NEWS ARCHIVES





News for 2003

3rd November 2003
The 2004 AGM of Bunkers Golf Society was held on 3rd November 2003 at Hersham Cricket Club. The minutes of this meeting can be found on the Committee page.
27th October 2003
Again only 12 people made it to Leatherhead in September, so continuing the troubled trait of low numbers throughout this season.

The day was sunny and dry, and thus meant that every event this year has been played in dry weather - although not always sunny.

The information from the course has been supplied by a number of the players, so I divorce myself from any of the comments :-)

The course was fairly wooded, and tight in places. There were well placed ditches, bunkers (and trees) for the unlucky ones. The course was well received by all that played with the only complaint (unsurprisingly) coming from Mickey Eagle who was upset with the bobbling on the greens. Of course he was the only one to experience this so it obviously had nothing to do with his technique :-)

After pick-pocketing Paul Warrens "Woodland friends" for the day, Michael Prevost proceeded to put them to good use. Managing to either hit or get stuck behind trees on 9 of the first 13 holes and possibly hitting more trees than shots during the course of the day. His luck during the round was to the extent that when a hooked tee shot was heading into the deep woodland and out of bounds, the final clatter of ball on tree miraculously deflected the ball out on a side ward's path and onto the fairway. Whilst Michael was busy honing his lumberjack skills, Paul Warren was busy with his bucket and spade and ice cream on the beach. Alas this isn't far from the truth as Paul was frequenting the sand filled bunkers at regular intervals. Paul's brother, Nigel Warren was ecstatically pleased with himself when he finally hit a Par 3 green with his tee-shot - the first time this year I believe!

Congratulations to Chris Turvill for bagging the final event of the year in a close fought battle with Bryan Carter and Paul Warren. Congratulations also go to Micky Eagle for the Longest Drive, Nigel Warren for Nearest the Pin and Bryan Carter, again, for Nearest the Pin on the 2nd shot.
The Merit stats and handicaps have been updated.

Updates from the AGM meeting from 3rd November will be posted here soon.

30th September 2003
All members and guests, please note. The notice for the AGM has been published. The AGM will be held at Hersham Cricket Club on 3rd November, promptly starting at 8:30pm.

As many of you may well be aware Paul Warren is to resign from his post of Fixture Secretary after the last event at Leatherhead. We are therefore in need of a replacement to live up to the high standards already set. If you or somebody you know would be interested in fulfilling this role please make sure you attend so that you can be put up for consideration.

The agenda for the meeting is:
  1. Minutes of previous meeting 18/11/02
  2. Apologies
  3. Secretary's Report
  4. Treasurer's Report
  5. Captain's Report
  6. Chairman's Report
  7. Election of Officers
  8. Amendment to Rules
  9. Membership
  10. Any other business


It is worth remembering that it is at this meeting that your view's can be heard, we greatly appreciate your feedback and input so it is important that you attend in order for us to move the society forward and in a direction that we all agree. Remember, if you're are not there we can't here about your issues or ideas, so please try to be there and assist in the society control.

24th September 2003
Unfortunately only 12 people were able to make it to Laleham in September, so as has been a trait all through this season the numbers were at there minimum!

The day was sunny and the course crisp and burnt. The normal Stableford competition was relinquished for a stroke play competition - with some surprising results.

Not a lot of news was reported from the course, except a notable 45 foot putt from John Waghorn, which unfortunately for him only netted him a 7 .... good putt though. There also seemed to be one boogey hole which caught out a quarter of the field, with Ken Mecure, Len Rutherford and Ian Turvill all getting into double figures on the same hole .. none of you are going to win anything by scoring 10 on a hole! :-0

The only other notable event was Paul Warren's style of winning - apparently most of his iron shots only managed to get of the ground due to the ball bouncing of the earth! How the hell he managed to win by topping all his irons is unknown! But congratualtions to Paul for making it round the course in evens. He ended up 4 shots ahead of the chasing pack of Bryan Carter, Micky Eagle and Michael Prevost - looks like it was closely fought for second place.

