OAK Park Golf Club, Crondall claimed the Hampshire County Sevens title for the first time as rain wrecked the scheduled format and forced all four semi-finalists into an 18-hole shoot-out at Stoneham (writes Andrew Griffin).

The organisers devised an 18-hole medal before matching up the results in a head-to-head virtual matchplay to determine the eventual winner.

Oak Park, who lost in their previous attempt to be crowned Sevens champions at Tylney Park five years ago, turned out to the be runaway winners as they were declared the victors over Cowes – their scheduled semi-final opponents – by 6-1.

The ‘virtual’ matchplay, carried out with the cards in the clubhouse at the culmination of play, saw them defeat Meon Valley by 61/2-1/2.

Weather has disrupted the finals in the past. Play was suspended at Waterlooville in 2010 after the morning semis, forcing the Hampshire Golf Union to bring the two teams back on another day.

Torrential rain almost ruined the 2013 final as the finalists bravely battled to the finish at Basingstoke’s Weybrook Park.

But this year, having submitted their team line-ups at 7.30am, the 28 players were still in the clubhouse at 8am, looking out a flooded putting green. A number of bunkers on the course were already out of play, due to a major investment programme on one of Hampshire’s most revered courses, and several more were rapidly filling with water.

The organisers called the four captains together and decided to send the players out in eight three-balls and two two-balls in handicap order.

As a result, the drama of matchplay was missing, with no team really able to calculate where they stood.

Only when the cards were handed in some five hours later were the cards matched up in the order of the teams submitted by the captains, which were then turned into a hole-by-hole score to determine the winner of each, and subsequently all seven matches.

Meon’s semi-final against Jersey’s La Grand Mare, who made a mockery of their minnows status by reaching the final for a third time in five years, proved to be a 7-0 whitewash.

But with Oak Park fielding two players playing off six and the rest having handicaps between 11 and 13, the extra shots all paid off, even if in the final analysis, two of the virtual match-ups went to the 18th green and the other four matches were decided on the 17th.

Oak Park’s Christian Lindgren, the Hampshire U16 Player of the Year in 2015, beat Richard Hayward 3&2 in what proved to be the deciding fourth match.

Captain Ken Meister, who has been an Oak Park member for some 20 years, was delighted to get his hands on the trophy, even if the manner of victory was not what all four captains had hoped for.

Ken, who plays off 11, said: “Obviously, we would have preferred to have played the finals in the traditional format, but I’m delighted for my team, they deserve the win.

“We have a very small membership, so the number of players actually available to play in the Sevens is very limited.

“For that reason alone, getting to the final, let alone winning, is a remarkable achievement.

“Teams don’t like coming to Oak Park – it’s a tricky course with small greens, and the fact that we have not lost at home in either the County Sevens or the Mail on Sunday Classic for the past 20 years is a record to be proud of.

“It was a strange atmosphere because the matchplay element was missing out on the course – no-one really knew where they stood in the competition.

“But I told the team to go out there and fight for every shot and not give up on any hole because no-one knew what might happen in the match-up.”

And that was precisely what did happen as the Hampshire referees counted out the hole-by-hole score before declaring the first six games as victories for Meister’s men.

County Sevens Final results (handicap in brackets):

Meon Valley 1/2, Oak Park 61/2

Bradley Wright (3) lost to Paul Stephens (13) 1H; Dave Pendlebury (6) lost to Pete Rutland (13) 2&1; Gavin Bramley (7) lost to Robert Wheeler (6) 2&1; Richard Hayward (4) lost to Christian Lindgren (6) 3&2; Jack Hayward (12) lost to Jacob Lindgren (12) 2&1; Wayne Brackstone (6) lost to Ian Hawker (11) 3&1; Justin Towlson (5) halved with Ken Meister (11)

Semi-final

Cowes 1, Oak Park 6

M Heelan (8) beat P Stephens (13) 2&1; T Entwhistle (13) lost to P Rutland (13) 3&1; P Venables (13) lost to R Wheeler (6) 5&3; I Graham (9) lost to C Lindgren (6) 5&4; P Young (8) lost to J Lindgren (12) 5&4; P England (13) lost to I Hawker(11) 5&3; I Ralph (10) lost to K Meister (11) 6&5.