Last Friday week, the Rabbits boarded a coach and headed off to Bryn Meadows Golf and Country Hotel in Ystrad Mynach on their annual Easter tour. Twenty-four Rabbits and four guests, namely Alan Morton, Paul (Lenny) Fairclough, Bill Davies and Steve Wood, headed up towards Caerphilly in glorious weather, contrary to to the forecast. We were so lucky, as sunshine and showers were forecast for the whole weekend, but the sun shone by day and we had horrendous rain and sleet by night. Draw for the first day's play and the lost balls forecast were both carried out on the coach on the way up, with results in the opening competition for the Silver Rabbit being: 1. guest Lenny Fairclough 37 pts., 2. Tom Pritchard 36 and a better back nine of 21 (taking the Silver Rabbit); 3. Mark Edwards, also with 36, but with a back nine of 19; 4. Dafydd Evans 34; 5. Steve Wood 33 and a better back nine of 20; 6. Alan Morton, also with 33, but a back nine of 18. Total number of lost balls on day one was 39. After a soak in the pool and an hour in the sauna, the evening meals were served and the draw made day two, the Oman Cup. Results were: 1. Mark Edwards, with a superb stableford score of 40 pts; 2. Paul James, with another good card of 38; 3. Simon Evans 36 and a back nine of 21. The nearest the pin prize went to Simon Evans, and the longest drive went to Leighton Harries. Two people also who scored 2s on the day, sharing the pot, namely Leighton Harries and Lenny Fairclough. Meanwhile, lost balls on day two totalled 25. The Peter Watkins Challenge Trophy for 2006 went to Mark Edwards with a total of 76 points over the first two days, while Jason Rolfe was winner of the Crooked Putter for the most shots played, which saw him score just 30 points. On Sunday, the Rabbits members played a four ball better ball competition for the Peter Nobes Salvers, while our four guests played a stableford between themselves. Winners of the salvers were Ben Blake and Dorian Thomas with 41 points, runners-up were Rees Davies and Ian Thomas with 40, and third were Simon Evans and Anthony Allen with a very respectable 39. Best guest score on the day went to Lenny Fairclough with 30 points. Lost balls on day three amounted to 29, giving a grand total of 93 over the three days by all 28 players. Winner and taking the pot with the nearest forecast of 99 balls was Paul James. Thanks to everyone giving so generously in fines over the weekend, a grand total of £121 will also be donated to the Cancer Research UK Walk for Life appeal. Many thanks to all for making the tour the success it was. I hope you all enjoyed the weekend. We now have the Summer League to look forward to. We got off to a great start with a 7-0 win at home against Penrhos on April 2, so let's hope this form stays with us for the season. Next match is away to Milford Haven on April 30.
Steve Harries (Rabbits Captain)
Club report
Tenby Golf Club held three competitions over the Easter holiday weekend. On Saturday it was the Brooks Cup, on Sunday the Hotels Cup, and on Monday the Fry Cup. The weather on Saturday and Sunday was almost perfect for golf and this was reflected in the scores. On Monday, although dry, there was a variable wind which was across many holes making these difficult to play. The Fry Cup was honoured by a player getting a hole-in-one.
Brooks Cup
The Brooks Cup is a mixed foursomes stableford competition. Winners were Lyn Bonar and Ron Johns with 39 points, second were Chris and Christine Beecher with 37 and third were Pam and Steve Cole with 35. Twelve teams took part and three of them had twos.
Hotels Cup
The Hotels Cup is an open stableford competition for men. It was won by Paul James with an excellent 42 points, second was Mike Brew with 39 and a better back nine, third was Mark Duckett, also with 39, fourth was Charles Lemon with 37, fifth was Mark Griffiths with 36 and a better back nine and sixth was Hugh Phillips also with 36. A total of 55 competitors took part and of those 19 had twos, with Andrew North and Stephen Williams having two each.
