JAMBEROO’S White Horse Cup team finished their season with a close loss to arch rivals Kiama at Vincentia on Sunday.
The 4 matches to 3 loss brought to an end a very enjoyable two months for team members and an overall finish in the middle of the field.
Maybe a few opportunities were lost along the way but the satisfaction of getting out there and competing was never diminished. And of course there is always next year.
In the final round the consistent Steve Robertson won 2 up, Errol Stubbs won 2&1 and Darryl Campbell had a big win 7&5.
Tony Rodriguez lost a tight match 1 down, Brad Jackson lost 4&3, Steve Jackson went down 7&6 and Neil Harper lost 4&3.
Overall, Sussex Inlet won the Division with 13 points, Kiama was second with 12 points and Kiama third on 10 points.
Jamberoo finished with seven points along with Moss Vale, The Grange and Shell Cove Links. St Georges Basin were on 6 points and Vincentia on 3.
Team captain Darryl Campbell would like to thank all team members who took the time and effort to participate and enabled Jamberoo to field a team each week and record such a respectable result.
All of Jamberoo’s Pennant squads fielded strong, full teams each round this year and whilst the club had no outright winners the level of competiveness displayed and the contribution of members bodes well for the future.

JAMBEROO’S White Horse Cup team toppled competition leaders Sussex Inlet at Moss Vale on Sunday and now look forward to meeting arch rivals Kiama in the season final round the week after Easter.

After losing to cellar dwellers Shellharbour last week and watching his first two team members fluff their opening tee shots on Sunday, team captain Daryl Campbell thought they were in for another disappointing day.

But as Daryl reports, things just got better:

“The team travelled to Moss Vale to compete against Sussex Inlet who are leading the competition with 11 points.

Again the groups were confronted with a substandard course with cored and sanded greens and a 300mm preferred lie thru the green because of furrowed fairways – disappointing standards for a pennant competition.

JGC number 7 Brad Jackson hooked his 1st shot into the trees from the tee to be followed by JGC number 6 Steve Jackson who topped his 1st shot into the hazard in front of the tee, not a good start and hopefully was not going to be the norm for the game.

Because of the course layout it was difficult to get information as to how the groups were going.

Despondingly walking back to the clubhouse after being defeated on the 17th hole, the team captain was elated when his group greeted him with smiles from ear to ear and joyously quoted their efforts of victory 4&3.

Individual results:

B.Jackson 3&2 win – S.Jackson 2&1 win – N.Harper 3&1 loss – E.Stubbs 5&4 loss – K.Murphy 4&3 win – D.Campbell 3&1 loss – T.Rodriguez 4&3 win.”

THE Jamberoo B Pennant team has finished equal first in its division after a strong win over Moss Vale at St Georges Basin on Sunday.

Unfortunately, they will miss out on playing in the district final with The Links Shell Cove winning that honour on a count back of total matches played.

The Jamberoo squad missed out by just 4.5 matches.

“I think having our home game washed out to start the season put us behind the eight ball but it was a great effort from the team to fight back and finish equal first,” team captain Ken Baker said.

“I would personally like to thank to all the players for their contributions this year and hopefully we can go that one step further next year.”

The team included Baker, Jarrod Gehrmann, Peter Munro, Anthony Humphries, Bill Hudson, Tony Dobbie, Henric Wagner, Tom Persson, Ron McRea, Tony Panecasio and  Ray Orr.

On Sunday the winners were Anthony Humphries 1up, Tony Dobbie 4&2, Henric Wagner 4&2 and Tom Persson 3&1, with captain Ken finishing all square.

Well done B Pennant squad.

White Horse Cup

The news wasn’t so good at The Grange where the Jamberoo White Horse Cup team suffered a shock 4 matches to 3 loss to Shell Cove.

Perhaps the Shellharbourites, who are running last in the competition, felt more at home on the poorly presented greens that had just been heavily cored and top dressed with a course sand material.

Definitely more suited to the beach than for putting or chipping in a pennant golf round – but it was equal conditions for all competitors and no excuses.

