This week saw the Seniors play their inaugural Medford competition; the format being a medal for the front nine and stableford for the back nine. Most players found it fun - I think, especially Stan Hudson, whose idea it was to play it! So much so that he walked away with the first prize. According to one of his playing partners, Derek Bath, on shaking his hand on the 18th, he now knows what it is like playing with Tiger - intimidated!
Golden Balls Bob Howse had an outstanding birdie on the 11th; playing a blind pitch shot from 65 yards below the hillocks on the left of the green, he put it into the hole for a three. Brian Morgan's remark about him rhymed with the area he'd just played over, coupled with golden.
Hywel, Mike, Peter and Newman decided to form a convoy this week in buggies. Whether it was the being in a buggy, which Newman does not normally use, his game went from the sublime to the ridiculous, so Mike Fox said.
Clifton John reckons it was the variation of temperature and climate that caused him and his playing partners, Paul Nixon and Chris Sierwald, to lose a lot of balls. Reckon they should have a chat with Martin Neilan, who found a lot following them! Martin did say that this was balanced out with the amount of tees he lost; his playing partner David Lamb was so dejected with his game, he is looking for a sponsor for a trip to Switzerland.
Poor Dougy Havard had a disaster on the seventh, rattling up a 12 after having a Hamlet experience in the approach bunker. His exertions seemed to affect his playing partners, Ron Murphy and Dudley Williams, as their game went to pot after that.
Just in front of them, Rob Wilkins was going along really well, so Phil Marsden and Colin Griffith decided to help him with his victory speech, but he fell apart after that. Whether it was the violent hailstones that had an effect, but Colin said that the last time he was stung like that was when a nubile Swedish maiden lashed him with birches in a Danish sauna!
Our president, Geoff Aston said the course was very noisy this week with a lot of talking going on causing him to lose his concentration; was that Phil's coaching and is that what slowed you up Sir?
The full results this week, with the scoring calculated by subtracting the stableford points total from the net medal score, were:
1. Stan Hudson 18 (back nine); 2. Martin Neilan 18; 3. Brian Morgan 21 (back nine).
Jack Hasdell and Hywel Probert had the only twos.
Brian Morgan's charity raffle raised £39, with Ron Murphy, Ken Gouldsbrough and Gary being this week's winners.
J.D.M.