An excellent first round win against Canford! A young team, with many fine golfers (including an international from Barbados!), Canford beat Epsom in the first round of last year's Hewitt, and progressed only to lose to Charterhouse in the quarter finals. It was therefore extremely pleasing to thrash them! Whilst our first pair limped home, our 'rookie' pair, David and Harry played some faultless golf to brush aside the opposition. Craig and Tony won comfortably, whilst Willy and Adam overcame a hole in one at the 3rd by the opposition (James Lovett), to win 7 holes in a row to round off their match. Giles and Martin were all square on 16th tee and confident of victory when the match was completed.

Whilst Cranleigh spirits were high after our first round victory we were under no illusions that Bradfield, semi finalists of the last 2 years would provide a stern test. The surnames of Torrance, Rafferty and Gallacher on the team sheet are impressive. Cranleigh pairs 2 and 3 ground out victories, whilst pairs 1, 4 and 5 fell just short of the high levels of play on the Thursday. All 3 pairs felt that their opposition were eminently beatable and ultimately we were undone by the 'knack of winning ugly' that some of the Bradfield pairs have acquired as a result of repeated runs in the Hewitt.

Obviously this was our first Hewitt for decades without the presence of David Bluett. He would have been proud, throughout both matches we enjoyed excellent encouragement from our supporters which was much appreciated by all of the team. A special thank also to you to Matthew for performing the role of 11th man so graciously.

All in all it was an excellent Hewitt. The weather, the craic and in particular the clear evidence that over the next few years we have the potential to build a strong team who will undoubtedly be able to help us progress into the weekend. Roll on 2012! (MFJ)