Thursday, 6 October saw a group of seven students and eight staff members visit Nottingham to represent the College in an annual match against Nottingham University.

This year Nottingham hosted the games and from the feedback received, they did a magnificent job. The staff team this year was led by Mr Philip Curtis (Associate Director of Admissions and Student Services) and the student team was led by Mr Anthony Hoban currently studying medicine (SC1) in RCSI.

Tee-off for the competition was on the Friday morning and with a little help from up above, a window of good weather appeared. In what were fiercely competitive matches, the RCSI students came out on top of their counterparts from Nottingham. The morning did start slowly for the students, coming home with a single point won by Anthony Hoban (SC1), leaving RCSI trailing 3-1 after the morning round. The afternoon was a different story! At times starring down the barrel of our first defeat in 9 years, all 7 players went on to pick up scores for a tight win against a much-improved Nottingham side to ensure ‘Molly' made her way back to Dublin

The bar was set with Conor O'Reilly (2nd Pharm) shooting out of the traps to finish up with a win to start the comeback, followed quickly by Peter Staunton (SC1) and Theo Ryan (MSc.Pharm) picking up points to turn the tide in RCSI's favour. The stage was set for Paul Dillon (MSc Pharm) to tie the match and for Robert Brodigan (1st Physio) to seal the win with a birdie on his 36th hole of the day to seal the win.

Unfortunately, the staff result was less promising. For the first time in several years, the staff winning trophy went to Nottingham.

Anthony praised the Nottingham players and added: "Hopefully this will be the start of a successful year for RCSI golf. We have outings planned over the coming months; more challenge matches (against other Medical Schools), a  mixed students match and a staff v students match - which is sure to be an interesting event. Mr Philip Curtis, speaking on behalf of the RCSI staff team thanked Brian Kirby for all his support in putting together the trip. Brian is currently in Perdana University, Malaysia (PU-RCSI) and therefore couldn't join the staff team on this occasion.  Philip went on to add that the staff team will be back in full swing next year and he is confident the staff trophy will once again adorn the RCSI trophy cabinet.