Congratulations also go to Mark Harris and Ken Mecure for winning the two Nearest the Pin competitions.

The Merit stats and handicaps have been updated.

Don't forget the next event at Leatherhead on Monday 27th October.

27th August 2003
Ow! Who decided to pick such a hilly course for 36 holes! At least the weather was nice and everyone got sunburnt. The day was enjoyable and the course although a bit parched was very good.

Unfortunately there was only 16 of us for the morning and 17 for the afternoon so the field was not huge, although it was burgeoned a little bit the advent of 3 guests.

The morning competition was Foursomes Pairs, each pair having to play alternate shots with the one ball. The morning was played on the Park course and then the Woods course. Each player had to tee of at each hole and the pair could take whichever ball they wanted to play for that hole - as long as 6 of each players tee shots were used during the round. After the tee-shot the players had to play each shot in turn.

The handicaps for each of the eight pairs was worked out at 5/8ths of the combined handicap, which resulted in 3 pairs with a 16 handicap and the other 5 with 14 handicap.

The morning pairs competition saw the pairs fairly well spread out in terms of standard of play and points, with the lowest pair scoring 27 points, and the winning pair 41 points, 5 points ahead of second place.

The winning pair were Paul Warren and Frazer Webb - although as you will see neither did particular well playing by themselves in the afternoon, they managed to hack there way round in the morning in such a way that when one made a bad mistake and lost a ball on the tee-shot the other played well!

The other competitions in the morning consisted of just 2 Nearest the Pin competitions. The first competition was on the 2nd hole on the Parks course and was one by two brothers in a dead-heat - Paul Donlevy and Steve Donlevy. The second Nearest the Pin was on the 12th hole (3rd on Woods course) and was won by a guest, Simon Park.


By the afternoon, we had gained an extra player - Len having decided he could not manage the full 36 holes had turned up at lunchtime.

The afternoon round was Individual Stableford competition for The Captain's Cup. The round was started on the Woods course and followed onto the Lakes course for the final nine holes.

The play was tired and a little slow as many of the players trudged round for the second game of the day - no mention of the four lazy sods who hired buggies! A number of events were seen or heard of in the afternoon. Rob "longsocks" Durrant chipped in from 60 yards out, this was the highlight of his round and after hitting 4 trees on one hole it had to get better for him. Matt Turvill also had a long chip in but his was for a birdie on the hardest hole on the course so gained him 5 points. Len Rutherford's round started of well on the 1st hole, reaching the green fairly easily, unfortunately Len then putted from one side of the green all the way over to and off the other side. With careful patience Len lined up his next putt only to slide it all the way back over the green and off the original side again! Oh well Len, better luck next time.

On to the competition though, and the Turvill's are at it again clutching the top three positions. This time the top spot went to Matt Turvill with a far to good 45 point haul (after looking at the handicap cuts, he won't be doing that again for a few years), second came his younger cousin Mark Turvill who also exceeded 40 points, and unfortunately for him has also seen a large handicap cut. The final podium place was bagged by Mark's Dad Colin Turvill with 38 points.

Overall most people played fairly well with the lowest score by our regular wooden spooner Len Rutherford of 23 points.

There were three hole competitions played on the way round this 18 holes. The first encountered was the Nearest the Pin on the 2nd hole (2nd on Woods course) which was bagged by the Turvill clan again, Mark Turvill. The second competition was found on the 16th hole of the round (7th on Lakes course) and was the Longest Drive. The Marker had just been placed a couple of hundred yards down the fairway when the fourth group arrived on the tee. The first tee shot came from Micky Eagle who slotted it straight down the middle of the fairway and it sidled on past the marker, so Micky was happy. The next tee shot, from Steve Donlevy, although a good long one did not quite make it to the fairway. The final tee-shot from the group was from Frazer Webb. Although his Big Bertha had not been working very well all day, it was a case of shit-or-bust and he went for it with a bit more puff than normal. The strike was hit and oh-my-god it was straight. It hit the ground and got lost in the glaring sunlight but it was on it's way merrily down the fairway. A quick trot down the fairway found the marker and Micky Eagle's ball but no sign of Frazer's so the marker was collected and the troop carried on walking to find Frazer's ball another 70 yards further forward. After checking the yardage booklet we estimated it to be about 280 to 290 yard drive - 60 yards from the green. To cap such an excellent start to the hole Frazer then chipped his second shot 25 yards into a bunker and took another 4 shots to complete the hole! Doh! The final competition was another Nearest the Pin on the 17th hole (8th on the Lakes course) and was another Turvill victory by Matt Turvill.

