It was a total of 27 hardy souls who ventured out on Tuesday morning intent on improving their eclectic score. As it worked out, it became a battle to keep the ball in a straight line and complete the course.

Thirty-five seniors had put their names on the starting sheet, but for a variety of reasons eight pulled out or declined to face the weather.

Due to absences, some re-jigging of the tee-offs had to be made and, as a small group waited at the top of the steps, they were startled by a very loud - Oi! It was not for them. Jim was trying to get the attention of Bart, two yards away from him, to inform him that he was now playing alongside Jim’s group. It brought a wry smile from the spectators above.

It was a daunting task from the start, with a strong wind driving in from the south-east, rolling over Caldey and whipping up the waves as it reached these exposed golf links. The cloud cover was as forecast and the landscape was engulfed by a dark brooding sky that seemed to touch the land. Everything was cold and grey and motivation became a problem, adding to the difficulty of keeping the ball in play. One or two managed to do this, as demonstrated by the eight players with a score of 30 or more.

A number of seniors tried to slide their score into the computer without being seen as they complained about the difficulties they had faced.

There was one score below 20, joining the senior with a nil return. Just above these two was Jim Moffatt, who equalled the totals enjoyed, or mourned, by Bob Wiseman and David Rees. One above that trio, on 23 points, was our esteemed captain, Idwal, fresh off his winter holiday and scoring the same as Steve Decosimo. Welcome back.

For some, this was the first outing since before Christmas and they were just delighted to get the first experience out of the way. Everyone was delighted to be in the clubhouse enjoying their hot beverage or cold beer before the evening rain made its appearance.

The first group out was that of Bob Howse, Ross James and Derek Cole. One of these figured in the winner’s enclosure and the other two ended up mid-table.

There were rewards for the only two players to score a two - Allen Watts and David Henry, both on the sixth.

The lucky draw winner was Ross James, who takes home his prize for the second time.

The three players winning the accolades after a trying day on the links were: In third place on 33 pts - Adrian Palmer with a better back six than Stan Hudson; in second place on 36 pts - Des Stone; in first place, also on 36 pts - Bob Howse.

To win or not to win

Having to drive into the clubhouse car park with headlights on isn’t something the Tenby Rabbits are used to doing, but the annual contest against ‘the others who play on a Sunday’ meant an 8.15 am shotgun start, so there were early alarms for the intrepid 16, writes our links reporter, Warren Hacker.

In the absence of Rabbits captain Paul Crawford, it was vice-captain Steve Watkins who had selected the pairings and given his troops encouraging words of advice as they took part in their famous pre-match ‘Rabbit Huddle’. Steve W decided his partner would be big-hitting acting treasurer Mark Edwards (he was past the flag on the 1st in two!) and they managed to come out on top in their match 3 and 2.

The largest winning margin of the day was recorded by the steady Rabbit pairing of Dave Blackmore and Mike Williams - 7 and 5 winners over Jerry Whitehouse and Paul Davies - so they were waiting indoors a while as half the matches went to their 18th holes.

Off from the first tee had been the hierarchy of the ‘others’ and vice-captain Richard helped his captain Paul Dennehy round the course and they overcame the younger members of the Watkins family 4 and 3 - but Grant and Tom told tales of their putts lipping out.

Rabbit history shows there have been three famous captains who have been victorious since the shield was first contested in 1980/81. Yes, it is time to acclaim Brian Hartley, Gordon Carney and Mackie Harts as the Rabbit leaders who bucked the trend and led the perpetual underdogs to unexpected success. Mind you, the first victory wasn’t until 1996/97, the second 1999/00 and the last 2010/11, so would this year be another Rabbit triumph?

As the players continued to troop back to the clubhouse, the excitement was mounting.

Kieron Plested and Ian Jarvis were unlucky not to get a result and fell to a one down loss in a close nip-and-tuck battle played in good spirits (as all the matches seemed to be) where there was never more than one hole in it, but birdies for the lowest handicapper of ‘the others’ on the 14th and 15th were crucial.

Into the 19th came Bill Beynon and Chris Smith, but they had been defeated two down and Warren’s apprentice was unable to get much information from them, other than Will saying he’s still trying to get used to his new shoes and he needs to play more often.

Notching the next Rabbit victory were the ‘Wheely Boys’ (John Ball and Phil Carpenter) and they had a success - rolling their opponents (including a former Rabbit captain who started with five pars to go two up) over by 4 and 3.

Getting the next win for the ‘high handicappers’ were Rees Davies and Adrian Palmer, who were up against experience and youth, but they managed to overturn an early loss of a few holes into a one up victory.

Reluctantly, it has to be reported that hopes of a dramatic underdog victory were scuppered when the final pairing of Steve Cole and secretary Peter Turton had to take second place when their opponents finished gross birdie and nett birdie to mean the Rabbit pair went from one up with two to play to lose one down, although one of them did have a six-foot putt to halve the last to win the shield that sadly dribbled wide.

And that is how the matches went.

But, dear reader, as the more astute of you will have deduced, this meant the course result was tied 4-4 and for the first time ever the shield will show both names for a year - although as holders the ‘Others’ retain the trophy. But, again, if you work out the ‘aggregate score’, the Rabbits ‘lost by eight’ and they ‘won by 15’, so mathematically they were the better team. In fact, due to a handicap technicality, it could even be shown that they didn’t lose one of their lost games, so morally they could claim the shield belongs to them.

This all augurs well for next year when the Rabbits will have the choice of courses, so ‘home advantage’ may result in another Rabbit name on the shield - fingers crossed.

Still it was wonderful to see the clubhouse busy with post-match dining and there was a great deal of chatter and banter between the ‘sections’ where the Rabbits more than held their own - in fact, they might even have won that contest too!

(Editor’s note - Apparently Warren hasn’t mentioned any ‘fake news’, but he has included a message with the first letter of each sentence again - he is quite clever isn’t he? - even though he appears to have forgotten to mention a double rolled-over Twos Pot for the Rabbits Winter League next week - well done to both sides (and especially well done to the Rabbits!).

Three clubs and a putter

The annual three clubs and a putter competition took place on the links last Saturday.

Always popular with the members, no fewer than 81 players turned out for the mixed event, which had a stableford format and was played over 14 holes.

Judging by the scores, some obviously made the right choice of clubs to carry in their bag... while perhaps others didn’t!

Leading scores and prize winners were as follows: 1. David Blackmore 29 pts, on countback (£50); 2. Darren Thomas 29 (£44); 3. Peter Rossi 28, on countback (£39); 4. Stephen Watkins 28 (£33); 5. Nicholas Corbett 27, on countback (£28); 6. David Henry 27 (£22); 7. Ralph Johns 26, on countback (£16); 8. David Hancock 26, on countback (£11).

Twos: Austin Davies, Nick Allen (£39 each).

Bag draw: Mick Seal, Holly Watkins, Anna Hubbard, Jeremy Peters, Ian Jarvis, Mike Smiddy (£13.50 each).

Pro Shop draw: Mike Williams (Ping Hudson top).