Southchurch v Chelmsford Green Handicap Match Report 24/5/19.

On a beautiful May day Chelmsford Greens arrived at Rayleigh Cricket Club for their first away Golf Handicap match of the season against Southchurch.  A day which may go down in history as ‘Ernies Day’. The lawns were, as you would expect from a cricket pitch outfield,  long grass, patches of daisies, bumpy but probably not as bad as it would have been last year.

The Green Team of Tony Frewin (3), David Dawsey (7), Linda Murrell (10) and Ernest Bailey (10) were facing an interesting battle on unfamiliar lawns against a Southchurch side of David Brown (5), Alan Cornelius (7) plus 2 rookies Eric Waterman (10) and Geoff Powell (12).
The doubles were shared with David and Ernie beating Alan and Eric 7-6 and Tony and linda losing 6-5 in a timed out game to Dave and Geoff.
The first set of singles produced two wins each with Tony beating Dave 7-3 and Ernie beating Geoff 7-5. 
Match score 3-3
The second round of singles went better with 3 wins. David beating Dave 7-6, Linda beating Geoff 7-5 and Ernie beating Eric 7-5. 
Match score at lunch 6-4 to Chelmsford.
Lunch was eaten under a blue sky before battle recommenced.
The third round of of singles went well with victories for Tony beating Eric 7-6, Linda with a stunning 7-2 victory over Dave and Ernie beating Alan 7-6. David managed to ruin a 4-0 session by throwing away a 6-4 lead against Geoff to lose 7-6. 
Match score 9-5, only one needed for victory.
The final round of singles were shared with victories going to Ernie 7-6 versus Dave and Linda 7-6 against Alan. In what is becoming a familiar story David managed to throw away a 6-3 lead against Eric.

Final match score 11-7 to Chelmsford Greens. Hoop Difference: Southchurch 104 Chelmsford Green 109

Highlights: 4 singles victories for Ernie and 3 for Linda.

So what made this ‘Ernies Day’? Well apart from the 4 singles victory, he was also a victor in the doubles so 5 out of 5 but what else? Imagine Ernie 6-5 down on the twelfth hoop but his ball in the hoop. Both he and his opponent play halfway to the last hoop in anticipation of Ernie knocking the ball through but what does Ernie do? Rather than knocking the ball gently through to make it 6-6 he forgets that he hasn’t run the hoop yet and smacks the ball about 30 feet away leaving everybody stunned. So after his opponent explains what he has done they play the other 3 balls back to the twelfth hoop. Ernie, now 30 odd feet away, hits his ball back and runs the hoop. Those of you who have played at Southchurch know how tricky it is to hit anything straight over more than 10 feet so you can appreciate what he has done. So 6 hoops each but then his opponent plays a ball beautifully positioned a few feet in front of the hoop, game over, or so we thought. Ernie plays the ball, which he has just been put through hoop 12 from distance, up to and through the back of hoop 13 to sit inches in front, stunning his opponent, Alan Cornelius, who in this stupefied state is unable to clear or jump Ernies ball allowing him to win the hoop and match 7-6.

All in all a fine victory for the Greens played in good spirits by both teams and a memorable one for Ernie. DD