The Baltic Exchange Golfing Society (BEGS)  recently took on the Cardiff Exchange Golfing Society (CEGS) at the fantastic Royal Porthcawl golf club.

After the usual negotiating of the roads to Cardiff, including the POW Bridge, some of the Baltic team met at Pyle & Kenfig to play a warm up 18 holes, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all and proved a good challenge. Friday night was the usual boozy trip down memory lane and old stories revisited.

Come Saturday morning it was game time! CEGS started strong and were two points ahead after three matches. Baltic then won the next two matches to level the score 2 ½ each, with the final match going to the 18th and Jim Stewart & Simon Cox winning this hole and took the match two up. So BEGS won the morning foursomes silverware (The Jubilee Bowl).

Did the Baltic team over medicate at lunch? Rookie player Ben Dudman won the opening match putting BEGS two points ahead 4 ½ to 2 ½. CEGS came roaring back with Robert Gemmell narrowly losing to Dan on the 17th and in the Captains match Gareth overcame Anthony 3 & 2 on the 16th, which levelled the score at 4 ½ each and meant the Willie James Memorial Cup went to CEGS. Hendo put up a good fight but lost his match on the 18th two down, so CEGS had reeled off three consecutive wins. Step up Simon Cox who eked out a half with Prycey so CEGS are now one point ahead (6-5). Simon Lloyd took a win over Potts, thereby extending the lead to 7-5. Jeremy Brewer took his match to the 18th and halved with Matty P, followed by Jim beating Ed on the 18th two up and closing the gap to one point, with CEGS ahead 7 ½ to 6 ½. Trevor came across a formidable opponent in Rhidian Hurle and had to give a lot of shots to a golfer on form, which was an uphill struggle and CEGS won that match. So CEGS are two ahead 8 ½ to 6 ½ and looking in a strong position. The outcome of the next match was critical and Malcolm valiantly fought like a caged tiger, but could not quite bring the point home and lost one down on the 18th. Meaning CEGS had taken an unassailable lead of three points (9 ½ to 6 ½) with only two matches remaining. Chris impressively took down the big hitting Ollie and Mark Rowe beat Gary, which meant the final margin was a solitary point 9 ½ to 8 ½ , thereby Cardiff clinched the Erlebach Cup as overall winners.

Sunday’s greensomes seems to have been dominated by the very skilful play of Chris Henderson and some chap called Rhidian who hit the occasional shot. Realising they were scoring too well, they threw in a blob just to ease up the margin of victory to four points ending with a total of 42. Coming in second place was Hendo’s best pal Malcolm who partnered CEGS skipper Gareth and managed 38 points winning on a countback where their inbound score was two points better than Wigley/Potter combo. 

Top performer was Jim Stewart, the only player who won both matches in the foursomes & singles, clearly his strict training regime of an hour long warm-up walk around midnight on Friday paying dividends. Jeremy Brewer & Simon Cox were undefeated, winning one match and halving the other. Meanwhile, at the other end, Potts was  let down badly by the other Mark in the foursomes, no doubt he had some unlucky bounces in his singles versus Simon Lloyd who got all the luck and then to top it off he narrowly missed out on second place in the greensomes on a countback.

As ever CEGS were wonderful hosts, the course was in top condition and the food was excellent. Roll on 2024 where the match will be played at de Vere Wokefield on 10-12 May.

The BEGS website has the current list up upcoming matches and meetings. Anybody interested in playing in a specific match or meeting, please go to the website and via the Events page, scroll to the relevant event, open the page and you should see a REGISTER button.