie their game with Miika Mustonen and Harri Lehtiniemi. This helped close the overall team result to 3.5 to 2.5.
In the GB and I v The Rest, the Captains took on each other with Gernot MacSchmid and Danjiel Bogdanovic, the latter fresh from a late flight defeating Irish pair Patrick Carey and James Lynam.
Iconic Rest Team pairing Noah GRATIL and Aleks Vagimov managed to find defeat despite being 4 under gross through 15 holes, as they went down to Tim Cleasby and David Barry.
Paddy Mann and Handicap Secretary David Mansfield somehow managed to lose 8&6 and quickly returned to the clubhouse to analyse the loss to Dorien Mece and Moses Kiberu.
Messrs Patterson and Dodds prevailed over Hugo and Canaki in what was a high quality match.
In probably the match of the day, the Eugene’s halved with French/Greek axis Gaetan and Panos. Cranley lipping out on the last from 10 feet for the win. Rest 3.5 GB and I 2.5.
We were delighted to welcome Craig Welsh and Jozef from The Spectrum IFA Group to the clubhouse where they and all the players enjoyed an excellent lunch.
So a tie at the top. The Rest and S&N go into Round 2 in the lead but it’s all tight.
Match Day 2 – Monday February 10th.
The matches, Malta V The Rest and GB and I taking on Scandinavia and the Nordics.
My personal thanks to all the Team Captain’s for their commitment to get this done.
Stewart Davies
Club Captain
