Autumn is just around the corner, the elms are starting to drop their leaves, there was even a suggestion that it could rain sometime and the ground staff must have used up their river entitlement as the course was the driest and the greens the fastest that we have seen for some time. The conditions certainly seemed to suit at least some of our members as once again there were some mighty fine scores put in and you had to break your handicap to even get a point and the number of point getters was as low as it has been for some time. It looked as if it was only going to be one person per place until MalF piped up and his card was found secreted at the bottom of the deck.
Well, if last week RodG was coming out of the woods, this week he was right out in open country and trumped the field with 42 points and that included a gash that was more than offset by consecutive birdies. One of these was on the 12th that just happened to be the ProPin which had jackpotted from last week so a very nice little earner for Rod.
Of course four pointers pale into insignificance against a 5 pointer that Noodles scored inside (only 4 with us) with his Eagle on the 6th. So much for the exhortations to get on with attacking the 17th last week though the Beast was obviously trying to give it a go but managed to put his drive OOB and had to do the long walk back to the tee to re-load. Other than that, he could easily have knocked Rod off for top spot as he was only one point behind with 41. Believe it or not, he even improved on his eclectic. How low can he go?
A stint at cricket coaching hasn’t done any harm to Damo’s ball striking skills and he came within a whisker of posting a PB with 71 off the stick and a total of 40 points. A couple of birdies along the way, out of the 14 that were tallied today, also helped his eclectic but he is still a long way behind the Beast.
Standing on the 7th green, Chrispy asked whether he could hear a steam-train in the distance. Harry suggested that it was probably coming out of Craig’s ears after he had duffed a chip from off the green. Despite that and another small lapse in the middle of the back, Craig put together a pair of 19’s to take out the fourth podium position. Noodles and MalF rounded out the point-scorers for the day.
There were two matchplay matches contested today and Damo used his good round to quite demoralise Brendon to come out on top by 5 and 4. The other match between Mehm and Gordo started out looking as if it could finish in a similar mold with Mehmet up by three after the front nine. However Gordo made something of a comeback and looked as if he could take it away but he managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and finished losing it on the last with Mehmet coming home 1 up. There are still three matches not decided in round 1 and it was agreed that, as a dispensation had been given to Dick, the other two would be given a chance to get the match played next week so if Stefan and Bill and Dennis and David can work out what is going to happen and let the committee know the result of their deliberations that would be good. Getting the second round matches under way would be good as well. You know who you are.
The nearest the pin for a ball on the 15th was not claimed which has to be saying something even if it is not clear what.
It seem that an apology is due to Pepsi as the reason that he didn’t play last week was that he was injured. Just goes to show that you can’t always believe what the mafiosi say. Craig was absolutely creaming his five (ladies) wood and also had a nice little draw working for him as well. The two combined to put him OOB on the 16th. He then took out his driver and absolutely belted the cover off the ball to be effectively a chip and a putt away from a potential bogey. Didn’t happen! Noodles also looked to be heading OOB on the 14th but the ball must have hit a tree and finished only 50mm or so in bounds. He then proceeded to finish with his par while his playing partners had to settle for gob-smacked bogies.
The next event is a two week Stableford event for the Stuart Clarke Memorial Trophy. Club shirts are de rigeur for the first round and something loud or ugly for the second round. And that doesn’t mean that you wear your Club shirt for the second round no matter what some member’s wives might think. Brendon was pretty chuffed that he got some positive feed-back at last. There were fears that SOS had absconded with the Treasurer’s bag of goodies but true to his word he rocked in when the proceedings were about half over so it was possible to deal with such minor formalities as the ball run and so forth.
Our first official AGM as an incorporated organisation was also held after the round and approved the Annual Accounts and the updated Rules of Association. The main other message was that the Club is in a reasonable position but could do with some new blood to get the numbers up and to rebuild the core. A bit like a football team really though we don’t have the luxury of draft-picks – and as for salary caps and performance enhancing substances – don’t ask. There have been some responses to recent publicity but no firm takers just yet. A couple of members will act as a sub-committee to up the drive but members should trawl through their list of friends (and enemies if appropriate) and try to persuade them to come along. You never know they just might like it.
Results for Saturday, 15 March 2014
1st Rod Grant(42) 2nd Bill Eastoe(41) 3rd Damien Lee(40) 4th Craig Sharp(38) 5th Stephen Butterfield(37) 5th Malcolm Fleming(37)