Congratulations to all who made it round, and to all the winners.

The Merit stats and handicaps have been updated.

Don't forget the next event at Laleham on Monday 22nd September, and please also take great care over your clothing at Laleham as they are very strict - the guidelines can be found here.

28th July 2003
Well it was a long wait between the last event and this one, but we finally made it to Oak Park out down Farnham way. The weather was not that favourable, with the distinct threat of rain all day, however the rain stayed off and it turned out to be quite warm and intermittently sunny.

Although only 14 of us were there, we had a couple of new comers, a new guest (Len Landers) who didn't even know his introducer and a founder member (Chris Penfold) out for the first time this year.

The field was well spread out this time in terms of points and standard of play. The course was somewhat difficult being very heavily tree-lined and also exhausting due to the many steep hills. Having said that the course was very good, and the greens excellent. The course started of with a dog-leg right par 4 which was playing long directly into the strong wind. Everyone got off reasonably ok, until yours truly tee'd of - I took 5 shots to get to the dog-leg turn, after having lost 2 balls on the way! Start of an exceptional round! :-)

There was not a lot of news to be heard from the players around the course, mainly as the only thing wafting over the wind was Paul Warren's voice! A little colour was available amongst the play though with a few notable events such as Michael Prevost's perfect tee shot which hit the pylon cables which diverted it 90 degree to the right deep into the trees. Len Rutherford's successful 45 foot putt down two tiers of an extremely interesting green! Chris Penfold's comment that the course was really friendly today as it was storing all his balls for safe-keeping. And who can forget the sight of Michael Prevost's hair colour!

Anyway down to the results - and for the second time this year the youngest member of the society whipped the seasoned members to achieve another victory which will over-burden his Dad's mantlepiece. Well done to Mark Turvill, who snatched the win with a score of 35 points, beating Steve Donlevy by a clear two points. Yet again we had more than one Nearest the Pin competitions, the first on the 8th hole which was won by Richard Barnes, and the second on the 15th hole which was won by our guest Len Landers. Unfortunately Len then missed the very short putt to get his birdie! The last hole competition was the Nearest the Pin in 2 shots which was taken by Paul Warren. The last prize was the "Duffers Cup" which was awarded to Len Rutherford, who unfortunately for him has returned to his usual position near the bottom of the table - the heady heights of the top ten must have got to him last time out! :-)

One final comment, thanks to Steve Dyett who provided the prizes, which comprised of a bottle of Scotch, bottle of Cognac and two bottles of bubbly. Thanks Steve.

The Merit stats and handicaps have been updated.

Don't forget the next event at Sandford Springs on Monday 27th August, it's the all day 36 holer, so don't forget about chasing some of those guests again!

16th June 2003
A little bit earlier in the month than normal saw the Bunkers fraternity finding their way to Junction 7 on the M3, where most people found Dummer Golf Club quite easily, except for yours truly (Frazer) who drove past the entrance three times before getting lost and then eventually finding the place. Not a good omen for finding your way round a golf course!

The sky was near cloudless, the temperature was up to 28 degrees celsius, and if the sun tan lotion was not in sight, very red faces and arms would soon be! Hence the usual rabble of amateur golfers descended on Hampshire!

And what a place it was, the course was excellent, the greens, although could have been cut closer, were true, pretty fast and interesting! The reception from the club was top-notch - a credit to it's members and an example to many other clubs as to what they could do.

