The Seniors’ Winter Eclectic is no more! – Hello to the spring programme of matches against Seniors from other clubs - but first - two Tuesdays of non-qualifying golf.

Next week we play the hotly contested Captain versus Vice Captain match - but on Shrove Tuesday, the last day of February, we were involved in a soggy, windy, cold and totally unpleasant 15-hole Par/Bogey competition.

This trudge was followed by an end of season lunch, traditional ham, egg and chips, skilfully prepared by Lee and delightfully presented by Emma 1 and Emma 2, which in turn was followed by the results and prize presentation for the winter competitions -of which more later.

Thirty-three warmly dressed Seniors signed up for the Par/Bogey tournament, and when I tell you that 14 of these didn’t even hand in a card, and a further eight retired early, you will have some inkling of how awful the conditions were from around 11 o’clock. However, some of the chaps were made of sterner stuff, and they battled on to finish 15 holes.

The money winning, if fairly moist, top three of these heroes were - in third place at all square, David Henry; in second spot with +1, Jim Moffatt; in top spot with +1, but having a better back six, our vice-captain, Idwal David. I am sure, dear reader, the fact that they are all PCSO’s will not have escaped your attention - I expect to see reports of a major rise in crime this morning!

The solitary civilian in the winners’ circle was captain Dudley, who scored the only two of the day on the difficult 12th.

After the ‘Boys in Blue’ had been rewarded with much gold, lunch had been devoured and Newman Vincent had won the charity raffle, it was time for captain Dudley to hand over to our competitions secretary, Jim Martin. Carrying sheaves of statistics, arms full of trophies and more golf balls than I have lost this year, Jim announced the results:

Seniors’ Order of Merit 2016/2017, The Clifton John Memorial Trophy – 1. Allen Watts, 232 pts, 2. Jim Moffatt, 230, 3. Stan Hudson, 230.

Best Six Rounds Competition (Over 75s), The Ken Gouldsbrough Bowl - 1. Des Stone, 223 pts, 2. Rod Clarke, 208, 3. Mike Fox, 197.

Seniors’ Winter Eclectic (Nett) for Under 75s, The Tenby Seniors Cup presented by Dudley Williams - 1. Newman Vincent, 61 pts, 2. David Henry, 60, 3. Jim Martin, 59.

Seniors’ Winter Eclectic (Nett) for Over 75s, (most Stableford points on each hole), The Colin Griffith Trophy - 1. Newman Vincent, 61 pts, 2. Jim Martin, 59, 3. Alan Yates, 57.

Seniors’ Winter Eclectic (Gross) (fewest strokes taken on each hole), The Des Stone Trophy - 1. Jim Moffatt, 57 pts, 2. Jeff Banfield, 60, 3. Allen Watts, 61.

Trophies and golf balls were lavishly distributed, the smiling winners were photographed, and the also-rans considered what might have been - then, taking wet kit to be dried at home, the gathering dispersed. Only two Seniors were left poring over the list of players, trying to select their teams for next week’s showdown - Dudley and Idwal are probably still there now!

M.F.

Wisdom or Folly?

Would it be better to stay home to try to dry out after winning the medal the previous day, go out into the elements to try to improve the eclectic or the winter league placing, or turn up at the club-house and then go shopping, asks our links reporter, Warren Hacker. And what if there were no hypothetical questions?

Eight intrepid Rabbits did decide to venture out, despite the forecast predicting they would get wet and blown around a bit in gusts of over 50 mph. In analysing the outcome from the cards, all eight improved their ‘best eight’ scores and all but one improved their eclectic, so maybe it was worth battling against the three-club wind for half the course.

The first two ball of John and Adrian led the way, followed by treasurer Mark, Phil and Robin, then captain Martin, Wyndham and Paul. They all had thoughts of notching a birdie two to take home the rollover kitty and the downwind 12th looked to be the favourite - as it was to prove, as both John and Phil slotted their putts on that green to take home almost a tenner each.

When captain Martin announced the scores, it was found that 31 was a popular score to occupy 5th (Martin), 4th (Wyndham) and bronze places (Phil). Robin notched one better as he got silver place, but top man was John, as he managed to compile an excellent 37 points which gave him the day’s money and boosted him closer to the final podium positions.

On the ‘best eight’ scores, Wyndham and Paul managed their seventh and fourth games, John increased by nine, Mark and Martin bettered by four, Phil by two and Robin by one, so Phil is on 293 now, 16 behind leader Grant, Robin is now third on ‘highest score’ over Steve C on 289, with John only one less.

In the eclectic, the top two were inactive, but Robin moved to within a point of third placed Adrian, John is joint fifth on 55, so the top 12 are all within 10 points of Grant, but now people will be needing birdies - or eagles !- to get closer to the top prize.

What will happen next week - will those turning up play or not?

