What a contrast to last week. The weather was fine and the course was dry (relatively speaking) though we still had the luxury of preferred lie through the course. Numbers were also up due in part to the appearence of some faces not seen around the tees for a while. Carltons recent form is reported to have brought David Howard out of his hibernation, Ken Grist is back from his SKI holiday in foreign climes and despite being somewhat restricted due to a back injury, Eddie Kloprogge tested his swing and showed the benefits of the ballet lessons he has been taking during his sabbatical.
David and Priemsy were going neck and neck all round but David had opened up a bit of a lead at the 17th only to see the advantage evaporate on the slope leading up to the 18th letting Chris (and others) take out the top points. Chris had his moments on the 15th when he put his drive out of bounds, left the next about 20 ft? from the pin and rattled in the putt for a point. Eddie had had a few moments during the round and walking up to the 17th entered into a contest with Tony the Maltese Terrier for cake to go with their coffee. He must have been hungry because he tried for birdie on the 17th and hit the pin with his chip on the 18th but couldn’t quite overcome the unflappable Tony. Oliver Gross obviously had some sort of a brain fade (the greens weren’t that fast) when a 5m putt turned into a 40m approach shot.
Maybe everybody are trying to protect their handicaps (though that’s a bit hard for the winners) with the top score of 36 points being shared with Chris by Harry and Brendon. There was a veritable herd following closely behind on 35 points. There’s is a bit of movement near to the top of the Championship table but Noodles is still holding out in top spot. Harry improved his position in the Seniors but the top position could still be a tightly contested affair with at least five players with a good chance for a final dash down the straight.
Richard Hall picked up the money on the 18th after squeezing out a couple of other hopefuls and David Howard did the same for the ball on the 4th. Bill Eastoe wanted it on record that he finished the whole round and he wasn’t on a promise last night.
You might have noticed that it is getting light noticeably earlier these days and as a result the tee times have started moving. A big jump this week back to 0730. So early to bed next friday night.
Results for Saturday, 25 August 2012
1st Harry Boughen(36) 1st Brendon Mitchell(36) 1st Chris Priems(36) 2nd S Butterfield(35) 2nd Bill Eastoe(35) 2nd Richard Hall(35) 2nd David Howard(35) 2nd Targe Mifsud(35) 2nd Tony Mifsud(35) 3rd Gordon Hill(33) 4th Oliver Gross(31) 5th Ken Grist(29)