Seniors and Ladies Texas Scramble - 30th October 2018

What a pleasure it was to play with the Ladies Captain Dawn and Pat and of course my Seniors partner Vernon we not only stayed dry but played some good golf.

Now that may sound a bit strange but if you've seen how my game has been this year you would realise it was worth a mention.

The weather gods were with us with just enough wind to make some holes tricky.

I would like to thank Geoff Beck and Paul Marshal who took your money at the desk and handed out the cards.

Well done to the winners starting with.

3rd Dawn French, Pat Harrington, Vernon Toms and Captain Jim. with a score of 59.1.

2nd Susan Garrard, Penelope Staveley-Smith, Pat Gilgallon and John Gregory with a score of 58.7

1st Celia Dooley, Caroline Lewis, Bill Conway and Derek Weller with a score of 57.3

Nearest the pin winners were Ladies Nicki Hunter. Seniors Keith Blankley.

Well Done.

The next competition is the Bring and Win so remember dig deep nothing under £7.50

Regards Captain Jim Jock. 

 

1st Celia Dooley, Caroline Lewis, Bill Conway and Derek Weller

 

2nd Susan Garrard, Penelope Staveley-Smith, Pat Gilgallon and John Gregory

 

3rd Dawn French, Pat Harrington, Vernon Toms and Captain Jim

 

Captains - Jim and Dawn

 

 

TSB Trophy Juniors v Seniors - 23rd October 2018

Report to follow

Jim Kerr with Susan Lee
(Susan looks down because she knows the result)

Danial Haugh presents the trophy to the Seniors

Prostate Project Day - 22nd October 2018

We would like to thank everyone who took part in the ‘Jock Allan's Charity Golf Day’ on the 22^nd October 2018 to raise money for The Prostate Project.

It was great to see Colin Stokes from the Prostate Project who delivered a very informative talk on the benefits of awareness of Prostate Cancer. He also provided an update on the progress that the charity is making into research of this illness.

We were very fortunate to have  good weather  for the day, and hopefully you all enjoyed the meal and the Auction. The total raised was a fantastic £3,631.00

We had  76 members and guests registered to play.  I’m sure we all appreciate the help provided on the day at registration and during the day by the following ladies  Jean Peacock, Barbara Stokes, Jill Smith and Pauline Aubigne. We would also like to thank the club and the staff for supporting the event.

The golf results were:

Hole 1 - Nearest pin in 2     Phil Farrow
Nearest the Pin
Hole 4   Pete Dobson - Hole 10 Phil Farrow - Hole 16 Phil Howe

2s club  - 2 winners  of £26 for Neil Pinnington and Phil Howe

Pairs results:

1^st place                                        46pts     Algy Grimes & Jonathan Lean

2^nd place                                       44pts     Keith Fuller & Sue Lee

3^rd place (on count back)              43pts    Tony Wittich & Simon Davis

Please note the next  ‘Jock Allan’s Charity Golf Day for The Prostate Project’ will be held on the 1^st April 2019.

Jock Allan - Tony Goodson - Jim Kerr - Jim Peacock

 

Winners - Jonathan Lean and Algy Grimes



Second - Susan Lee and Keith Fuller

Third - Simon Davies and Tony Wittich

The Raffle Prizes







2016 Captain Richard Aubinge presents a cheque to Colin Stokes

Jock Allen and Colin Stokes

Below are the nearest the pin winners 

              








Seniors Two Clubs and a Putter - 16th October 2019

The 2 clubs and a putter comp struggles for numbers there was 43 reported in for the competition, but only 40 results.

Personally I like this competition as only having 2 playing clubs your expectations are low.

There were some good scores in, particularly Derek Weller winning with 37 points.

 Neil Pinnington came in second with 33 points.

 Third place was hard fought for with 7 players coming in with 32 points.

David Lincoln got third place on count back.

The weather was good but the course is struggling, I just hope the hot summer has not done any lasting damage and we can have our courses back to their excellent best for next season.

Nearest the pin was won by Neil Pinnington.

He was not keen on my suggestion that you only take one prize or is that just for raffles. Well done Neil.