The field who turned out was a big one this time, 22 players, which included as many as 7 guests - I believe all of them were members of Dummer GC, but even so this bolstered the numbers wonderfully - and I believe they had all been cajoled into it by Steve Donlevy who just happens to be a member of Dummer GC and Bunkers! And amongst those guests was our first ever lady player, Mary Walker, but more about her later on. One other notable guest for the day was the Chef, Shelly May, who on the spur of the moment decided to leave his apron and knives in the kitchen and instead bring out the other sort of blades. Shelly was put out in the first group so he could get back in time to cook our meal in the evening.

As usual the standard of golf to be seen fluctuated, although in general it seems that the course was being pretty lenient on us today and nobody really scored horribly badly - in fact there were a few pleasant surprises from some of the regular back markers. Although he was seen to not enjoy the 18th hole, John Waghorn turned in a great round to score 35 points, which was pretty much bang on handicap. I think John himself would admit this is the best round he's had for a while, certainly at Bunkers. Len Rutherford, another of our traditional wooden spooners, also stunned the amassed crowd by turning in a near par 34 pointer to get himself into the top 10 for the very first time in his Bunkers career. So well done to those two especially.

But what of the rest of the field, I hear you ask? Well there were a few notable achievements being talked about at dinner in the evening. The first was Paul Warren, inevitably - something always seems to happen to him! - he ended up in the water on the 1st hole (great start!!!) but then promptly managed to chip in from about 30 yards away to get a Par! That bloke always steps in the lucky stuff on the way to the course! The second notable item was from myself (Frazer). A hole in one no less - nett unfortunately but it still bagged me 5 stableford points. Hole 6, stroke index 2, perfect drive, good approach shot, all finished off by a 30 foot putt from of the green straight into the cup!! My two playing partners were flabbergasted to see a 5 pointer on a hole, let alone that hole as they were both Dummer members and knew the hole intermitently! Unfortunately, that and a similar exploit gaining me 4 points on another whole did absolutely nothing for my ability to come anywhere in the top 10 today. Oh well!!

Enough of that, what of the actual winners of things. Well, we all expected a high score on the course today, and we were not let down. We had 15 players score 30 points or more, but in the end the winner won it by an easy 3 points with 41 points, it was Steve Donlevy, who is yet another Dummer GC member, so it was fitting he won it on his own course!. Well done Steve.

Totally unexpectedly we ended up running 5 individual hole competitions - I think we have a large surfeit of prizes at the moment, plus Steve Donlevy and a couple of other members had contributed medals and gifts for prizes as well. Before the round we decided upon Nearest the Pin in 2 shots, 2 Nearest the Pin holes and uniquely a Straightest Drive competition! Dummer is unique in everyone's experience, because on the 4th hole they have a line running all the way down the middle of the fairway!! Cool!!

As it turned out, due to a mix-up in communication, the markers for Nearest the Pin in 2 shots were not placed on the course and instead a Longest Drive was added. So with a little bit of confusion, we ended up with 5 competitions being played for.

So who won them? Well, we'll take them in the order they happened. First up then is the Straightest Drive, this unique competition went to Len Rutherford, who by the looks of his overall score was having a pretty good day. Next along comes the Nearest the Pin on the 2nd shot, and this went to Micky Eagle. Thirdly, was the 1st Nearest the Pin (confusing isn't it!?) which was on the 12th hole and this went to our captain Ian Turvill. The 4th competition was the Longest Drive, which turned out to be the most predictable event of the day as for the 3rd time this season (and he didn't play in the 4th game) it went to Nigel "Big Bertha" Warren! Just you wait til I get my new Great Big Bertha Driver!! Lastly was the 2nd Nearest the Pin competition on the 17th hole, and this went to a guest, and a lady guest at that, Mary Walker.

To commemorate so many guests, we also ended up with a best and worst Guest prize. The worst guest was Andrew Murray, and the best prize was for Mary Walker.