LEAGUE TABLE

P Eclectic Best 8

Grant Watkins 13 62 309

Phil Carpenter 10 55 293

Robin Bradbury 10 57 289

Steve Cole 11 60 289

John Ball 10 56 288

Chris Smith 10 56 272

Martin Durham 11 54 268

Steve Watkins 13 56 263

Adrian Palmer 9 58 254

Mark Edwards 12 52 247

Peter Turton 9 52 226

Wyndham Collins 7 51 208

Mackie Harts 8 47 202

Tom Watkins 4 58 145

Kieron Plested 3 41 77

Paul Crawford 3 41 73

Paul pops into premier position

The weather on Friday, February 23, was just delightful, there was sunshine, a gentle breeze and temperatures in the ‘teens - added to this, the greens are improving and the 18th fairway is not a lake - what more could a Chicken Trotter desire? Apparently absolutely nothing, at least for 21 of the flock who turned out to enjoy the conditions and to improve their place in the pecking order.

I am sure, dear reader, that you have been avidly following the tussle for the lead in the Booker Prize competition, which is awarded to the Trotter with the most points scored from the best five cards recorded over the season. The situation is in a constant state of flux - however, after this round the top five contestants are:

In a share of fifth place with 136 points - Mike Fox, Meurig Jones and Peter Williams, in joint third place with 137 points - Des Stone and David Lamb, in second place with 140 points - Steve Cole, and the new leader is Paul Bradley with a huge 144 points. The last round will be played (weather and bird flu. permitting) today (Friday, March 3) and it is impossible to predict who will be the eventual winner of the trophy.

The results of the day’s competition were as follows:

In fifth place with 27 points, Geoff Aston won absolutely zilch, but has got his name ‘in the paper!’. Slightly better, with 28 points is the Chief Trotter (and distributor of prizes) Steve Cole - unusually, he received 30p and no sin bin penalty, hmmmmm! David Rees also scored 28, with more points on the back six than Steve, to win 70p and drop one stroke to 16, while the late finishing Meurig Jones claimed second place with a creditable 29 points, causing his cash to grow by £1 and his Trotter handicap to shrink by three to 22.

Our headline Trotter, Paul Bradley, played 10 shots better than the CSS to record a superb 34 points, winning a prize of £1.30 and shrinking his handicap by five to a punishing 13.

I should point out that last week Des Stone became the first Trotter this year to win twice, this week Paul became the second double winner - it’s like London Buses!

Twos were obviously hard to come by, only Stan Hudson managed to sink his second shot on the 12th - his reward was £1.05. The strict Chicken Trotter rules state that if two or more players tie for bottom spot, then no Booby prize shall be awarded - this was the case, but, the Chief Trotter, displaying astounding generosity, has added two strokes to the handicaps of the two players, who shall remain nameless - hurrah!

There will be much more to report in next week’s Observer, after the end of season tournament and luncheon, which may well be happening as you read this page!

M.F.

February news from the Ladies’ Section

Well, February has been and gone. I know it’s a short month, but poor weather has dictated that I’ve only got two main competitions to report on this month.

Thursday the 9th was a GUW Medal. It was a very windy and cold day, resulting in only a dozen entrants. Denise Edwards had the best score with a nett 78, Heather Morgan had an 83 and came second, Linda Tordoff-Evans was third on 90 and five then came in on the popular score of 92. Two players - Isobel Lawrence and Dinah Reed - decided to play the nine-hole stableford and Isobel won on this occasion.

Thursday the 16th was a Ladies Greensomes (Pairs) Stableford. The weather was a bit calmer and therefore 12 pairs played. Ten managed more than 31 points, but in first place were Gill John and Penny Cope with a respectable 37 points, two ahead of second placed Rebecca Naden and Anne Wilks, and with three pairs on 34 points, in third were Carol Beecher and Helen Hughes on countback.

On Monday the 20th the Senior Ladies managed to get out onto the links and Julie Tordoff won with a steady 28 points from 14 holes. Isobel Lawrence had another good day and came second with 26 points. It was good to see our lady president, Pat Fox, walking her way round the course and having a decent game herself.

There was supposed to have been an 18-hole stableford last Thursday, but ‘Doris Day’ took the headlines, so no official competition was played! This was a shame as some of the Junior girls had also booked to play during their half-term. A few of the ladies met at the clubhouse for some lunch and a catch-up.

All we can hope for is that March will be kinder to us ladies, allowing us to play some golf. Here’s hoping!

P.C.

Weather-hit Medal

High winds and heavy rain meant that only 14 people entered the February Monthly Medal on Saturday.

Leading scores and prize winners were as follows:

Division One - 1. Mike Davies 91-10-81 (medal plus £11); 2. Chris Hughes 88-6-82 (£5); 3. Jeffrey Banfield 91-6-85 (£3).

Division Two - 1. Stephen Watkins 98-19-79 (medal plus £11); 2. Michael Anthony 100-21-79 (£5); 3. Cameron Jnr Davies 107-25-82 (£3).

Twos: Only one was sunk, by Jeffrey Banfield, which earned him the kitty of £14.

Bag draw: Tim Poole, Phil Goodridge (£7 each).

Pro Shop draw: John Stevenson (Logo Beanie hat).