 

Jim Kerr, Seniors Captain

Seniors Autumn Stableford - 9th October 2018

High summer returned in mid-October for our Autumn Stableford and it drew 79 entrants (eventually!!) but only 76 returned scores. Two withdrawn injured and one disqualified for not signing his card - I did look for him when I saw that but he'd gone. The Rules of Golf are fiercely applied to all. It's a cruel game! In fact only one player bettered par and only two others matched it. CSS went to 74 (SSS 71). Steve Collins (36) had 17 on the back 9 to snatch 3rd place from Alan Anderson (19 on the back 9) who had to settle for 2nd! David Lincoln could just be seen in the far distance with 39 points and he won the trophy for 2018. Well done David!

Winner - David Lincoln

Third - Steve Collins

Nearest the Pin? Well, thereby hangs a tale! The nearest I heard was Derek Weller with (varying reports) 12 to 24 inches. Sadly for those playing the course from the 1st the marker was brought in by the last group playing from the 10th - the accomplices being as guilty as the perpetrator so, no names no packdrill, eh? It's such a shame because, whilst I'm sure my partner Alan Curtis's ball was only a micron away, mine was actually atop the flagstick so I should have won, and Mr Jarman was definitely nearest the green in our group.

I don't want to 'Bullen' anybody but it might be a 'Smart' move if the guilty parties were to club together and buy Mr Weller a bottle of wine to have 'Whit his Bread'.

Never a dull moment with this crowd!

David

Gordon Percival Team Trophy and Martin Ives Shield - 2nd October 2018

"You've got to be in it to win it!" someone once said. It might have been David Gauge.

Today saw the 2018 playing of the Gordon Percival Team Trophy where players score a singles stableford card but that score counts towards a team of three total where the team members are not revealed until everyone is on the course. That requires a number of players that is divisible by 3 and, until this morning, barring some late replacements we had that. But Paul Stallard must have indulged in some late night contortions and twisted his knee badly and so had to withdraw this morning.

 

Already in the clubhouse but not yet in the line up was one David Gauge - his name may be familiar to some of you. David kindly stepped in and, with his team Alan Kirkham and Michael Tomblin, scored 112 points to win the Gordon Percival Trophy. Well done all! John Hazelwood, Alan Anderson and John Sandland (team 107 points) were in 2nd place with Lawrence Wilson, Richard Westergreen-Thorne and Fred Williams 3rd with 104 points.

 

STOP PRESS: Oh no they weren't!! A subsequent check has shown that, with 105 points (not 95 as shown on the manual score sheet), in third place were the team of Graham Court, Derek Weller and Anthony McLean. Apologies to those three for missing a photo opportunity and commiserations to Lawrence, Richard and Fred who, clearly, were nowhere near as good as they thought they were!!!! (All other scores were correct!)

But today was also the first playing of the Martin Ives Shield for the player with the best singles stableford score. If this had been the main competition today, the third place prize would have been awarded to one David Gauge, with 40 points, beating Richard Westergreen-Thorne into 4th place on countback with 21 points over the back 9 against Richard's 20. In second place was a man who seems to have found his form again, Bill Walker on 41 points. But he was beaten to the Martin Ives Shield by John Sandland with 42 points. No less than 12 players beat the buffer zone and received a handicap cut. 

Last but not least, the Nearest the Pin on the 8th hole was won by ........ WHAT? HIM AGAIN? ....... David Gauge.

 

Well done David! Have you entered next week's competition?

David Crosby

Hon Sec

 



Winners of Gordon Percival Trophy
Michael Tomblin - Alan Kirkham - David Gauge

Winner - Martin Ives Shield - John Sandland



Second Gordon Percival - John Sandland - John Hazlewood

 



They thought they were third!!!
Fred Williams - Richard Westergreen-Thorne

Bailiff Shield - 26th September 2019

Always the bridesmaid? I don't think so! But on this occasion Rob Anderson (38 points) was kept waiting from the completion of his round in the first group out, only to be beaten to the altar of happiness by Jonathan Lean (42 points) playing in the antepenultimate group, nearly an hour and half later! Playing in the penultimate group was Derek Weller (37 points), but by then the groom and best man had already been decided. I can see it now next Spring in our 4BBB competition, Rob Anderson paired with Jonathan Lean as our very own Molliwood team! Feel the love? Not if I can help it!!!!! My memory may fail me but - did Jonathan also win the nearest the pin? That's just greedy!

