After a bitterly cold week, it was a surprise to find the Valentine’s Mixed was not only full, but with 26 couples playing, the most popular it has ever been.

With all of us well-wrapped up against the Arctic wind, how anyone managed to swing is a mystery; but with it being a straight foursomes (not the easiest of formats), the scoring was remarkably good.

When the round hasn’t gone too well, it is always the bag draw we rely on, in the hope of recovering our entry fee, and with such a good turnout, six pairs were lucky. They were Richard and Dinah Reed, Denise and Tim Edwards, Laura McQueen and David T. Morgan, Jim Moffatt and Maura Gunning, Sue Griffiths and John Hancock, and Heather K. Morgan and Neil Thomas.

Two 2s were recorded and each person won a sleeve of balls: on the sixth Lucy and Mike Anthony, and on the 12th Linda Evans and Brian Jones. Well done to them both as the wind made the par threes very tricky.

So to the scoring pairs. In fifth place with 35 points were Pam and Steve Cole. On the same points, but beating them on the back nine were Chris and Helen Hughes in fourth place. Third with 37 points were Trevayne Keohane and Jeff Banfield. Two pairs were then left fighting it out on 39 points, but again on the back nine, Terry Davies and Nel Allen took second place and the winners were Fair and John Ball.

Captain Neil Thomas presented the prizes; John thanked the organisers and his wife, and Neil wished everyone a good time at the Valentine’s Dinner and Dance in the evening.

On April 7 we can look forward to our friendly mixed match at Tenby against Derllys Court. (sign up on the back noticeboard.)

The Llewellyn Thomas Mixed knockout competition should now be entered for in the Pro Shop, but only if you are available to play in the final on Finals Day.

The Brooks Cup is on Easter Saturday and tee times are limited, so watch for that on your computers.

Finally, some big ‘thank yous’. Firstly, to Tom in the Pro Shop for all his help, to the captain Neil for putting up with me, to Emma and her team for taking care of food and drink when we came in cold, and to Laura for her help with the cards.

Hopefully, by April we should be a bit warmer!

H.K.M.

Blackmore’s biennial bash

After a missed Friday the previous week, because of horrendous conditions, the Chicken Trotters were keen to get back out on the links on Friday, February 10 - well 17 of them at any rate! The very cold, quite windy conditions continued, causing the Chickens to look well stuffed - insulated as they were with multi-layers of winter woollies.

The Chickens welcomed back the Chief Trotter, Steve Cole, from his exotic trip to the tropics, but was he in a relaxed and generous mood? - we shall see!

The normal high level of Trotter competition was enhanced by the additional chance for a skilful player to win the Booker Prize, which is awarded to the Chicken who can baste the highest total of points from his best five cards (baste! – see what I did there?). At the moment, the top three look like this; third is Allen Watts with 133 points, second is Steve Cole with 136 points and top with 137 points is David Lamb - Oh My Lord!

The 15-hole Stableford result for the day was: In 5th place, scoring 25 points and winning not a sausage! - Roger Scholfield. In 4th place, Allen Watts wins a very generous 30p - and no handicap reduction! Third place went to Stan Hudson for his 27 points, which enriched him by 60p and lowered his handicap by one stroke. Derek Bath signed for a creditable 28 points, winning 90p and losing three strokes, while David Blackmore put in a worthwhile appearance to score a desirable 30 points, winning £1 and being cut five strokes to 11.

As the title of this article suggests, David last trotted on January 25, 2015 - and before that on January 11, 2013 - biennial indeed!

The par for the day was 25 Stableford points, and not a single two was recorded! The Chicken Trotter ‘Sin Bin’ procedure is obviously working well, since there have been 12 different winners over the 12 full weeks of play. Nobody has recorded a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place - but 11 Trotters have won two different medal colours - and - showing a remarkable lack of consistency. Six Trotters have won both the first prize and the booby prize.

Speaking of booby - John Hancock ‘troughed (as opposed to peaked!) and won this week’s booby prize, earning 30p and increasing his handicap from nine to 11.

And finally, the day’s top three Trotters all played in the same group, so it seemed appropriate to lump them all together in the photograph! On what, I wonder, will they squander their combined winnings of £2.50?

M.F.

Grant’s Double Top

A bit of a cool northerly draft met the intrepid bakers dozen of Rabbits as they took to the links last Sunday, writes our reporter, Warren Hacker - obviously the roll-over of the twos kitty was more enticing than staying in the warm. One of the second group had an extra leg layer on which matched the pyjama top back at home!

The playing draw was made which meant that leading from the front again was captain Martin, accompanied this week by Kieron and Wyndham, closely followed by the group of Robin, Steve W and Chris.

The third group were the ‘junior section’ - with an average age of less than 38 - Grant (our leader), brother Tom and Steve C, with the final fourball (actually drawn first!) consisting of the ‘age-experienced’ group of Mark, John, Mackie and Paul - a combined age of well over 220.

Four of our bunch managed to actually ‘beat the wind’ and score more points on the wind-against back nine as opposed to the wind-behind front nine, but the cloudy sky did have the plus-point of hiding the sun on the ‘lemf’.

Scoring points was always going to be hard work with a 2.75 club wind, but everyone was armed with an up-to-date eclectic list so they knew which holes they had to improve to nudge themselves up the Eclectic Table.

When the first group arrived back to the warmth of the clubhouse, it was Wyndham who assumed the title of ‘Leader in the Clubhouse’ as he was the only one who managed more than 1.5 points a hole, but when the second group arrived, it was Robin who took over the ‘Leader’ mantle as he became the only one of the first half-a-dozen to get a score in the 30s.