That was the end of the prizes or so we thought! For Steve Donlevy had supplied us with one more prize, a Booby Prize - which was a glorious looking Silver Cup - on closer inspection it was seen to be rather bendy and probably would have bounced as high as a golf ball. This was awarded to the worst member of the day, and surprisingly a normally high-flying member snatched the worst prize of the day, Mark Harris. Mark didn't have it for more than 3 minutes before he broke the base of the cup! It will apparently glue back together!!

One final comment, thanks again to Steve Donlevy who also arranged for Drinks and Chocolate to be supplied to all players half way round the course - on a sweltering day like that it was a well judged and very welcome surprise. Thanks Steve.

The Merit stats and handicaps have been updated.

Don't forget the next event at Oak Park on Monday 28th July - don't forget about chasing some of those guests again!

27th May 2003
A good course in good condition, a dull overcast sky, a few drops of rain, and some good golf - from a few people.

That was our afternoon out at Cranleigh this year. Although a relatively poor showing of just 15 players, we did have our first 2 guests of the year join us, courtesy of Steve Donlevy and Michael Prevost's persuasive techniques. Up to everyone else to try and do the same!

There was some good golf to be seen up and down the field, although there seemed more bad golf around than good! The day started well when one of our traditional back markers, Michael Prevost, who was playing in the first group to go out, managed 4 stableford points on the first hole with a par 3 score. The next 3 groups all peppered the green and surrounding areas fairly consistently. Then up stepped the last group. In an attempt to humiliate them, they will not remain nameless ........ Ian Turvill (Captain), John Waghorn (Founding Member) and Frazer Webb (Chairman) ........, who in turn all managed to flunk their first shots of the day so badly that none of them reached the ditch which sat 20 yards in front of the green. The previous group who were standing on the 2nd tee where laughing all the way down the 2nd fairway as a result! Even better was that Ian's tee shot, which failed to reach the ditch let alone the green, managed to miss the ditch only by judicial use of a green keepers hut and a bush .. twice! He drove an extraordinarily flat tee shot straight through a bush about 100 yards away, clanged into the metal side of the green keepers hut, and bounced back through the same bush to land 4 yards in front of the ditch. Frazer who tried to do the same, was unlucky to miss the green keepers hut and instead managed to loose his first ball of the day in the ditch - it was a brand new ball as well!!

A few other escapades (or should that be escapes!) were witnessed during the day. On the Nearest the Pin hole (17th) Bryan Carter tried to take a rather roundabout route to the pin - so roundabout he was nearly in Reigate! Bryan managed to flunk his tee shot so badly that it almost went sideways, but luckily for him he managed to find the tarmac road running down the left hand side of the fairway. Not content with landing on the road his ball bounced of the road and into the trees on the other side, a few seconds and rebounds later, his ball popped back out of the trees and back onto the road. Hold on, we aren't finished yet! Again, finding the tarmac a little bit too hot, his ball then decided the green stuff was much safer, and promptly decided to bounce of the road again but heading for the green this time. By bypassing a bunker and bouncing of a hillock on the side of the green, his ball finally decided to come to rest on the green! Investigations are still going on to find out what Bryan had stood in that day as we all want some of it!

Bryan was not the only person to have stood in the lucky muck on the way to the course, as straight after achieving a par on the 1st, our Captain, Ian Turvill (yes the same one who hit the green keepers hut on the 1st and still managed a par!), promptly drove off on the second tee with a wayward slice, only to manage to hit the pylon standing in front of him. Of course this meant the lucky sod was then able to hit another tee shot free of penalties, and of course he hit a stonking one straight down the middle! Luck like that should be out-lawed, or at least penalised!
But we're not finished there - Ian's luck continued in spates around the course and led him to chip in from 25 yards away in what was his last shot he could score with. Although at the end of the day this extra 1 point did not win him anything, it was still too much luck for one person to have in one day!

