Our first round was at Royal St George’s against Gresham’s.  A lovely start time of around midday allowed us to have some fun on the Lodge putting green before making final preparations on the practice ground at St George’s.  These preparations were clearly good as four of the five matches were going Dulwich’s way at the turn.  A large group of 16  SODS, including the Master of the College Joe Spence, were standing on the dune on the right of the 10th green, and had smiles and encouraging words.  Then came the Gresham’s fight back.  The top pair of Roger Kelly and Chris Sealey had a rejuvenated opponent who holed long puts at the 16th and 17th to keep the match alive only to miss another at the 19th to allow Dulwich a narrow victory.  Behind, the ever reliable pair of Jonathan Swinney and Freddie Neden had secured the win leaving us needing just one more point for victory; and as it always seems to do, it came down to the last pair on the last green who just couldn’t repel the valiant fight back from their opponents.  Many of the SODs had left early in confidence of a Dulwich victory but the Hewitt yet again showed why it is such a great tournament and why you should never give up until it is all over.

The following day in the Plate I fielded a young side (except for Jonathan Swinney) against a very strong looking three pairs from Shrewsbury.  Again it was agonisingly close with Shrewsbury just coming out on top.  My personal highlights were following Jonathan Swinney and Fredde Neden in the top match for the front nine at Princes and watching a display of quality ball striking.  I left them 3up at the turn and focussed my attentions on the brand new pairing of Chris Sealey and Felix Suther-Jones playing behind.  When I joined them on the 9th they were 2 down. Three birdies and an eagle from there saw them win by 1up against a pair that really didn’t put a foot wrong.  It was wonderful to see Chris and Felix having so much fun and playing so well.  The top match fought bravely but couldn’t stem the tide of the fine fightback and lost down the 19th.

It was a great honour to be the Old Alleynian Team Captain this year.  It was agonisingly close in both matches.  But I think there are encouraging signs and reasons to be hopeful for the future.  We hope that the Peter Oosterhuis Academy gets the green light to gradually get Dulwich back towards the top of the Hewitt tree once again.

Team: Roger Kelly, Chris Sealey, Jonathan Swinney, Freddie Neden, Johnny Waugh, Felix Suther-Jones, Ameet Patel, Alex Charawani

SODS: Joe Spence (Master of the College), Duncan Anderson, Nick Donald, Will Lewis, David Rutnam, Roger Walker, Chris & Gillie Litterick, Nick Howe, Nick Owen, Rupert Evans, Richard Andrade, John Simpson, Peter Dickenson, Geoffrey Eclair-Heath, Roger Kelting

Roger Kelly