With a few regulars off everywhere else (some abroad, some Swansea), seven Rabbits took to the links on Sunday trying to move themselves up the Winter League table. To encourage them, there was also a roll-over from last week for the twos. Would there be a two on this occasion? asks Warren Hacker, our links reporter.

The first three ball saw Peter Turton and John Ball with their second appearances and Paul Crawford with his first. This three ball could be called ‘the 20s’ as they all managed to reach at least 20 and they ended up in the bottom three places.

The second group saw league leader Grant Watkins, the two Steves, Watkins and Cole, all on their third venture and Chris Smith on his second. This group could be called ‘’the 30s’ as they all managed to reach that total and they didn’t get into a whole lotta trouble.

When the cards were collated, it was noted that there had been the chain of 21 attempts at a two on the par three and that resulted in six 3s, (Chris was on the edge of 17), but the last person on the 17th tee in group two managed to hit the green and lip-out with his tee-shot to miss out on a hole-in-one (in his dreams!), but sank his one foot putt for the all-important two.

When the results were announced, it was seen that Steve W occupied the bronze position with 32 points, Chris ended up in silver place with a decent 35, but the Top Rabbit this week was Stevie C who managed one more. He was also the one who notched the two on the 17th - a birdie (but not quite an albatross!) to take the twos pot. Mrs. C will be impressed!

In the early stages of the Winter League we have three on top with three outings, and Grant holds a four-point advantage over Steve C, with five others on two outings with totals ranging from 57 up to 66. Think about it, there’s a long way to go.

How many will be there next week? I can’t wait. Rumours are there’s going to be more than a dozen (but there are a dozen Fleetwood Mac references in the report!).

Played Total

Grant Watkins 3 104

Steve Cole 2 100

Steve Watkins 3 78

Chris Smith 2 66

John Ball 2 60

Adrian Palmer 2 58

Mark Edwards 2 57

Peter Turton 2 57

Gents November Monthly Medal

Seventy-seven players entered the Gents November Monthly Medal on Saturday.

Leading scores and prize winners were as follows:

Division One: 1. James Moffatt 77-6-71 (medal plus £41.50); 2. John Whitcutt 79-5-74, on countback (£31); 3. Spencer Harries 83-9-74, on countback (£21); 4. Steven Court 87-13-74 (£10).

Division Two: 1. Peter Brown 92-18-74, on countback (medal plus £41.50); 2. Simon Evans 91-17-74, on countback (£31); 3. Michael Anthony 96-22-74 (£21); 4. Philip Carpenter 96-20-76 (£10).

Twos: Andrew Cope, 2, Spencer Harries, Chris Beecher, Terry Davies, John Gottwaltz, Michael Anthony, Paul Bradley, Stephen Cole, Jeremy Peters (£7.70 each).

Bag draw: Peter Williams, Jerry Whitehouse, Jeff Haley, Richard Morton, Tim Edwards (£15.40 each)

Pro Shop draw: Idwal David (Glenmuir sweater).

Handicap changes: Michael Anthony 22 to 21; Jeffrey Banfield 6 to 7; Philip Carpenter 20 to 19; Ben Childs 1 to 2; Stephen Cole 17 to 18; Brian Cramb 3 to 4; Robert Howse 15 to 16; Graham More 3 to 4; Desmond Stone 19 to 20; Allen Watts 7 to 8.

Seniors’ Ambrose Pairs

Alternatively known as a Two Man Scramble, the Ambrose is a bit of light-hearted non qualifying golf -which of course was taken extremely seriously by the 40 Seniors who competed on Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, we had all expected the event to be cancelled because of the deteriorating weather, but captain Dudley and competition secretary Jim consulted, cogitated, calculated and confirmed that the rain coming in from the Atlantic would not strike the links until 12 noon - so that if the tournament was reduced to 15 holes all would be well. Broadly speaking, they were correct, a little moisture was experienced by the later starters, but the game was universally enjoyed.

A broad range of golfing expertise was displayed, the winning pair scored 11 points more than the bottom pair - golf can be a cruel game!

However, the happy top end of the list looks like this: In third place with a remarkable 37 points - narrowly beating Chris Beecher and Peter Woodhouse by a mere gnat’s whisker - Steve Cole and Peter Hart. Jeff Banfield and Stan Hudson bagged second place with an enviable 38 points - from 15 holes remember! While the Gold Medal went to the dangerous pairing of Allen Watts and Des Stone, whose 38 points included better scoring on the back seven holes. Once again treasurer Stan was in the winners circle - I dread to think what the Seniors’ Stash looks like at the moment!