Enough of these goings on, what of the results. Well, the honours fell quite convincingly to one person, who obliterated the majority of the course. Today's Terminator was Mark Turvill, who last year was the youngest person in our society to win a tournament, ....., and still is! Bang goes that 29 handicap, I hear 25 maybe 24 is the going rate these days! Congratulations to Mark though, he played well and beat the course and everyone else.

Again, rather unusually, we decided to run all three "hole" competitions this event, and yet again we had a bit of dejavu. For the third event running, the marksman winning the Nearest the Pin competition was Colin Turvill, which was a very big surprise as up to the tee shot on the 17th hole, Colin had played an absolute mare, even catching some air on one of his tee shots. Standing on the 17th tee as he played his shot, it looked like the ball was in, and only stopped a few inches from the hole. In actuality it finished about 4 feet away, and in fitting with the rest of his play that day Colin then managed to miss the putt for a birdie! The other marksman shot for Nearest the Pin on second shot, was another Turvill clan member, but this time Chris Turvill. His tee shot was the longest anyone had managed on the hole as he managed to drive it over the danger bunkers sitting 50 yards in front of the green. This drive left him with a half sand-wedge into the green and he managed to put the ball within a few yards of the pin. Finally the big guns on the Longest Drive; as the biggest gun who keeps winning this year (Nigel Warren) was not playing we thought we'd have a bit of fun with the Longest Drive and have it on a more position orientated hole rather than an out and out power hole, so a dog-leg right was chosen in which the sensible shot was to play up to the dog leg then attack the green from there. Many good shots were played with Steve Donlevy managing a great drive bent round the corner to within about 120 yards of the pin, at the narrowest part of the fairway. His drive was safe til the last group rounded the corner. Upon rounding the corner (and hunting for Ian Turvill's lost ball) the group were surprised to see one of their players balls sitting in the middle of the fairway just by the longest drive marker. As Ian was lost in the bushes, and John had topped his tee-shot short, Frazer was now getting all excited until he realised how close his ball was to the marker. It took another agonising 5 minutes for Frazer to reach his ball, as Ian's ball remained firmly lost, but finally we found that Frazer had out-driven Steve's marker by 1.5 yards. Thus claiming his first victory in anything for over a year!

Fun was had by most, a few curses, mutterings and flying clubs were heard and seen, but in all it was still a good day, and no one has decided to retire ... yet!

The Merit stats and handicaps have been updated.

Don't forget the next one is pretty soon, at Dummer on Monday 16th June - don't forget about chasing those guests!

23rd April 2003
Well, what can we say about the greens - being diplomatic, I'll say nothing more than they left a lot to be desired! The golf itself was good, the course was great, and most people played fairly well and did as well as they could on the greens that were on offer. There was not a huge amount of notable events to report aside from the actual results of the various competitions.

Yet again the numbers were slightly disappointing, with only 15 turning up, and this just being the usual suspects - numbers are down as we have not had any guests at events yet this year. Please note if you have any potential guests that the committee has decided on a special promotion for first time members, where the first event they play as a guest they will be eligible to pay the same price as a member - if they return as a guest they will pay the normal guest price.

Whilst we are on the subject of money, a reminder to all members who were members last year - at the AGM before the start of the season it was decided to provide all 2002 members with a £10 subsidy which they can elect to use to help pay for an event this year. All you need to do is to remember to tell Chris you want to make use of it when you provide payment for an event.

So down to the results of the day. Well we have a new winner, he's been close on many occasions but for some reason or another (!) he's never quite made the top slot, probably because it would cost him too many shots, but now with the new winning cut-system, Paul Warren has finally decided it's time to take one of the trophies, so well done to Paul. Unfortunately for Bryan Carter who for the second tournament running was the runner-up, Paul pipped him to the win on countback. A bit of dejavu for Bryan as he lost the previous event on countback as well. We all hope Bryan gets his revenge soon and takes a clean win.

