Inter Corps 21

INTER CORPS

8 - 9 July 2021

Saunton Golf Club

The draw for the Inter Corps Championship, generously sponsored by the Army Sport Control Board, was made on Wed 7 Jul, after the Matchplay finals had concluded. With the AGM having been cancelled owing to COVID restrictions, the draw was streamed live on Facebook. This enabled all interested parties the opportunity to see the draw being conducted as numbers in the clubhouse were limited. 18 teams entered comprising 11 “A” Teams (CAMUS and the AAC did not enter a team) and 5 “B” teams; more on the 2021 ballot later in the report. The Inf and RE Teams, as winners and runnersup respectively from the 2019 Championship, were the 1 and 2 seeds with the remainder being drawn out of the hat. The draw was fairly evenly matched with Infantry A, RA A, R SIGS A and REME A in the top half and RE A and RLC A and the AGC A in the bottom. Yet again, no two Corps teams were drawn together, although this year fielding half the Army Team players, the Inf B team was balloted out during the draw and would have to play in the subsidiary Inter Corps match versus the AGC B team, the other team balloted out.

As usual, the Championship moved completely to the West Course, a slightly shorter course by 244yrds than the East but one to be carefully navigated round.

It was going to be a stern test.

There were only two female golfers representing their respective Corps, one was the new Ladies Champion, Pte Niki Sutton representing the AGC and the other Maj Karen Fidell representing the AMS. In round one there were wins for R SIGS A, RLC B and Inf A, all 3½ - 1½, and the RA A winning slightly more convincingly 4 - 1.

The bottom half of the draw saw wins for RE A 4½ - ½, RAC in a

close match winning 3 - 2, RLC A and AGC A both winning 3½ 1½. It was clear that the two seeded teams were going to be the teams to beat.

In the second round the two seeded teams had convincing wins with the Inf A beating the RA A and the RE A beating the RAC, both 4 - 1, leaving R SIGS A beating the RLC B 3½ - 1½, and the AGC A beating the RLC A 3 2.

could kill the ball dead with their approach play. As expected, RA A scored 153pts to win the REME Shield by 10pts from RLC A. Third place went to the RAC with 134pts. The top individual scores for the round went to the Army Captain, Maj Jack Musgrove RA A on 35pts, although he was closely followed by Maj Sean Stevenson RLC A with 34pts.

Thereafter Capt Kenny Wilson RLC A on 32pts and then 4 others on 31 Pts.

The semi-final line-up would see the R SIGS A vs Inf A and the RE A

Back to the main Championship for the Irish Rangers Bowl and in

INT CORPS Top row, left to right - David Thomas, Ben Stephens, Lewis McColm, Andrew Mitchell, Paul Robson (did not play due to injury) Bottom row, left to right - Stewart Mitchell, Ben Ware, Jacob Timson

vs AGC A. There could still be a repeat of the 2017, 2018 & 2019 final?

In the Plate (Singapore Trophy) for the first-round losers, Int Corps beat the RA B 4 - 1, REME A beat AMS 4½ - ½, R SIGS B beat the RE B 3 - 2 and REME B beat RAPTC 3 - 2.

In the REME Shield, for day one losers, each team is required to play 18 holes scratch Stableford, with all 5 scores counting. The RA A team appeared the strongest on paper with the current Army Captain and several top Army players making up the numbers.

On a tight course with moisture in the greens it would play into the hands of the top players who

the first semi-final, R SIG A faced the Inf A in what proved to be a relative walk in the park for the Infantry winning quite convincingly 4½ - ½. In the other match, RE A, last year’s Runnersup were up against a good AGC A team with some top single figure players including a previous Army Captain and current Ladies Champion. That said, the RE A team was made up of four Army players, of which one was the current Matchplay Runner-up and one the Army Vice Captain so this was never going to be an easy to call. This proved to be a close match that eventually needed a play off to the decide the winner with the scores at 2½ - 2½. The teams selected the two players to

playoff down the first, Cpl Ben Churchill, the 7-time Army Champion and Maj Danny Saunders an ExArmy Captain were the chosen two. The first playoff hole was squared and then Saunders took the match on the second. So, a shock win for some saw AGC A reach the final against Inf A. Back to the Plate semi-finalists and this saw Int Corps vs REME A and R SIGS B vs REME B. The two semi-finals were in contrast, with one, a close run affair that went down to the last match and saw the Int Corps come out on top 3 – 2 and the other saw R SIGS B take no prisoners beating REME B 5 - 0.

The two finals were now decided and they set off in the afternoon with the weather conditions considerably better than they had been seen for most of the week. In fact, the wind dropped to an almost unnoticeable breeze. In the Plate final the first of the two matches, the Int Corps got off to a quick start to take a 2 match lead winning both 4&2. R SIGS B needed a strong recovery and took the next match, but could not sustain the pressure and lost the fourth match and therefore the match 3½ - 1½.

In the main final, it was always going to be a tough ask for the AGC as the Inf Team consisted of 4 Army players, including the current Matchplay and Open Champions. Inf A got off to a fast start winning the first two matches 6&5 and 4&3,

LCpl David Blick and Gdsm Jordan Slater respectively. Maj Danny Saunders beat Fus Lewis Phillips 5&4 to pull one back, but Capt Neil Williams hit back hard with a 7&6 win to take the final for the fourth consecutive time. Once again, the Inf A were a formidable team and will no doubt take some beating next year.

The main results were: Inter Corps Champions – Inf A Runners-up – AGC A Plate Winners – Int Corps Runners-up – R Sigs B Stableford Winners – RA A Subsidiary Competition – Inf B The final note must go to those who scored holes in one, there were two. LCpl Glen Watt and Sgt Josh Macinnes on the Par 3 16th on the West course. Not content with scoring his first hole in one during the Matchplay, Sgt Josh Macinnes managed to score a second on Fri 9 Jul on the same hole. With the pin at the back of the green on Monday he hit a 7-iron and on Friday with the pin at the front he hit an 8-iron. Remarkable and unheard of at Saunton. Josh will receive a complimentary, special edition BOSS watch from Club Systems.

All photos from the Inter Corps Championship can be found here.

INFANTRY A (left to right) Jonny Stevenson, Lewis Phillips, Neil Williams, Jordan Slater, Matt Bruce-Smith, and David Blick