Brora on target with winnning display
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Tain and Invergordon Golf Clubs men’s teams were in the thick of the final round of play against Brora at Golspie last weekend.
Brora survived a tense Sunday afternoon in the Dornoch Firth League competition to edge past the holders, Royal Dornoch, by a half a point and win the League Targe for a 20th time.
In all of their previous nineteen triumphs Brora had emerged at home and all other venues as Royal Dornoch with 13 wins drew closer to Brora’s nineteen. Brora’s last away win being at Golspie five years ago it was by coincidence the host club team who helped their neighbours to another win extending their record to twenty by taking 2½ points from Dornoch when they met on the final day.
Dornoch finished their four fixtures unbeaten, that included a 4-3 win over Brora on Sunday Morning and their final 4½ to 2½ result over Golspie on Sunday afternoon lifted their points tally to 19½. But the 2½ points lost to Golspie was costly and left Brora only requiring another 10 points out of a possible 14 from their final threesome fixture against Tain and Invergordon which would to catch and overtake Dornoch.
Golspie had reshuffled their line up for the tie against Dornoch, Steve Doogan was sacrificed at number one to Chris Mailley and it paid off. Golspie champion Darren Hexley playing first had lost two of his previous three games and was moved to second place where he got a vital half point result against Bryan Urquhart. Then, in the minds of the Brora team came the Golspie hero’s. Robert Bremner travelled for his home in Aberdeen to wear the newlt sponsored by Billy Melville Golspie team shirt shirt and beat the previous unbeaten Kevin Matheson 2&1 while the clubs ex greenkeeper, Craig Sutherland who has moved back to Dornoch to work scuppered his Employers with a last green win over the Dornoch Club Manager, Neil Hampton.
Not only did Golpie make Brora’s task a bit easier but it was their ex junior Roddie Cameron who was the player that took in Brora’s tenth point to reach 20, in his double tie he beat Invergordon’s Leigh Simpson but fell to Tain’s newest member, Alness Green Keeper Gary Urquhart. The final results from the triple encounter were Brora 3½ Tain 3½ and Brora 6½ Golspie ½.
Brora’s combined 10 points brought them to 20, and the other three clubs Royal Dornoch in second place with 19½, Tain 16½ and Golspie 9. The only team player to win all four individual games was Brora’s Liam MacDonald who over the weekend beat Golspie’s Robert Bremner 4/2, Dornoch’s Bryan Urquhart 2 up, Tain’s Kiernan MacKay 5/4 and Invergordon’s Andrew Allan 5/4. Tain Golf Club are due to host the 2018 fixture.
