Lisburn’s Holt Shield team go through to quarter final with Donaghadee win

The weather was idyllic for both legs played in the cool of the evening. Lisburn playing the first leg at home had Simon Ingram 3 down after 9 holes and he never got back into the game losing on the 14th. Lewis Patmore balanced the match with a 6 & 5 win leaving 3 matches on the course.

Things looked bleak for Lisburn with Aaron Darragh 5 down at one stage and the other 2 matches finely balanced. Aaron fought back bravely from dormie 4 down, winning 3 holes on the trot only to lose the match by one hole.

Jonny Grant and Neil Law both edged ahead in the final holes, both winning by 2&1, giving Lisburn a 3 matches to 2 lead and 4 holes up going into the second leg.

The teams met again for the return leg 24 hours later on Monday evening in Donaghadee. In the first 9 holes, there was nothing in it with the lead in the first three matches going from one team to the other.

The good news for Lisburn was that Aaron Darragh played in the same vein as he finished his match the previous evening and was 4 up after 9.

However, this was counter balanced as Ricky Leathem, replacing Neil Law in the line up, found himself trailing by a similar margin after 9 holes. It looked at this stage that the outcome of the tie lay with the first 3 matches on the course. Into the back 9 and Simon Ingram began to take control going 3 up with 5 to play.

Jonny Grant proceeded to turn on the heat winning 6 holes on the trot to win on the 16th just as Aaron secured his win on the 14th green. At this stage Simon Ingram’s opponent had clawed back 2 holes but as Simon was still 1 up playing the final hole, Lisburn could not be beaten.

Simon duly won his match and with Lisburn leading by 6 matches to 2 the remaining 2 matches were called in.

Lisburn now await the winners of the match between Dunmurry and Balmoral who will be their opponents in the quarter final.

Elsewhere, 13 was not so unlucky for one Lisburn golfer, when John Price scored his first hole in one in competitive golf - at hole 13 on July 13, 2013.

Despite it being a holiday weekend, 198 players competed for the re-scheduled fixture for the McCandless Rose Bowl. The event, originally scheduled for May 18, had to be abandoned on that date due to the heavy rainfall causing flooding to the greens. The weather on this occasion was very much different with temperatures around 20ºc. The course itself had not had any rainfall for over 2 weeks and players noted additional run on the ball. No fewer than 26 players managed to play inside their handicap. John Price (9) and Gary McCarter (10) both returned nett scores of 66. Gary played a very consistent round with no sixes on his card but was disappointing on the short holes taking 16 strokes for the four par 3s. John only took 11 strokes on these four holes thanks to the hole in one at the 13th hole. His homeward 37 strokes was two better than Gary and secured the win for John. This was John’s first trophy win at Lisburn, having joined the Club at the beginning of the 2012 season. Third place was a close contest between Andrew Gourley (16) and Henry McMahon (12). Both players had nett scores of 68. Andrew, who has been scoring close to his handicap in recent weeks, started with an 8, then steadied his game, finishing 3,4,3 to give him a better back nine holes and 3rd prize. The gross prize winner was Ulster Long Driving Champion Chris Moulds (1) who in returning a score of 69 brought his handicap down to scratch again.

In the Wednesday Stableford competition on July 10 eight players returned scores of 40 points or more. The winner was Joe Davey (23) with a massive 48 points. This result, coming less than 3 weeks after he had won Sam Moore’s Captain’s prize, has brought Joe’s handicap down from 26 to 18 in a period of 18 days aided by the exceptional scoring reduction rule. Second was schoolboy Kyle Patton (13) with 46 points. Kyle started the season playing off 14 but is now down to 11. Third place on 44 points was Gary McCambley (14). Gary started the season with a handicap of 16 and is now down to 12.