What a difference a burst of decent weather makes. The first day of February dawned dry, slightly sunny and very attractive to 13 golf starved Chicken Trotters who flocked to the Burrows hoping to find much corn.

It has to be said that the course is very different this winter. Even the more senior Chickens cannot recall a season when the links were more saturated and the water table so high. While this does make a round of golf very interesting, navigating your way around the latest water hazards can be very demanding. The photograph shows Bart Youll and Steve Cole attempting to find a dry route to the green on the flooded second fairway - they both managed it on that occasion, but later holes proved to be a different story.

Wet or dry, the Chicken Trotters always enjoy their Friday morning competition, and this week the cream rose to the top in the form of:

In fourth place with 27 points, winning nothing but a round of applause, Owen Monahan.

In third place - also with 27 points, Mel Hicks, who wins a miserly 50p, but loses one stroke.

In second place, again with 27 points, Steve Cole continues his purple patch, winning a piffling 70p and reducing his Trotter handicap by three strokes - if he features in the top four today (Friday 8th) when playing off nine - I will pay his prize money myself!

Since these three Trotters all scored equal points, the pecking order was decided by a countback over the inward holes.

Alone at the top of the pile, John Hancock accrued 29 soggy points to win a trifling £1 while suffering a savage slash of five strokes. At this point I should divulge the fact that he did this playing of a Trotter handicap of three! You will doubtless quickly calculate, dear reader, that this would normally sentence John to three rounds with a handicap of plus two - but the committee, in a dazzling display of benevolence, generosity (and a soupcon of pity) - have decided to let him continue with his three strokes. That will probably be a large scotch for the Chief Trotter then John!

Also on the winner's dais was John's fellow early bird, Pat Rees, who sank a putt for a two on the sixth - Pat wins a whole 65p for this burst of excellence.

Finishing 13th out of 13, Doug Havard collected the booby prize in the form of having his entrance fee of 30p returned and increasing his handicap by two strokes as an encouragement to buck up!

Most unlucky Trotter? - Meurig Jones, whose otherwise perfect iron shot to the green was sadly deflected when it collided with Owen's buggy!

Second most unlucky Trotter? - Neil Dickinson, whose otherwise perfect iron shot to the green struck none other than the most unlucky Meurig Jones! Ouch!

Least accurate Trotter? – guess!

Hope to see a fine flock of Chickens today!

M.F.

Seniors, sun, sea and swans

That rare occasion - a day without rain -was experienced by the seniors on Tuesday. True the wind was of the three-club variety, the temperature was finger-numbingly low and the course was still about 30 per cent submerged - but 34 players thoroughly enjoyed the non-qualifying Chapman Foursomes competition which Jim Martin had organised for the day.

The pairings had been drawn to combine one (relatively) low handicapper and one (attractively) high handicapper. The team's handicap was obtained by adding 60 per cent of the high to 40 per cent of the low handicapper's allowances - very fair and obviously a pretty accurate method of assessing the potential of the two-man teams. Even more attractive was the fact that the computer did all the calculating and spat out the result on a sticky label for Rhys to attach to our cards - Oh the wonders of the silicon chip!

So, all that was left for the teams to do was to complete the 18 holes using the minimum possible number of strokes - seemples! Except it wasn't too 'seemple' at all. The Stableford points scored ranged from 39 at the top to 21 at the bottom, a reminder that Tenby links can be a real challenge in the wind.

Scoring some of those points were the following prize winners:

Playing off a team handicap of 15 strokes, Richard Davies and Brian Diment claimed third place with 38 points. Their playing partners, Martin Neilan and Mike Fox, managed to pip them at the post for second place by scoring 39 points off a handicap of 18, but the competition was won by Rod Clarke and Tony Ranoe. They also scored 39 points off a handicap of 19 - but had a better inward nine holes.

Presenting the prizes, treasurer Allen Watts congratulated all the winners and pointed out that if his handicap wasn't so low, he and Alan Yates would have been in the money as well - No! -Really?

Brian Morgan gleefully announced that there was no winner for the last raffle because nobody drew ticket 11 which was the bonus ball number, so all the takings slid into Brian's charity kitty. Coincidently, number 11 was also the winning number for the previous week when Brian Diment was the winner, generously returning his winnings to sponsor this week's charity raffle.

Allen reminded the assembled players that those wishing to join the happy gang on the away day at The Vale on May 14 should get their £10 deposit to him ASAP. Just in case the seniors are not cosseted enough - yet another away day has been planned for August 14 at The Grove which will cost circa £24 plus the cost of the coach. A non electronic, manually operated, paper based entry list will appear on the notice board just as soon as Marylin issues Allen with two drawing pins.

And finally, not many golf courses can claim to be wildlife sanctuaries as well, but the photograph shows four Berwick swans searching for sunken golf balls on the 18th fairway. Thanks to Bob Flowers for the use of his smartphone camera.

Next Tuesday is a qualifying eclectic competition - weather permitting!