Unusually, we decided to run all three "hole" competitions this event, and yet again we had a bit of dejavu. For the second event running, the marksman winning the Nearest the Pin competition was Colin Turvill, and the big gun winning the Longest Drive was Nigel Warren - both of them won the same competitions on the previous event as well. The winner of the last "hole" competition, that of Nearest the Pin on second shot was Michael Prevost. Apparently his first shot was a reasonable distance but he stuffed it in amongst some trees, so his second shot through the trees to the green to win the competition was a rather unorthodox way to bag an extra merit point!
The Merit stats and handicaps have been updated.

See you at Cranleigh on 27th May - don't forget about chasing those guests - let's try and get back into the 20's for number of players!

17th March 2003
Well how about that for an event to kick-start the 2003 season, weather was fantastic, just shame about the golf. :-)

Seriously though, for the first game of the season, the golf was pretty good - ok yes, no one managed to go round on or under handicap, but the whole field was only separated by 12 points, which going on some of the previous sets of results was pretty consistent.

The only downside on this was the number of people we had on the course - with only 12 participants it was our smallest turn-out since August 2001 - yes August 2001. Come on people, to those who weren't there at all, we ask why not?, to those who where there we ask you all to cajole, persuade and blackmail those who were not to get them there next time. We have booked all the courses this year for up to 25 players, and many do not accept bookings for less than 12 players so the reality is that if we do not get more players turning up we may unhappily have to abandon games and loose deposits! So get your phones ringing, your mouths chatting (except you Wozza!) and get people coming along. It benefits us all, as the more players we have the higher number of merit points you get!


Enough of the sales pitch, back to the Winter Shield.

The course was quite firm considering the time of year, but it has to be said the greens were not in the best of order - putting was literally a lottery on all the greens, and where your ball bobbled was in the hands of the gods. However, we still managed to have a closely fought match, with 6 players still exceeding 30 points. However there had to be a winner, and unfortunately for Bryan it was not him - yet again it came from the Turvill clan, but this time it wasn't the Captain, nor his youngest son, but instead it was our Handicap Secretary and Treasurer, Chris Turvill. Although Chris had started of with a horrible front-nine, he turned the corner and came in with a 22 point back-nine, only pipping Bryan on the last hole with a competition wining birdie 4 on the last Par 5 which netted him 4 points, equalling Bryan and beating him on countback.

The general play in the pack was on a par with the tree-dodging standard which was expected prior to the tournament. Almost everyone was in the trees at some stage or another, some more than most :-) Some notable escapes from the trees came from Michael Prevost and Frazer Webb who after their exploits of threading their shots back through very narrow gaps in the trees (without playing pin-ball) will next be seen threading their balls through the eye of a needle ...... oooh, painful!

Finally we have to say congratulations to those people who scooped extra merit points by winning one of the shot competitions on the holes. Firstly the Nearest the Pin competition was won by Colin Turvill (yes I know, another Turvill - we'll soon be renaming the society to Turvill Golf Incorporated!). Colin was in the first group out and put his tee-shot about 25 feet away from the hole - you can make your own assumptions about the standard of play of the other 11 players who followed him on that hole!!

Next we have to say congratulations to Nigel Warren for his longest drive, well I suppose we have to congratulate him! After all, his only straight drive on the front-nine was on the hole for the longest drive, and the previous longest drive he smashed in doing so was held by Frazer, who is writing this report! After this hole Nigel's driving went back to the trees, sod, why that hole! :-o

Enough moaning, and on with the show. The next meeting is at Gatton Manor on April 23rd. The calling notice has been sent out, so please get your monies in by the date specified on the notice. Also please take note of the dress code requirements. Last thing is to reiterate the first point made about the number of players, please everyone, do what you can to attract people along to Gatton Manor - we had high numbers all last year, lets try and get back to that consistently this year.

The Merit stats and handicaps have been updated.

27th February 2003
The weather was great, the hospitality was superb, just shame about the standard of play :-)

What follows is a report, by our Captain Ian Turvill, on the pre-season warm-up game organised by the society at Sand Martins Golf Club on 27th Febraury 2003.

