Tenby Golf Club's Saturday Swingers embarked on their 15th annual tour last weekend. For the third consecutive year, Cardiff was the base.

Although not hot, the weather was very pleasant on Saturday when the Swingers tackled the extremely challenging Wales National Course at the renowned Vale Resort.

The Swingers party comprised 26, with ages ranging from 22 to 69 years old. Even off the yellow tees, this undulating championship course measures almost 7,000 yards and not surprisingly some of the lower Stableford scores came from the older generation, but there were a few notable exceptions.

Andrew Cope, Jack Guerreiro and Terry Davies shared sixth place with 29 pts each. Phil Goodridge managed 30 pts and Martin Morris plus John Stenson were joint third with a very creditable 31 pts each.

Two Swingers scored an excellent 34 pts, namely new member Lewis Hurlow and the very consistent Darren Thomas. Thomas claimed the medal by virtue of his back nine of just 14 points following Hurlow's capitulation.

After a busy night in the capital city, the Swingers headed west for Mond Valley Golf Club which was previously known as I.N.C.O and Tawe Vale. This is a relatively flat tree-lined course with some very pretty holes, especially those alongside the River Tawe and the Swansea Canal.

Unfortuntately, it drizzled throughout the round. As well as scoring individually for the Swingers' trophies, the tourists also took part in a fourball, better ball open day, which attracted visitors from numerous clubs, although all the main prizes were won by home members.

Four Swingers came in with 29 pts for a share of fourth place, Simon Law, Terry Davies, Darren Thomas and Martin Morris.

Two better on 31 pts and joint runners-up were Austin Davies and Andrew Cope, but clear winner on 33 pts was Paul James. Jampot was the only left-hander on the trip. He found that most of the dog legs suited his game and he finished fourth over the weekend with a total of 59 pts.

Last year's tour champion, Martin Morris, totalled 60, which was the same as Andrew Cope, who had the better second round, 31 pts to 29.

However, the winner of the 2012 Swingers' Tour was Darren Thomas with a fine 63 pts. This means that Darren now holds two of the current three (soon to be four) Swingers' trophies, having been awarded the Ralph and Phil Johns' Shield on Swingers Day.

The leading 36-hole aggregate scores were: Darren Thomas 63 pts, Andrew Cope and Martin Morris both 60 pts, Paul James 59 pts, Terry Davies and Lewis Hurlow both 58 pts, Simon Law 56 pts, Jack Guerreiro 55 pts, Gary McNeilly and Terry Whitehouse both 53 pts, Simon Hilling and Matt Goldwait both 52 pts, plus Nicky Allen, Phil Goodridge and John Stenson all 51 pts.

Longest drives were claimed by Darren Thomas and Terry Davies, whilst nearest the pins went to Mike Anthony (his first ever Swingers prize) and Simon Hilling. Hilling had a two, as did Simon Law and Paul James.

The Secret Pairs money went to Martin Morris and Terry Davies (who each drew each other!) and Morris also won the sweep. Davies and his playing partner Hilling won the visitors' prize at the Mond Valley Open Day.

Regarding the 2013 tour, the Swingers will soon need to decide whether to retain the two-day weekend format which has been utilised successfully in recent years, or revert back to the longer three or four-day trip, perhaps returning to Ireland.

Footnote: The draw for the pools for the initial stage of the new Swingers KO Cup will take place on Saturday, September 29. Only fully paid-up members of the Saturday Swingers will be included in the draw.

Revenge is sweet for Tenby Seniors

As the seniors' summer season draws inexorably to a close, we only have home fixtures remaining. The penultimate home match was played on Thursday, September 13, versus our near neighbours, Trefloyne. Once again volunteers were a little thin on the ground and after a lot of telephoning, texting and emailing, Captain Jim only managed to raise a team of 18 players - many thanks to the gentlemen who agreed to help out in our hour of need.

In a departure from normal practice, there was no post-match meal this week, mainly at the behest of the visitors. This meant that there was no real opportunity to hold our customary raffle and I'm sure that our charity Tsar Brian Morgan, who was unable to attend, will be less than happy to see no addition to his Good Causes Kitty.

The weather was unusually clement; the match started in warm sunshine with an awkward two-club wind, and then the weather commenced to slowly deteriorate, with black clouds gradually covering the blue sky and the threat of rain ever present. Fortunately, senior golfers do not give a fig for the conditions, and after a prompt 13:00hrs start the nine fourball matches were soon spread over the links.

Now there existed a strong undercurrent of antagonism among the Tenby team. Trefloyne seniors had trounced us 5.5 to 2.5 on their own turf in June this year - and the Trefloyne team had just narrowly beaten the Tenby Tigers in the Dyfed League. There was an air of collective desire to apply boot to Glutimus Maximus and morale was high as the 'war on the shore' proceeded.

Around the course, a local form of semaphore has evolved as players on adjacent fairways enquire how their fellow team members are performing. The silent conversation starts with the initiating player adopting the'"how are you doing?' pose - eyebrows raised to signify a question and hands and arms open inviting a response. If the responder's pair are ahead, then the universal thumbs up sign is used, followed by fingers held up to correspond with the number of holes by which they are leading. Should the reply be that they are losing, the correct response is the 'throat cutting' gesture, again followed by raised fingers to denote the number of holes the unfortunate pair are trailing by.

This system is not foolproof - a member of the opposing team who mistakenly receives the semaphore for 'we are two up' may be quite offended!

Eventually - because the speed of play was somewhat less than brisk - all the games were concluded, and most of the players returned to the clubhouse. Those who had gathered in the bar sipped their drinks and waited with bated breath for the two captains to announce the result, and after some preliminary announcements and a surprisingly funny couple of jokes from Captain Jim, the Trefloyne seniors' captain announced - through gritted teeth - Tenby 6.5, Trefloyne 2.5. Deep joy!

The last match of the summer season will be a home fixture versus Fairwood Park seniors, who trounced us 5 to 3 at their course in May. It would be rather nice to finish the series on a high, so put your name on the team list and let's have another home victory.

See you there!

M.F.