Tenby Golf Club’s immediate past captain, Gethin Evans, is seen (left) presenting Wales Air Ambulance community co-ordinator, and fellow TGC past captain, Tony Key OBE, with a cheque for £1,663.

This money was raised during Gethin’s year as club captain, via a variety of fund-raising activities.

Gethin would like to thank all the Tenby GC members and visitors for their generosity with ‘bar bottle’ donations, as well as the members who contributed to the raffle and entry to his Captain’s Day, and John Hunt and Loz Phillips for their fantastic winning auction bids.

Each individual air lift by helicopter costs £1,500 per mission, therefore the money donated by the club could effectively save someone’s life.

As a charity, the Wales Air Ambulance has to find in the region of £6.5 million per year in order to operate.

More information regarding the role played by W.A.A. can be found on www.walesairambulance.com or contact Tony Key on: [email protected] to discuss any fund-raising events or voluntary positions.

Grant opens gap at the top

Seven eager Rabbits took to the course in the hope of a decent round to clamber up the Winter League ladder, writes our links reporter, Warren Hacker. The decision had also been made to have an eclectic competition over the coming months to add a bit of spice to the battles ahead.

Early ladder leader Grant Watkins accompanied Steve Cole (one point adrift at the start of play) and Chris Smith (twice a runner-up this season already) in the first group. Varied results for these three - they managed 1st, 3rd and 5th places, but they stood on 18, 17 and 18 points after the front nine. Each of them managed a blob (or two) and Chris and Steve both grabbed a four-pointer - but couldn’t match Grant’s five-pointer on the 15th!

Coming along behind them were Mackie Harts, Steve Watkins, John Ball and Adrian Palmer, with the last two reaching the turn ahead on 20 points. In the ‘high-scoring holes’ mentions, Mackie made a four-pointer on the eighth, Steve had half-a-dozen three-pointers, but couldn’t see his way to better, Adrian matched Grant’s ‘fiver’ on the eighth, and John notched a par on the 10th for four to go with his eight three-pointers.

Sunshine on the ‘lemf’ obviously caused a few issues as three of our combatants failed to score on that hole. Quality shots did make their appearance, however, and everyone managed to improve their eclectic score.

Unable to venture out on Sunday due to a shoulder problem was the Rabbits treasurer, Mark Edwards, but he popped in to drop off the ‘rollover money’ at stake for the twos as no-one had managed one last week. In 21 attempts to get a two no-one dropped the ball into the hole for their two, so there’s a double rollover next week. That’ll be worth winning!

Everyone gathered to hear captain Martin read out the scores. Coming second on the back nine was John, no doubt rueing his blob on 13. Last place on the rostrum was Chris with 38, but top was Grant and he extends his lead at the top to seven. Eclectic-wise, Steve C holds a lead of one point over Grant, with John, Chris and Adrian a few points further back. Various chances remain to make advances, but sometimes it’s better not knowing you need to par the hole when you stand on the tee!

Eight best scores count towards the Winter League title, so there’s still a couple of weeks before players reach eight scores and the table really takes shape.

Readers, do you agree with the message in the report?

LEAGUE TABLE

P Tot Ec’tic

Grant Watkins 5 183 55

Steve Cole 5 176 56

Steve Watkins 5 151 49

Chris Smith 4 147 52

John Ball 4 141 53

Mark Edwards 3 92 44

Adrian Palmer 3 92 51

Peter Turton 3 81 44

Mackie Harts 3 80 39

Twenty years of Trotting

The Chief Trotter felt it was important to note that on October 11, 1996, the Chicken Trotters played off temporary greens, the weather was fine and 51 potential nuggets turned out to trot. Usually, when temporary greens are in play, the number of holes in two increases - but on this particular day not a single two was scored - Chris and his lads must have chosen some diabolical pin positions!

Nonetheless, prize money was up for grabs, and the top grabbers were:

In shared fourth place, John Hunting, Glyn Price, Elwyn Evans and Ron Scourfield, all with 32 points, earned a generous £1.80 each.

In third place, David John was awarded £2 for his 33 points

Second place went to Ian Kirkby who pocketed £2.20 with his 34 points

Top man Ken Gouldsbrough recorded a fine 35 points and was rewarded with the princely sum of £2.50

John Louis suffered a bit of a disaster, only managing 13 points - he was hardly mollified by the 30p prize money - but hopefully the increase of handicap to 38 strokes would help him to climb back up the table.

Nothing changes - even in 1996 the hunt for the Roger and Mary Trophy was going on, Miguel Gonzales having forgotten that he won it the previous year - and where he had put it!

More history next week.

M.F.

BREXTROT!

How strange to see golf imitating politics! On the morning of Friday, November 18, the Chicken Trotters were divided into two camps - the Exiters and the Remainers – and the result was no result at all!

I shall explain. As the Acting, Unpaid Chief Trotter and I travelled to the links at about 08:00hrs, it was raining hard and the temperature was around 3.5c, there had been sleet in Pentlepoir and ice had to be scraped from car windscreens. Consequently, when we arrived at the clubhouse and saw that the car park was bare - the decision was made to cancel the trot.

In defence of the Exiters, this step was taken reluctantly - because the Trotters had played on the last six Fridays, and it would have been nice to maintain a 100 per cent record.

A few erstwhile Chickens did arrive at 08:20ish, and the weather did seem to improve slightly - so the two factions; Remain (play) and Exit (go home) stood looking out of the clubhouse window desperately trying to make a decision. In the end, we agreed to disagree, the Remainers donned waterproofs and sallied forth onto the links (which were now bathed in sunshine and practically wind-free - dammit!), while the Exiters melted away homewards.

The result? The remainers hopefully enjoyed 15 holes of golf and felt justified in playing.

The exiters felt a trifle silly at their decision, and missed out on a game.

And finally: According to Chicken Trotters Historical Rule 16b(1), since less than six players took out a card, no fees will be levied, no scores will be recorded, no prizes presented and no handicaps modified - no result at all!

Please, oh please! - let the weather be really fine today (Friday).

M.F.

Gents

14-hole stableford Turkey Trot

Seventy-eight players entered the Gents 14 Hole Stableford Turkey Trot on Saturday.

After a frosty start, scoring proved somewhat difficult in the cold and, at times, wet conditions.

Neverthless, a couple did manage to break par, with leading scores and prize winners being as follows:

Division One: 1. Jerry Whitehouse 29 pts (£40 Heywood voucher); 2. Paul James 28, on countback (£32); 3. Gareth Brace, on countback (£22); 4. Terry Davies 28 (£11); 5. Chris Thompson 27, on countback (£6).

Division Two: 1. Stephen Williams 29 pts (£40 Heywood voucher); 2. Cameron Jnr Davies 28, on countback (£32); 3. David Skyme 28 (£22); 4. Graham Waring 27 (£11); 5. Alan E. James 26 (£6).

Twos: Terry Davies, Huw Roberts, Nic Rogers, Roger Schooling, Jeffrey Banfield, Jon Bolter, Gethin Evans (£11.10 each).

Bag draw: David Henry, Peter Rossi, Jerry Whitehouse, Spencer Harries, Mike Smiddy, David Rees (£13 each).

Pro Shop draw: Piers Bradbury, Richard Davies (dozen Srixon balls each).