EXETER CROWNED CHAMPIONS OF THE PALAIRET MEMORIAL TROPHY 2022

Sunday, 14th August, saw four teams travel to the mighty Royal North Devon Golf Club for the 2022 Palairet Finals Day. It was a day that was a long time in coming, RND having hosted their last Palairet Finals Day in 1967. Tiverton, Exeter, East Devon and Stover Golf Clubs were the four successful clubs looking to do battle on what was to be a very hot Finals Day.

The semi-finals in the morning saw Tiverton v Exeter and East Devon v Stover. Both teams were hungry for success and this was reflected in the match scores with very little between teams in all games. At the half-way stage all was in the balance and impossible to predict a winner as scores were fed to Paul Cloke for the live leaderboard - and there was not one runaway scoreline. Eventually, as the morning semi-finals entered the pressure zone of the final few holes, Exeter and Stover emerged victorious to progress into the afternoon's final.

Stover, last year's runners-up, had the opportunity to heal old wounds against an Exeter team who had not made the final for 12 years and were buzzing to seize this opportunity. You could feel the tension in the air - which was not to become confused with the haze then radiating from the scorched fairways of this summer heatwave. With our four county referees and their buggies ready to dispense bottles of water as well as their refereeing knowledge, the teams set off once more to do battle for one of the most important DevonGolf trophies of the year.

This match had a slightly different edge to it. 4 of the 5 matches (2 a piece) were up or down by more than 3 holes early on and the other all square. The top match where the Exeter pairing were 3 down, fought back to level which made for an exciting conclusion as the the final was, once again, impossible to call going into the back 9. Eventually, Exeter took 2 of the back 3 matches, needing one of the 2 top matches to go in their favour. With the top match all square going down the last and the second match all square playing 17, eventually the news rippled through that the Exeter pairing of James Reed and Chris Haggar had stolen their match - winning 1 up and mathematically putting it out of reach for Stover.

Click here for full results of semi and final matches

Stover, although scarred once more for coming so close in consecutive years, were gracious in defeat congratulating a strong Exeter team on winning the Palairet Memorial Trophy.

DevonGolf President Geoff Green presented the trophies to the four teams and congratulated them on a successful Palairet campaign, even if on this occasion they did not finish in the top spot. During the match meal Geoff thanked all the volunteers involved, which included the four match referees - David Smith, Lorna Brown, Tony Jeffs and Peter Holt - and the wonderful club and staff at the Royal North Devon Golf Club.

We look forward to doing it all again in 2023.

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