Fry Cup
The Fry Cup is an open medal competition for men. Winner was Michael Schooling with an excellent net score of 64, second was Donald Callnon with 70 and a better back nine, third was Ron Johns, also with 70 and a better back nine, fourth was Jonathan Webb, also with 70, fifth was Peter Rossi with 71 and a better back nine and sixth was Ron Johns, also with 71. A total of 65 competitors took part and of those eight had twos, while Alan James not only had a two, but also a hole-in-one on the 12th. Very well done Alan, the last hole-in-one was by John Gillespie in the winter.
Next competitionS
The next competition at Tenby will be the Golden Eagle on Saturday, April 29, when the course will be closed. It is a low handicap event over 36 holes and will be followed by the Carmarthen Shield at Ashburnham the next day. The Serendipity Bowl, a mixed competition for ladies and gents and mixed teams which can be made up of members and members and guests, will be held on Sunday, April 30.
Seniors in charitable mood
Thirty seniors turned out on Tuesday to support The Hall of Fame competition and all but a few were able to complete their round in cloudy but fairly dry conditions. This is the second year that this competition has been held, with all proceeds going to Cancer Research. The winner this year will compete, along with all other club winners, in the area final at Ashburnham on the September 13. All members who competed paid an entry fee of £3 plus fines of 30p for any loss of ball or for going into bunkers. On hearing some comments, it may be advantageous to think about a swear box next year as well. In addition to the £90 received as entry fee, the organisers collected an extra £14 in fines, plus contributions of £16 given on the day to make a grand total of £120. Conditions were good and this was reflected in the scores, with 13 players scoring between 20 and 30 and 17 scoring 30 and above. The winner came from the first group out with a score of 37 and this from a player with a handicap of five. John Hancock demonstrated a return to form by par-ring all holes on the back nine except for the 17th. He made up for this error by scoring a birdie on the 18th. He was closely followed by Billy Cole, with a 36, and three players on 34 - G. Willars, Geoff Aston and Stan Hudson. In all there were eight 2s -John Hancock, Clifton John and Colin Griffith on the ninth, Stan Hudson and David Lamb on the 12th and Bob Wiseman, J. D. R. Williams and Malcolm Arlott on the 17th. All money collected on the day will be forwarded to the organisers for charity and this year's winner, John Hancock, will represent Tenby Seniors at Ashburnham in September. We wish him every success. Next week sees the normal Tuesday Roll-up, with all members of the Seniors' section welcome.
Seniors celebrate home win against Neath
The third home game of the season for the Seniors brought another good result, but one that was very competitive and closer to call. Dave Morgan had elected to share his experience with Maurice Lewis this week and this pair showed the Neath Seniors' xaptain, Colin Lloyd, and his partner, John Edwards, how to play the Tenby course. When asked about his round, Maurice declared that he thought that his skipper was a bit heavy to carry round. Dave stated that, although he was very consistent, Maurice did not have all the glory and that his own magnificent 20-foot putt on the sixth hole to save a half was a major contribution to their success. Dave went on to add that his tactic of confusing the opposition played in their favour. John had been playing particularly well and was somewhat puzzled when his long putt up to the hole, on the 13th, was duly conceded by Dave, who then declared a half. This was rather premature since John was down for five and not four. Colin then had to regroup to try and make his three-foot putt and duly missed. The visiting pair never recovered. Another pair who succeeded in finishing the game early was Stan Hudson and Bart Youll, out against John Solly and Stuart Penny. A two-week lay-off had no detrimental effect on Stan's game, quite the reverse as it happens, as Bart stated that he was driving and putting well. When he didn't quite connect, Bart stepped up to the plate to make his contribution. J. D. R. Williams had to support Des Stone this week and although their result looked a convincing one, they made rather heavy weather of it. Bill Cantwell was the player with a five-shot advantage and on good form. He made the most of this, starting off with a win on the first hole to give him and his partner, Jeff Hopkins, a great start. The Tenby pair did settle to their game and pulled back to all- square, before forging to a three-hole lead after six. Complacency and mediocrity then set in, allowing Bill and Jeff