And finally;

Question - Why was Alan Jones, who only achieved 12th place, smiling all over his face?

Answer - Because Chris Beecher drew out his winning charity raffle number and he took home the £10 prize!

M.F.

Prizes pass to plural Pauls while Barty bags the booby

I’m not sure how long we can keep on having really pleasant weather for our Friday morning jaunts - but long may it continue! The weather on Friday, November 4, was good enough to entice 19 Trotters out onto the links -and I’ll bet that some others who didn’t play really wish that they had made the effort.

I’m sure that you, dear reader, have heard the phrase ‘There are lies, damned lies and statistics!’ Well, I would never dream of telling you a lie - so here are some interesting statistics for the first five trots of the season, courtesy of book-keeper Steve Cole:

There were 63 ‘Blobs’ this week, bringing the five-week total to 273! Despite this, the average score for 15 holes from 79 cards is 21.9 Stableford points.

Phil Carpenter became the 29th different player of the season this week, either equal to or better than many previous seasons - and we are only on week five!

Some individual bragging material - Peter (Pedro) Ellis - 28 points off a handicap five less than his club handicap, this score would have won on weeks one and three! Pedro also had the only ‘Blob’-free round this week, and that is the second one in two weeks! If this was not enough, these are the only ‘Blob’-free rounds of the season - I have never liked Pedro!

This week saw 11 ‘four-pointers’ - indeed Phil Carpenter, Geoff Aston and Ron Murphy had two each! A bit greedy I would say - especially Ron’s 2 for 1 for 4 points on hole 12.

Results thus far in the Booker Prize competition (best five scores of the season) are quite promising; defending champion Neil Dickinson leads with 120, Geoff Aston has 111, Mike Fox has 110 and Steve Cole 109. Last year, Neil won with 154 - I have never liked Neil!

This week’s results - adding to the statistics - are as follows:

As the title of this article suggests, Bart Youll slipped into Booby position this week, sad - but 30p and two strokes lessened the pain!

As mentioned above, Ron Murphy slotted the only two of the day on the 12th and received 95p in small change.

In fourth place, the aforementioned and un-liked Peter Ellis scored a ‘blob’-free 28, but only got massive publicity!

Steve Cole managed to secure third place with 29 points. Steve got 60p, minus one stroke and a photograph in this esteemed newspaper.

Second place went to the brilliant, (he tells me), Paul Davies. Not quite brilliant enough to win, Paul nonetheless pocketed 90p and will surely not notice the loss of three strokes from his handicap.

The winner - and a man on a roll - was Paul Bradley, with an enviable 31 points. Breaking into the big-time with a massive prize of £1.50, Paul will have to work very hard next time out to overcome the reduction of five strokes to his handicap.

The par for the day was 25 points, which was easily beaten by all the prize winners.

Let us hope that the weather continues to be kind to the Chicken Trotters in the forthcoming weeks.

M.F.

Twenty years of Trotting

On September 27, 1996, the weather was showery,, but that didn’t stop 34 brave Trotters from turning out to compete in the Friday morning competition. Scoring was good and the £10.20 entrance fee was distributed as follows:

Alan Paice won the 30p Booby prize with a disappointing score of 16 points.

Gwyn Jenkins and Sonny Perkins won 50p each for their twos on the 9th, while Charlie Darr won the same amount for a two on the 12th.

In joint fifth place, Colin Griffith, Keith Jones and Peter Williams collected 80p each.

Fourth place and £1.10 went to Jack Garland

£1.30 was the reward received by Charlie Darr for sole third slot.

Ted Ridley’s creditable 30 points secured second place and a reward of £1.30

Top spot, earned with a score of 31 points by Gwyn Jenkins, was worth a very generous £2.50

Now, I’ve just been over those figures and unless my maths is as bad as my putting - the total prize money amounts to £10.40. I had already established that 34 entrants at 30p each amounted to £10.20 – so the overall picture is that we slipped into 10p debt for the morning! No wonder Christmas dinner was egg and chips!

Elsewhere, the Solheim Cup was played at St. Pierre, where sadly the US of A ladies beat the European girls 17-11. In Afghanistan, the Taliban captured Kabul and beheaded President Mohammad Najibullah.

M.F.