After a promising halfway situation which found Dalhousie either square or ahead in all six matches in Tuesday evening's encounter with Downfield on the Championship Course, the Club once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, going down 4-2 in the gathering gloom of the August night. It was, in truth, a great disappointment, since the Dalhousie tail wagged enthusiastically but the unexpected losses of the top three pairings gave them a mountain which was just too high to climb. In fairness, two of these early matches could have gone either way. A fluke rebound from the fence around the tenth tee on the Burnside gave Downfield's Colin Brough a huge reprieve after he hooked his drive at the fifteenth into apparent oblivion. With the match all square, he took full advantage of that to put his side ahead and despite a brave finish by Doug Mitchell and Donald Ford, the one-hole deficit remained to the end. Aidan McColgan and John Smith also lost at the last. "The Downfield lad was nearly on Buddon Links when he hit his putt at the eighteenth" said the distraught Dalhousie Treasurer afterwards - " and he HOLED it!" The despair was tangible.....
It WAS very dark when the final match came down the eighteenth, a creditable half from Alan Baird and Campbell Ford ( playing for Dalhousie for the very first time ) matching that of Frank Swan and David Forman, while Peter Field and Mike Swanston performed with much aplomb to record the sole Dalhousie victory of the evening. Questions are now being asked about the eligibility of the satellite navigation device ( GPS to give it its better known title) which Downfield's second group had at their disposal in their defeat of Ian Wilson and Jim Wallace. Questions may yet be asked. ( Alan Baird's, of course, was PURELY used for finding a way back in the descending darkness.)
"We'll get them next year", were Lindsay Hood's parting words. Having also lost the previous week at Downfield, we desperately need to!