Benamor Away 7th March
A tale of the 18th Green
After the experience of last week, team members were corralled into car pools for today’s trip to Benamor as a result of which all ten were on time for the season’s opener in division two. All three of last week’s new caps had earned another outing as the Pens welcomed back stalwart Bawden ‘Senior’ and our recent hole in one maker, Eric the ‘half a bee’.
Despite playing off the white tees, Malcolm found himself cut to 0, giving away 8 shots to his opponents and allocated a new partner in Paul who, in an attempt to garner sympathy for his war wounded knee, wore shorts to better display the brace. Down right from the beginning, the pair found it difficult to compete on the greens and even our ‘Great White Hope’ struggled to get his usual cackhanded short game working as well as your scribe would have expected. ‘Hop-along’ failed to miss a fairway all day but crucially failed to hit his putts on line and the Pens’ lead out team were downed on the 17th.
Second to the tee were our old friends ‘O Caçador’ and ‘One eyed Mike’. Clearly Zé had been brushing up on his Brazilian accent (if not his putting) as the pair slipped easily back into each other’s company like an old pair of Pantufas! Early birdies led to a three hole lead at the turn but perhaps the 11th green was not the time for Mike to practice the samba as it seemed that the dancing had distracted Zé for a couple of holes and then a missed 1 metre putt on 17 had the pair all square going down the last. Sense finally prevailed and a closing birdie from OEM chalked up the Pens first points of the season.
Unusually low in the batting order were the bickering boys, Bawden Jnr and the Skipper, who set aside their differences to coast to a 2up lead after 10. In a game where birdie was needed to win a hole and par was getting nothing better than a half, both Pens players going out of bounds on the same hole represented a confidence sapping disaster which was exacerbated by their opponents getting up and down from nowhere at the next. A birdie was needed from the pair on the par 5 18th to avoid defeat; the 20ft putt for a 4 was perfectly read by Jnr but your humble scribe is sad to report that the Skipper’s old failing of leaving putts short raised its ugly head once more as the ball finished 1/2 inch before the hole. 1 Down!
Dead Eyed Dick and O Reformado had raced to a four hole lead after six and the Skipper was expecting to see them in the clubhouse after an early bath. As it turned out Bob had lost his mojo and a couple of chunked chips (not chunky chips Mark) gave their opposition motivation to drag it back to all square going down the last. Under the pressure of the Scribe’s beady eye Bob rediscovered his chipping touch to leave himself a 10ft chance to win the match. He then justified his ‘Dead Eyed Dick’ moniker by confidently drilling the ball into the center of the cup. 2-2 with one game to come.....
Caroline and Eric looked sadly out of sorts in the early skirmishes and were four down in as many holes. A good talking to from Snr seemed to get Eric going and the pair dragged the game back and it seemed as if an away win could be grasped on the last. Even half a point from the half ‘abelha’ and returning Senior would have enabled the Pens to stomach the substandard post match fare but the 18th once again went the way of the home side.
A 3-2 defeat hardly represents a perfect start to the season but Benamor was always going to be a tough gig for the Pens big hitters. The chance of revenge will come quickly in early April when the opposition will surely struggle with the length of Penina.
Selection questions arise for the next game against Vilamoura. Will the Great White Hope go the way of Jerry Quarry against Muhammad Ali? Will the married mascots, Harry and Harriet, close the shop? Will the visiting ‘Kilted Colin’ or ‘Halfpoint’ Hargreaves get a game? Will ‘O Diretor’ finally come out of his Gollum’s Cave and show us all how to play.....
Vamos Ver.