Sunday 28 November 2010

Skelmorlie send in their Mail on Sunday news from Spain

 Skelmorlie GC  Players and Caddies    - The  Mail on Sunday Team - Click to enlarge
Sorry we are a few days late with our news, but as you heard from the victorious Murrayfield ladies, our short time in Spain was wonderful but very wet and we are still trying to dry our gear out!
 
Well we didn’t quite make it this time but the whole experience was amazing and has only made us more determined to try again next year. Firstly, we would like to formally congratulate Murrayfield on winning, especially in far from ideal conditions, against some tricky opposition and without the help of caddies. We were fortunate to have ladies from our club to caddy for us and they really proved their worth when the rain gods decided to vent their wrath on this normally dry and sunny part of Spain. The Mail on Sunday has been going to El Rompido for the past 8 years and this was the first rain in all that time!

Our gallant ladies, captain Kath Mackellar, Gillian Pollock, Aileen Donaldson, Janet Harkness and Alex Sargent fought bravely on both days, only narrowly missing out 2-3 on each occasion.
Alex won both her matches and even although we knew we had lost out on a third place on the Wednesday by the 17th hole, she played on gamely to seal her individual win on the 18th green. We would like to pay tribute to all our ladies, and three lovely gents, who paid their own way to Spain in order to either caddy for us or just to be there with encouragement and lots of patriotic flags, banners and mascot bears
.
As Norma said, the Mail on Sunday team were superb and treated us royally, so we feel we were winners in just reaching the final stages in Spain. It is an extremely well run competition and gave a small club like ours the opportunity to enjoy matchplay against more prestigious clubs and to make many new friends as a result.

We were overwhelmed by the number of Good Luck cards from many of the clubs we had beaten on the way to Spain and from clubs in our local area who had watched us progress over the past nine or so months.
We are far from despondent and have also been enjoying more than a few glasses of Fizz since our return, despite not winning. As I said before we can’t wait to start all over again in the early new year, and now we know what awaits in El Rompido next November, we will be trying even harder next time.
 Kind regards, Jenny McGee.