Tuesday, January 10, a day forecast to be dull, drizzly and breezy - but in fact it was only cloudy, quite warm and with a mere whisper of wind.

Thirty of Tenby’s finest took to the links for the Seniors eclectic number 10 - the first game of 2017 and an opportunity to wish you, dear reader, a happy, healthy and handicap shrinking New Year.

How did everybody perform in their first eclectic of the year? Well most of the limelight shone on one player - but I shall relate the story of the Also Rans first, because their performance was also noteworthy. There was a plethora of twos scored, the pin-point players being David Blackmore, Paul Bradley, David Lamb and Bob Wiseman on hole six and Tim Edwards, Keith Hubbard and Allen Watts on the 17th.

Better than all these chaps was Jim Moffatt, who scored an impeccable hole-in-one on the 17th, resulting in a round of applause from us to him - and a round of Whiskies from him to us!

I can reveal that the CSS for the day was a fairly demanding 38 Stableford points - and only five players managed to beat this number, namely Steve Cole, Keith Hubbard and David Blackmore, all with 39 points - Steve lowered his handicap by one stroke with his fine performance, while David claimed third place on countback.

Allen Watts scored an outstanding 41 points, dropping his handicap by one stroke and surely anticipating a win - but - his dreams were crushed when Jim Moffatt’s card revealed that he had scored an unimaginable 47 points - yes, 47 - while playing off a handicap of six! This is the highest eclectic score ever recorded by a Senior, and Jim henceforth plays off five - but that reduction failed to keep the smile from his face, as can be seen from his photograph!

To add a smidgeon of icing to Allen Watts’s cake, his charity raffle prize number was drawn by our independent random selector, Rod Clarke, thus adding £10 to his winnings and bringing the total number of Seniors in this week’s winners circle to a satisfying eight - the remaining 22 of us will just have a bit of a sulk until next Tuesday - when who knows?

And finally, it was really good to see Brian Waters back in the clubhouse - and itching to be back out on the links. Brian has had more operations than the actors in Casualty recently, and it will be a pleasure to see him playing again.

M.F.

The Grudge Result

The sun was just rising as the hooter went for the start of the grudge match on the Tenby links last Sunday, reports Warren Hacker, our golf reporter. How would the Rabbits cope with the early start? Entering the car park with car lights on isn’t what Rabbits are used to!

Years of history have thrown up a few Rabbits successes, so could captain Martin Durham lead his team to victory in 2017? Warren had been standing on the railway bridge earlier as he was due to meet some of the Ladies Section in their rah-rah skirts with their pom-poms out, but the impending drizzle stopped their antics.

Eager readers are no doubt excited to find out if the perennial underdogs came out on top, so the bush won’t be beaten around any more. Reluctantly, it has to be reported that the result was 5.5-2.5 in favour of ‘the others who play on Sunday mornings’, with Rabbits points coming from winners Dave Blackmore with Tom Watkins and John Stevenson with Peter Turton along with halvers Mark Edwards with Phil Carpenter.

Establishing hard facts and figures from vanquished Rabbits is difficult, but it appears that the golfing gods weren’t on their side this time. Various tales of unlucky bounces, lip-out putts and fortunate opponents seemed to be the common thread, though they were never bitter about it!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the sledging banter (which the Rabbits are quite expert at) and when you consider that the Rabbits were beaten by a team containing three ex-Rabbits captains and another who played for them last summer, it could be argued that the score really was ‘a half’. Regrettably, the shield will show it differently! You could say that the fairer change of rule by CONGU to allow 90 per cent of handicap allowance rather than threequarters has made a difference - maybe next year it could be full allowance!

Lavish praise was hoisted onto the ‘others’ relieved captain by his cohorts and captain Martin made a great speech as he handed Tim the shield to look after for a year. Unbowed, unabashed and undaunted the Rabbits will be back for more next year. Could 2018 be the Year of the Rabbit? (although our Chinese friends will say it’ll be the Year of the Dog).

Keep your chins up chaps - it was a commendable effort and there’s always next year.

You can see the truth if you read this sentence by sentence initially.

Three clubs and a putter 14-hole stableford

Fifty-nine players entered the annual three clubs and a putter 14-hole stableford competition on Saturday.

A mixed event, club secretary/manager Dave Hancock obviously chose his clubs wisely as he romped to success, his 36 points being four clear of his nearest rival.

Leading scores and prize winners were as follows: 1. David Hancock 36 pts (£60); 2. Peter Ellis 32 (£45); 3. Paul James 31 (£27); 4. Jeffrey Banfield 30, on countback (£17); 5. Sarah Waring 30, on countback (£12); 6. Kieron Plested 30 (£7).

Twos: Jeffrey Banfield, Timothy Davies, Martin Neilan, Paul Davies (£14.75 each).

Bag draw: Richard Reed, Peter Rossi, Laura McQueen, Mike Schooling (£14.25 each).

Pro Shop draw: Ross James (Glenmuir zip top).