Last Saturday, on the second day of the Ryder Cup between Europe and USA, Tenby Golf Club hosted its own style of Ryder Cup.

Eight months ago, John Stenson, then club captain, approached match and handicap with the idea of some sort of Ryder Cup style competition to be played during the official Ryder Cup period being played at Celtic Manor, to celebrate the event being held in Wales for the first time.

The idea was enthusiastically received - so the date was set aside and when John Stenson's vice-captain, John Gillespie, took over as captain, they decided to create a trophy for the event, which the two captains provided.

In keeping with the finest traditional Welsh craftsmanship, this was made in Welsh slate. The two teams would be Wales versus the Rest of the World (ROW). The format a four ball best ball match play event based on a stableford system, with the pairing achieving the higher number of points over 18 holes winning their individual match.

It was an early shotgun start at 8.30 am, with every tee filled. Although overcast and very breezy at times, the match was completed without any rain interruption. The Wales side faced a combination of English, Scottish, Irish, Swedish and New Zealand players; even one match being made up of four visitors.

It was a very keenly fought match that went right down to the wire. Apart from the overall match, there was an individual pairs competition.

One Welsh pairing got off to a bad start, as Dai (Tabby) Skyrme's partner, Viv John, who spent the previous day at Celtic Manor and intended to leave Newport at 6 am that morning, was somewhat incapacitated to travel; so poor Tabby had to take on the father and son pairing of Jim and Neil Moffatt on his own. Although losing his match, Tabby did have the consolation of scoring one of the four twos recorded during the match.

Captain John Gillespie, partnered by the new club president, Mervyn Tucker, led the Wales team and was involved in a very keenly fought match against John Stenson, captain of the ROW team, and his partner Ross James.

Starting on the first, John Gillespie prevailed over the former captain John Stenson, winning their match with 37 points to 36 points.

Many of the matches only involved a difference of one or two points and the fortunes of either side swayed to and fro throughout the morning. Some remarkable recoveries were made. In one such match, Dave Henry and Jim Martin found themselves four points down after 11 holes, against Gareth Brace and Juan Cruz, with Juan totally belying his 27 handicap; in fact, he was in outstanding form. However, Dave and Jim managed to turn this around and snatched victory by one point on the 11th (their 18th hole).

Another close match was the Welsh pairing of Richard Ormond and Simon Rossiter against the ROW pairing of Phil Mumford and Gary McNeilly. The partnership of Richard and Simon is well known and they form a tough combination and Phil and Gary only lost out by a single point.

At the end of the event, a late breakfast was enjoyed by the players on their return to the clubhouse and, while waiting for the result to be collated, they enjoyed watching the official Ryder Cup on the large screen TV.

While this was going on, Jim Martin was checking all the results and scores. Unbeknown to everyone present, the score stood at nine games to Wales and eight to the ROW, with one final match to come in.

This was the match between the visitors Mike Davies and Alan Bowers for Wales versus Stefan Fabin and Steve Shallish for ROW. They had started at the far end of the course and were several minutes later returning to the clubhouse. When Jim told them to make sure they got their scores correct as the match hinged on the result, all four of them checked and re-checked their cards. This resulted in a win for the ROW pairing - giving a tie of 9-9 in the overall result.

After all the results had been checked, the results of the individual pairings competition was announced.

There were four 2s recorded, by Chris Beecher/Dave Llewellyn, Tim Edwards/Tony Rogers, Nigel Ayers, and Dai Skyrme playing on his own.

The individual partnership competition was as follows: 1. Chris Hughes and Tim Jackson with 40 points; 2. Jim and Neil Moffatt 39; 3. Peter Ellis and Alan James 38; John Gillespie and Mervyn Tucker 37, beating Austin Davies and Darren Thomas also 37 on a better back nine.

In the overall match, it had been agreed beforehand that if a tied result occurred, the final winners would be decided by the overall total aggregate of points by the two teams. After checking the scores of the teams, the winners of the trophy were Wales, with a total of 579 points against the ROW's total of 575 - that is how tight and closely fought the match was.

There was a huge roar from the Welsh contingent in a packed clubhouse when the result was announced.

John Gillespie was then presented with the newly created trophy by the previous captain John Stenson.

Club captain John was absolutely delighted to win the event, especially beating his very good friend John Stenson.

John Gillespie thanked all the competitors for the friendship and keen rivalry that the match was played in; he went on to thank Steve for providing the breakfast, plus Rhys Harry and his staff for looking after the registration.

He proudly announced that this trophy would be defended in two years' time and that the event would be a biennial match when the Ryder Cup is held.

Full results (Wales pairings first): M. Tucker/J. Gillespie beat J. Stenson/R. James; D. Skyrme lost to J. & N. Moffatt; I. David/G. Field-Thomas lost to R. Schofield/A. Watts; N. Dickinson/M. Edwards beat T. Morris/ T. Hopkins; D. Poole/Scott Davies lost to M. Morris/S. Keating; S. Court/B. Frayne beat P. Nixon/M. Neilan; Paul Davies/Meurig Jones beat K. Gouldsbrough/J. Ball; visitors Mike Davies/Alan Bowers lost to Stefan Fabin/Steve Shallish; I. Thomas/M. Anthony lost to M. Gillett/C. Smith; R. Ormond/S. Rossiter beat P. Mumford/G. McNeilly; P. Ellis/Alan James beat N. Ayers/Henrik Jaakola; G. Brace/J. Cruz lost to D. Henry/Jim Martin; Austin Davies/Darren Thomas beat J. Whitehouse/S. Maytum; D. Llewellyn/C. Beecher lost to R. Schooling/D. Blackmore; P. Goodridge/N. Webb beat P. Keating/R. Hall; I. J. Thomas/W. Lewis lost to Tim Edwards/T. Rogers; Chris Hughes/T. Jackson beat Steve Rattray (v)/J. Gilman; N. Vincent/Mackie Harts lost to Sam and Harri Jaakola.