Winners were Tony Rodriguez (6&5), Kim Murphy (4&3) and Steve Robertson, who put up a tremendous battle for 18 holes to record his first win of the season 1 up.

Now seeking counselling are Errol Stubbs (5&4 loss) Brian O’Hare (4&2 loss) Steve Jackson (4&3) and Brad Jackson (7&5), who had his first loss of the season.

The team should get a welcome boost when captain Darryl Campbell injects himself back into the fray when they take on Sussex Inlet at Moss Vale on Sunday.

With the season over for the B’s and C’s, the White Horse cuppers have their final round against Kiama at Vincentia on April 11.

ERNIE ELS wasn’t the only one returning to the winners circle on the weekend with Jamberoo’s B Pennants and White Horse Cup teams having equally resounding victories.

At Shoalhaven Heads B Pennant member Jaryd Byres probably felt more like Anthony Kim than Ernie, playing with a giant hangover the morning after his 21st Birthday.

Jaryd battled the haze and his Shoalhaven Heads opponent to win 3 & 2. Tom Persson really gave his adversary a surprise wakeup call with a hole in one on the second and eventually street home 7 & 5. Tony Dobbie won 2 & 1 and Ron McRae stylishly accepted a forfeit.

The end result was Jamberoo 4/3 over Shoalhaven Heads. The B’s play Moss Vale at St Georges Basin on Sunday.

In the White Horse Cup, Jamberoo captain Darryl Campbell continued his brutal regime of ruthlessly culling any imperfect, underperforming golfing deadwood and came up with a winning team that blitzed Vincentia at Kiama.

Proving that terror works and inspired by a supportive visit by Jamberoo Club President Phil Lewis, all those White Horse Cuppers who had not been the recipient of one of Darryl’s dreaded midnight phone calls performed admirably on the paddock to take an impressive 5 games to 2 win.

Sleeping soundly this week will be the in form Brad Jackson (7&6 win), Steve Jackson (4&2 win), Kim Murphy (2 up) and the llama loving Tony Rodriguez (7&6 win).

Errol Stubbs and Darryl Campbell (cough) should be safe after squaring their matches, but Neil Harper will be beginning to sweat after a 2 down loss.

This close knit but terrified and cowering team will face The Links at The Grange on Sunday.

Over at C Pennants, captain Dave Ransom is more of a benevolent despot that a ruthless dictator.

The C’s found out half way through their last match of the season that their grand final opponents of last year Vincentia had them trumped and there would be no end of season rematch this time around.

Dave Ransom reports:

“C Pennant 14/3/10

Vincentia 4 – Gerringong 3. What more is there to say? We received this demoralising news as we finished the front nine. Congratulations to Vincentia, worthy winners of our division.

In our match against Kiama, in the inaugural Town and Country Challenge, the news was equally depressing. We were defeated 4 to 3, giving Kiama bragging rights until our next meeting in the annual C Pennant challenge between our two clubs. Next time it will be different!!

Tom Zimmerman and Tony McRae recorded excellent wins. Tom continued his excellent form winning 4/3, being in control of his match from the start.

His opponent was so frustrated after 6 holes he wanted to quit.

Unfortunately a pep talk from T2 motivated him to make a charge but Tom was able to withstand the pressure, showing the true “eye of the cougar”, and recorded a comfortable win. Tony also played exceptionally again whipping around the front nine in a very impressive 1 over. Tony had his ‘A’ short game on display and won a very high quality game 2/1. Well played.

Col Booth and Peter Francis recorded excellent halved games. Col was well behind early and was able to show his true class and quick learning style to achieve a good result.

I watched Col halve the last two holes from impossible positions to thoroughly deserve his half point. Peter again showed his determination and class to come from behind and win the last hole to also square his match. Peter had an attack of the unmentionables on three occasions and still put in an excellent performance despite his obvious and understandable frustration. Some incident in a bunker was reported after one of these shanks. Investigations are under way to see if Peter has earned a very special prize!

Steve Oppert, Chris Leckey and Paul Hemmings were unable to match their opponents and lost their games. Steve again found a hot opponent at number 1 losing 4/3. Steve was playing well but had a few tangles with the poplars on the tight Nowra course that his opponent managed to avoid and eventually went down despite a late flurry when the game was dormie.

