BON ACCORD, MURCAR LINKS, NIGG BAY AND NEWMACHAR IN SEMI-FINALS

MAITLAND SHIELD DRAMA IN QUARTER-FINALS  

The quarter-finals of the City of Aberdeen double foursomes for the Maitland Shield produced a night of high drama on a blustery night at Stonehaven Golf Club.
The majority of the drama was served up by the first tie, Northern vs Bon Accord. Although Bon Accord’s first pair of Barrie Edmond and Matthew Dunn were safely in the clubhouse with a one-hole victory, the second match was in a very strong position for Northern whose pair of Richard Hyland and Paul Vass were three up with two to play.
However, the Northern duo managed to lose the last two holes and so could only post a one-hole victory. This meant the match was halved and extra holes were required. Incredibly, despite Bon Accord hitting their tee shot out of bounds, the 19th hole was halved in fives.

The second pairing also halved the 19th and so the match went to the 20th where Bon Accord triumphed when their first paring managed a win and the second pairing halved in fours.

The second tie was slightly more straight forward with Murcar Links’ first pairing of Anthony Bews and Corin Stewart establishing a lead by the turn and eventually running out winners by five holes.

 This meant that the second pairs could shake hands on the 17th with the match all square.

Nigg Bay were able to take full advantage of their miraculous win over Banchory the previous night by defeating Peterculter by two holes. This was due to the 4-hole win that their first pairing of Steve Jamieson and Ian Welsh achieved as their second pair went down to a two hole loss.

Host club Stonehaven’s involvement was ended with a five hole loss to Newmachar. Stonehaven seemed certain to go ahead in the first match at the 11th but a long range putt by Euan Kennedy of Newmachar meant that it was the ‘away’ side who actually went 1up. Newmachar’s first pairing never looked back and ran out 5up winners. This was meant that a fantastic fight back by Stonehaven’s second pair of Neil Irvine and Jason Barbour, who were 5 down after eleven holes but finished all square, was ultimately futile.

 RESULTS

QUARTER-FINALS

Bon Accord bt Northern at 20 th (B Edmond and M Dunn 1, G Paterson and C Johnstone 0; M Greig and G Somers 0, R Hyland and P Vass 1)

Murcar Links beat Caledonian by 5 holes (A Bews and C Stewart 5, B Reid and L Morrice 0; B Innes and D Raitt 0, S Finnie and A Doig 0)

Nigg Bay beat Peterculter by 2 holes (S Jamieson and I Welsh 4, D McLean and M Aitken 0; N Slater and R Forbes 0, G Watson and J Kennedy 2)

Newmachar beat Stonehaven by 5 holes (E Kennedy and C Simpson 5, K Riddell and C Brown 0; E MacIntosh and C Cheyne 0, N Irvine and J Barbour 0)

SEMI-FINALS

5pm – Bon Accord v Murcar Links

5.15 – Nigg Bay v Newmachar