There were late heroics as Gosfield Lake Golf Club made it through to the fourth round of the Mail on Sunday National competition following a win against Purdis Heath.

Following horrendous overnight rain and gale force winds the Gosfield course had recovered by the mid-morning tee-off time.

Hero on the day for Gosfield was club captain Malachy Shields, who was called on to play at the last moment when Mark Francis arrived early but with a dressing over one eye following an accident the previous day.

The opening game began badly for Gosfield Lake when Dale Argent, who had been leading after the first nine holes, went down in the end to Adam Glencastle by two holes.

However, the next game wiped out this result when Ersan Dobran defeated Craig Rumens six and five to bring the teams level.

Barney De Beer put Gosfield in the lead with a two-up victory over Shyan Patel in the third game, but reports from the course were not good with the remaining two Gosfield players both down after the opening nine holes.

Shields has had some good wins during his year as captain, but none were so important as the one in his last week.

Coming back from three holes down with a handful left may have seemed a difficult task for a player arriving only ten minutes before the game, but Shields overcame Tom Worne by one hole to put the match result beyond doubt.

Similar heroics were going on in the last match between two low handicappers as well, with Gosfield’s George Castle overcoming a four-hole deficit to draw level on the 18th in his game with Simon Godbold.

The match was won 3½-1½ and the fightback in the last two games will be long remembered as a fitting start to the new season for the Gosfield team.