Jamboree Report - 2026

A strong team,with a mixture of experience, headed south for the 2026 jamboree at Worthing Golf Club in West Sussex.
Continued hot weather was forecast and it was a little oppressive on the practice day.
Like so many other courses the fairways were parched, but the greens looked excellent. To add to this it was not a flat course, far from it. Also the greens were speedy and not easy to read. A true challenge lay ahead for all of the four regions.

Day 1 v the Midlands was another very hot day from the start. The players from both teams produced some great golf, with honours even after the morning foursomes.
In the afternoon there were some close matches that could have gone either way, but 3 wins and two halves was enough to secure a healthy victory, 5.5 to 3.5. We were off to an excellent start.

Day 2 v Scotland, brought altogether different weather conditions. It was extremely windy with gusts of up to 25mph.
The foursomes pairings from Scotland were amazing. Our team played very well, with the first pairing managing to take the match to the 16th despite having 5 birdies thrown at them.
The other two matches also saw some fabulous golf being played by both pairs. Scotland had the measure of the wind it seemed but our second pair hung in there for a half.
Again the last match had a few birdies thrown at them and despite playing well were defeated.
The wind was so bad and the greens so tricky that the referee had to have the hole position on one hole moved during play. Foursomes result was 2.5 to 0.5 in Scotland's favour.

In the afternoon singles everyone went out determined to fight for every point. Once again some very close matches. Our top match managed a great half and a good win in the second gave us hope. We were only able to secure a half point from the remaining matches despite them going to the wire.
Final result Scotland 6.5 to 2.5.Although the team were very disappointed we all recognised that this was down to the excellent play by the opposition not our poor play.

Day 3 v the host region, the South who were unbeaten to that point. A daunting task as they had three players who were from Worthing Golf Club, a great advantage. Our team was more than up for the challenge. We had to beat the South by a good margin if we were to have any chance of winning the Millar Sterling Trophy.
The team got off to a good start winning the first foursomes match, but we were unable to secure any more points from the morning session, despite the final match going to the 18th.
The afternoon matches were all so close, again a great start with a win and a half from the first two matches. In the third match we had a great fight back after being 3 down early - it proved a bit too much, but we almost managed something from the game.
Game four was an excellent match against an experienced home player, but it finished on the 16th. A good win in the fifth game and a loss in the final one meant a result of 5.5 to 3.5 in favour of the South.

The South were overall winners with the remaining 3 teams tied in second place. After a count back on game points we missed out on second place by a point. Scotland took the Tony Moffat Quaich by half point from the Midlands.

I thoroughly enjoyed my week with this wonderful group of people. Everyone worked so hard, played so well and should be very proud of themselves.
Thank you to Chris Pascall my Vice Captain and Elaine Elliot the President , who were there for me and the players all week. Also to the caddies who were invaluable, especially spotting balls that wouldn’t stay where they were hit. We had many supporters, so thank you to those who made the long journey. It was nice for myself and the players to see your familiar faces.

Julie Wheeldon
NCVLGA Captain