The ‘junior group’, with the benefit of their youthful suppleness of swing, notched a decent 60 wind-assisted points between them, but could they repeat it on the back half and snatch the lead from Robin after the 18th? Well, they managed 57 between them to set a big target for the final group to beat.

Half of the final group managed to get scores in the 30s and just failed to prevent a ‘junior group’ whitewash of the podium placings, but treasurer Mark did pot his birdie putt on the 17th to slot the only two of the day and prevent a double rollover of the twos kitty - lucky boy!

Bronze place went to Grant as his lip-out putts meant he was beaten on the back nine by Steve C (who got his money back), both on 37 points, but five adrift of top dog Tom with an indecent 43 points that included two blobs and seven pars to pocket £11 (that’s three wins in four outings).

Four didn’t increase their eclectic scores, five did by one with Paul (up by two), Wyndham (up three), Tom (up by five in only his fourth outing) and Kieron (up eight in his third game) being the big movers, with Grant now one clear at the top and Tom leaping up to third.

Grant has now topped the 300 mark in the Best Eight scores Winter League table and has a 14-point lead, but both Robin and John have now got their eighth score in and rise up to third and fifth with four Sundays to go.

Who’ll be on the podium next week?

League table

P Elec B/8 Grant Watkins 12 60 301

Phil Carpenter 8 54 287

Robin Bradbury 8 55 285

Steve Cole 10 60 284

John Ball 8 55 272

Chris Smith 9 54 266

Steve Watkins 12 56 262

Martin Durham 9 51 253

Mark Edwards 10 51 238

Adrian Palmer 7 57 225

Peter Turton 8 52 222

Mackie Harts 7 47 183

Wyndham Collins 5 48 177

Tom Watkins 4 58 145

Paul Crawford 3 41 73

Kieron Plested 3 37 63

Soaking Seniors surprisingly successful

Tuesday, February 14, the date that conjures up images of Love hearts, pink champagne, boxes of chocolates and romantic Valentine’s Day cards - or - if you are a Tenby Senior, the date of the 14th Eclectic competition!

The weather was definitely not as promised by Carol on Monday! At 8.35 am the clubhouse was cluttered with Seniors, gazing down the first fairway through the rain, mist and wind, trying to make that well known decision; Shall I or shan’t I play? I must admit, dear reader, that I came - I saw - I chickened out!

However, 13 of the original 39 entrants did compete, fighting to top the eclectic list as the season draws to a close, and I am pleased to be able to report that the results were as follows:

In pretty miserable conditions and with the CSS at 36 Stableford points, there was one solitary two scored - by Stan Hudson on the 12th - and it couldn’t happen to a nicer treasurer! Jim Moffatt, never out of the news it seems, didn’t get a hole in one, didn’t get a two - but did claim third place by scoring 32 points while playing off five. Continuing his run of good form, David Rees played to par by scoring 36 points while playing off a handicap of 19, and found himself in second place. The overall winner was Martin Neilan - who is consistently there or thereabouts! This time he scored a fine 37 points from a handicap of 12, and almost certainly bettered his eclectic position.

Well done to the 13 brave chaps whose shoes, clubs and waterproofs are drying out even as I write!

I would like to inform the Seniors - and anyone else who may be interested - that the Chicken Trotters’ end of season luncheon, preceded by the competitions for the Danny Carew Putter and the Badham Trophy - and followed by the traditional ‘Bring and Win’ raffle will be held on Friday, MArch 3. The booking sheet will be on the Seniors’ notice board from today (Friday). The competition will also mark the conclusion of the Booker Prize competition, and the winner will be announced when the ham, egg and chips have been devoured!

M.F.

R& A Nine-Hole Championship

The R&A has launched a Nine-Hole Championship for players across Great Britian and Ireland, with the final due to be played over the back nine at Royal Birkdale on Saturday, July 15, the Saturday before The Open Championship.

The format is to be team based, with each team consisting of two players (men, women or mixed). The GUW has been asked to nominate two pairs from clubs in Wales to go through to the final where they will join players from England, Scotland and Ireland. This will be a handicap based event.

Nine-hole qualifying events will be held at Celtic Manor and Abergele. The winning pair from each event will be invited to play in the National Final at Royal Birkdale.

Full details of the qualifying events can be found on the GUW web-site.

20 YEARS OF TROTTING

On January 31, 1997, it was very cold and the wind was a strong easterly. This unhappy combination failed to deter 46 Chicken Trotters, who strutted their stuff on the links - and recorded some very creditable scores.

The par for the day was a challenging 29 Stableford points, and the results were as follows:

In a tie for fourth place and winning £1.80 each were John Mabe and Alan K. Williams. Chris Arlott claimed third spot with 30 points and was rewarded with £2. Sharing top spot were Ken Gouldsbrough and Bruce Duncan, who scored 31 points and pocketed £2.50 each

There were three 2s - Martin Durham on the sixth, Sonny Perkins on the ninth and Ted Martin on the 12th - they earned 80p each for their accuracy and joined the other 42 Trotters in looking down on Morran Boot, who scored a meagre 15 points to win 30p and the title of ‘Booby’.

Elsewhere in 1997; Tiger Woods won his first Major title at the 61st Master’s Tournament, and Bill Clinton was inaugurated for the second time, as the 42nd President of the USA.

More next week.

M.F.