to gain in confidence, adjust to the speed of the greens and take the lead away. Jeff had never really come to terms with the pace of the greens and this spread to his game in general, thus allowing J. D. R. and Des to regroup and win the 14th, 15th and 16th to seal the result. Complacency was also the buzzword used by Newman Vincent, playing with David Kaye, against Mansel Hughes and Ron Matthews. They eventually won by one hole, but not before they had squandered a four-hole lead, a lead which they had worked hard to earn after nine holes. Newman was playing with his newly-acquired 16 handicap and the strain of playing to it must have told as they lost four consecutive holes on the back nine. They managed the win in the end, courtesy of a missed four-foot putt by Mansel on the 18th. "I held our team together - as usual!" Who else but Hywel Probert could pass such judgement as he and Geoff Aston cruised in to help the Tenby cause. What a sacrifice he made, playing golf on his 48th wedding anniversary. We didn't even realise that he was that old! This was an up and down, in and out sort of game where they went three up, only to see Mervyn Rees and Brin Thomas pull back to all- square. This match was eventually settled on the 17th. Golden boy, Ken Gouldsbrough, could be seen from anywhere on the course sporting his golden memento of a golden wedding anniversary. However, he could not strike gold - well not quite. He and Tony Morris experienced a yo-yo sort of match against Alan Phillips and Dave Matthews, one minute up, next minute down. At the end of a halved match, Dave declared that he was all yo- yoed out. Dave did try to confuse the Tenby pair when he looked round and asked, "Where's the third group behind us?" Thinking he meant the third group out, the one behind them, Tony pointed to the appropriate pair following, only to be corrected, "No, I mean the third group behind us!" Confused? So were they. Meanwhile, there was a titanic struggle going on behind them. Mike Bradley and Terry Taylor from Neath had opened a four-hole lead after seven and looked to be cruising to victory in what was described as a "blooming wonderful match". Terry was the star man on the front nine and Mike showed his prowess on the back nine. The struggle came from Martin Neilan and Roy Gundry who had to play to par in order to just halve a hole. Roy did his best to equalise the situation with his jokes, but the opposition were not to be diverted from their objective. He had to revert to playing golf to claw back the deficit. This was a quality game, which brought out the best in all four players and a solid back nine from old Gunders himself helped them to reach the 18th tee with a one-hole advantage. A closing par from the Neath pair brought an honourable result to a cracking game. The last three matches out all went to Neath. Roy Morgan was ably assisted by Jim Martin, but despite some excellent play against Lyndsey George and Dave Williams they could not counteract the opposition's putting. A putt from off the green on the Bell hole by Dave gave the Neath pair an advantage and this was helped by a two on the eighth by Lyndsey. Three more pars on the back nine helped the visitors to their moment of glory, while Jim is still talking about his putt on the 12th which horse-shoed around the hole. Colin Griffith declared that he would have been better off had he stayed in the garden. He and Brian Waters struggled to keep up with Colin and Robert Jones as they went three down and had to play some good golf just to stay in contention. Robert putted in from off the green on the 10th to keep up the pressure, from which the Tenby pair did not recover. John Bonar and Derek Bath found that Richard Williams and David Lewis were just too good for them, despite the handicap allowance they had. "They thought we were a carpet," said John, "there to be walked over and trod on!" To cap it all, Derek found that his wife had not packed his shirt (that was his excuse) and he had to appear at the meal in his bright yellow polo shirt. Never mind, it matched his jacket. I'm sure that he will pack his own clothes for the next game! Results: D. Morgan and M. Lewis beat C. Lloyd and J. Edwards 5 and 4; A. Morris and K. Gouldsbrough halved with A. Phillips and D. Matthews; D. Stone and J. D. R. Williams beat B. Cantwell and J. Hopkins 3 and 2; S. Hudson and B. Youll beat J. Solly and S. Penny 4 and 2; M. Neilan and R. Gundry halved with M. Bradley and T. Lewis; H. Probert and G. Aston beat M. Rees and Brin Thomas 2 and 1; D. Kaye and N. Vincent beat M. Hughes and R. Matthews 1 up; C. Griffith and B. Waters lost to C. Jones and R. Jones 2 and 1; D. Bath and J. Bonar lost to R. Williams and D. Lewis 5 and 4; J. Martin and R. Morgan lost to L. George and D. Williams 2 and 1.