Chris looked good with his new hat for most of the game, but several long bombs saw his opponent sneak away with the game 3/1. Paul was up against the wily Kiama captain who ‘turned it on’ for a seven hole period in one under, to wipe Paul away 6/5. There is not much you can do when your opponent ignites except learn the hard lesson or try and blow out the match before he ignites.

Thanks gentlemen for your time and efforts. To finish second is no disgrace and you represented the club with honour. What’s more, the friendships made and the joy gained from playing this great game far outweigh all other considerations.

Until next year, good bye (and sorry about all the nick-names).

Dave Ransom”

WHO KNEW Jamberoo White Horse Cup Team No 1 Tony Rodriguez was such an animal lover.

The Spanish import was so excited to discover there was a llama farm next to the Sussex Inlet Golf Course it helped him get off to a flyer against his Port Kembla opponent on Sunday.

Obviously inspired by the llamas leaning over the golf club car park fence when he arrived, Tony was leading 5 up early in his match before flagging a little to finally win 3 & 2.

Tony explained to his riveted team mates he had had a long fascination with llamas ever since a community member brought one back from the Andes to take part in some sort of cultural activity at his 18th birthday party.

Unfortunately,  not all his White Horse team mates were so inspired, with Brad Jackson (4 & 3) the only other player to record a win.

It was Tony’s second win on the trot, so the secret can’t just be the llamas.

Team captain Darryl Campbell was also happy with Brad’s performance, pointing out he had halved all his matches to date and deserved his win.

Losses to Steve Robertson, Steve Jackson, Brian O’Hare, Errol Stubbs and Kim Murphy meant the team went down 5 to 2.

C Pennants struggle in the Gerringong hills

The Jamberoo C Pennant team will face an up hill battle to reach another district final after struggling to a draw at Gerringong.

Team Captain Dave Ransom reports:

Round 3 vs Gerringong at Gerringong.

“We knew it would be difficult and so it proved to be.

Good wins were recorded by Chris  (The Hat) Leckey, who this week wore the appropriate head wear to have a big win, 7/6, at number 7. This is the first time Chris has played so low in the order and showed his class to win his match easily. Maybe next week we will put him back up the order.

Tony McRae played very solidly to win his match 3/1 at number 5, making his usual back nine comeback while telling several bad jokes. Tom Zimmerman showed amazing resilience to win the last hole and square his match at number 2, surviving the old putt out of the bunker trick by his opponent at the 17th.

Tom was 3 down late in his game and it was a great performance to square his match.

T2 was lucky enough to win his match 2/1, in his season debut, playing against the local greenkeeper. This was despite several duffed chips every time Phil Lewis was watching.

Thanks Phil for your support of the team. Perhaps you could look the other way when I am near the green!

Strong, but unsuccessful, performances were recorded by Steve, (T1) Oppert who ran into an opponent on fire at number one,

Warwick (Pup) Miller and Peter ( BP) Francis.

The local knowledge certainly helped their opposition and hindered our efforts.

Good to see Mr Cricket (Col Booth) at the game freely giving out encouraging words and massages!

The match ended in a draw, 3.5 games to 3.5. What’s worse is that our main rivals, Vincentia, managed to again have a resounding 6 – 1 win against their opposition to open up a 1 point and 4 winning game lead over us.

The pennant may sadly be gone. However let’s be positive and try and finish our season undefeated next week against Kiama, in the highly anticipated Town vs Country challenge to be held at Nowra.

Hope to see you there. (9.15 hit off)”

Dave (T2) Ransom.

B Pennants floundering

The B Pennant squad had a bye this week but were still smarting after being beaten 6/1 by Shellharbour at Worrigee Links last week.

Tony Panecasio was the only winner but a number of the other matches went down to the wire.

Maybe the return of co-captain Ken Baker from New Zealand will help turn things around on Sunday when the B’s play Shoalhaven Heads at Shoalhaven Heads.

It was hoped Ken was in the Land of the Long White Cloud honing his golfing skills but the exclusive picture below casts series doubt on the focus of his activities.