CAPTAIN Rob Parsonage got the match season away on Monday, March 17 as he struck the first ball at Trevose.

Standing on the elevated tee for the first hole, the whole of the links course was set out before the golfers on a dry but partially cloudy day.

Although winter rules were still operative, the course was firm and dry with plenty of run but, just the day before the green staff had tined the greens and much of the course as well as spreading sand and seed.

The work on the fairways did not make much if any impact but on the greens their effects did impact. Super slick greens were anticipated, to the advantage of the hosts, and indeed they were fast but it was a variation on ‘fast’ that caused trouble for the boys in blue.

The Fossils travelled with a strong squad for what is for what is always a tough fixture and while they didn’t quite pull off the win, they came pretty closed and gave the team confidence that in the return leg on the Kernow course they would overcome the deficit.

The early matches saw the advantage swing between the sides but the latter battles certainly swung in favour of the hosts who ran out 4.5-3.5 winners.

Brian Pound took ‘Nearest the Pin’ for the Fossils with a very impressive shot into the difficult third hole and way inside the ball that won it for Trevose struck by Ian Jeffrey.

Thursday brought a glorious and warm day, especially if sheltered from a nagging wind and such a change from Monday and for the winter as a whole.

The course was firm and provided considerable roll, in a number of cases much too much and the greens were fast.

So, with these excellent conditions, almost like summer golf, what were the Fossils playing?

The short answer was a Gentleman’s Advance, but with a slight twist to the normal rules of the event.

On the par threes players could not move their balls onto the surface of the green but could move them onto the apron if a colleague had managed to hold his ball there. At least one team had this skill set down to a fine art across the par threes, but other elements of their game did not quite meet those levels of accuracy.

It was difficult to predict a likely score as there were some interesting combinations of players spread across the field, i.e. low handicappers with high handicappers and others with high handicappers across the three team members.

With two from three scores to count, an eye-watering total was needed to even feature on the leaderboard.

Two teams returned home with 103 points on their scorecards that required count-back to determine who had won.

The victorious team were adjudged to be Jim Bennett, Colin MacDonald and Nigel Webster from Alec Brannan, Dave Morton and this week’s Ghost, Sophocles Ioannou.

Three other teams scored at least 100 points.

The results were: 1 Jim Bennett, Colin MacDonald and Nigel Webster – 103; 2 Alec Brannan, Dave Morton and Ghost – 103; 3 Marc Nash, John Smith and Nigel Coulson-Stevens – 102; 4 John Clements, James Simpson and Keith Abbott – 100; 5 Sophocles Ioannou, Melvyn Carter and Allan Evans – 100.