 

David Crosby

Hon Sec John O'Gaunt Seniors' Section

Winner - Jonathan Lean

 

Second - Bob Anderson

Third - Derek Weller

Away Match v Letchworth - 24th September 2019

This was our last match and I have to say one I look forward to as I only live a couple of miles from the club, I know a few of the members well, so the banter is usually revved up a notch.

Brian Bullen was my partner and organiser and Brian is the same as me in that he knows a lot of the members so it was good fun.

We had a perfect day for golf, Brian and I played perfect ham and egg golf. The Captain of Letchworth was a friend of both of us but I am not so sure now as Brian was sinking 20 foot putts to win or half and I did my little bit as well.

I would like to say that was how it went for the rest of the team but alas it was not to be we lost the match 5 to 3 but again we won our home game 4.1/2  to 3.1/2 when this was mentioned it was pointed out that the margin of victory was greater for them; who said these matches are not competitive.

Well lads that is it for the year as far as the matches go. I hope all of you who played in the matches had as much fun as I had, bad jokes an all..

Captain Jim Jock.

Away Match v South Beds - 19th September 2019

The match for South Beds is our latest starting time 12 o clock noon we seem to have mixed feelings about this, personally I am happy with this time. We get up at a sensible time on some occasions I was up at 5 am to get to some courses this was a nice don't need to hurry start to the day.

We had bacon rolls with our coffee waiting for us when we arrived we had a 2 tee start that got us back in at a sensible time and sat down to a lovely carvery, very civilised.

My partner and organiser was Nick Seeley who played most of the game on his own while I went off to check on the flora and the condition of the trees when asked what I scored I said lost 3 balls found 6 so I am claiming a victory.

We played a nice couple of friendly guys Captain Terry and organiser Ron who I met on the tees and some greens but all in all a very enjoyable day.

They have had their clubhouse revamped and a nice job they have made of it.

Unfortunately the late start  must have put the rest of the team out of sorts as the result was 5.1/2 to 2.1/2 to them.

Only one match to go.

Keep swinging Captain Jim Jock.

Away Match v Leighton Buzzard - 17th September 2019

Weather was good not to warm not to cold but most important dry.

My organiser and partner for the day was Gerry Degaute. We had a really good round of golf but met a better pair on the day. The course is a very interesting mix of holes and worth playing if you get the chance.

The best part is the balcony over looking the 18th green were the tail enders have to run the gauntlet of abuse on the greens and on one occasion in the bunker. The food was good the company good and the banter good.

Unfortunately we lost the match 5.1/2 to 2.1/2  but claimed a moral victory by reminding them we won 6.1/2 to 1.1/2 at home. Not very sporting of me I know but there you go nobody likes a loser.

Keep swinging we are nearly there only 2 matches left.

Captain Jim Jock.

Away Matcch v Gog Magog - 14th September 2019

This was my second visit in 2 days to the Gog Magog club and my 4th game of the week.

My 1st visit was an inter club match and we played the Wandersbury Course. I have to say the fairways looked really well considering the weather we have had. I was told that they get more rain fall than us. Something to do with the Chiltern Hills and other geographical conditions all to complicated for me all I know is that if you want rain try Scotland.

My partner and organiser for the match was Ken Doggrell. Ken hired a buggy and believe me I was glad to take up his offer to share so thank you Ken.

Ken and I had a lovely round with the usual peaks and troughs that seem to be part of seniors golf rounds. We got off to a bad start as the opposition chipped in on the first hole to take the hole and we both lost our balls in the quarry on the second hole so 2 down and never really recovered from there.

The weather threatened but stayed dry. 

We had the usual excellent quality of food with a huge bowl of trifle that was passed round the table.

The banter was up to expectations and we had the usual bad jokes at the end.

I am glad to say we came away with a 4/12 to 3/12 win. Well done lads..

Captain Jim Jock