9 people attended and with the weather on our side we had a great day. The weather was bright and we were able to play in Shirt sleeves, however, most players were not able to do any justice with the golf. Scores ranged from pitifully poor to very reasonable.

There were a couple of notable instances though:
  • Prev outdrove Micky E and myself (Ian Turvill) on the first tee, not that that was difficult as both Micky E's and myself drove 30 yards! (Ed: Glad to hear, keep it up and the rest of us might have a chance this season!) Having said that Prev's drive was a good'un, 180 yards straight down the middle; his first and last straight drive of the day!
  • Eagle drove one ball (allowing for his normal slice which on this occassion turned into a draw) which ended up half way back to Surrey!
  • Mark played very steady not being tempted to use his woods so early in the season.
  • Wozza found his bogey hole, the 17th. When the society visited their last time, he used somebodies back garden twice; this time he stopped short of the pond to the left in front of the 18th Tee! The Ducks were not in danger this time as they recognised Wozza's drive from last time and stood on the green!


    • Cards from this event will be put in for handicap adjustments but the scores from this game will not count towards the order of merit.

    The scores posted were:
    PosPlayerStableford Points
    1Mark Turvill34
    2Colin Turvill34
    3Richard Barnes34
    4John Waghorn28
    5Paul Warren28
    6Ian Turvill26
    7Jim Laidlaw23
    8Michael Prevost22
    9Micky Eagle19

    Mark Turvill won the nearest the pin competition, as he was the only one to hit the green! Like wise Jim laidlaw won the longest drive as he was the only one to land his drive on the fairway. As I said it was early in the season!     (Ed: Well done to those two.)

    Sand Martins made us feel at home as the first society of their season.

    Editor: Thanks Ian for that round-up, and I'm glad a good day was had by all.

    24th January 2003
    News Flash
     There has been a change in the playing dates for this season as well as confirmation of the venue for September. The new details are below. You will also find approximate costs for each event. These are to help all members evaluate which event they wish to claim there £10 subsidy on. You must mention that you are claiming the subsidy when you pay for an event.

    The list of fixtures and courses for this year is now as follows:
    The Winter ShieldMarch 17thPine Ridge Golf Club12:30pm tee-off - 18 holesapprox £31.00
    The Bandits BowlApril 23rdGatton Manor Golf Club1:30pm tee-off - 18 holesapprox £35.00
    The Hook and Slice MastersMay 27thCranleigh Golf Club2:00pm tee-off - 18 holesapprox £34.00
    The Chairmans CupJune 16thDummer Golf Club 2:00pm tee-off - 18 holesapprox £28.00
    The Summer Shoot-outJuly 28thOak Park Golf Club1:30pm tee-off - 18 holesapprox £30.00
    The Captains CupAugust 27thSandford Springs Manor Golf Club8:30am tee-off - 36 holesapprox £65.00
    The Kestrel CupSeptember 24thLaleham Golf Club1:00pm tee-off- 18 holesapprox £34.00
    The Eagle Autumn PlateOctober 27thLeatherhead Golf Club12:00pm tee-off - 18 holesapprox £28.00


    The calling notice for the first event will no doubt be forthcoming in the near future.

    The Golf Dinner has been provisionally booked for Saturday the 15th of March at the George pub in Hersham. This will be a 3 course meal consisting of starter, main (roast) and sweet, followed by coffee. The cost for this will be around £15 per head. Further details will be made available soon.
    10th January 2003
    As you may see, the website has been slightly altered and also prepared for the forthcoming season. If anyone spots any problems or sees a way to improve things please feel free to drop me a line.

    The list of fixtures and courses for this year has now been made available and they are as follows:
    March 17thPine Ridge Golf Club12:30pm tee-off - 18 holes
    April 23rdGatton Manor Golf Club1:30pm tee-off - 18 holes
    May 27thCranleigh Golf Club2:00pm tee-off - 18 holes
    June 16thDummer Golf Club 2:00pm tee-off - 18 holes
    July 28thOak Park Golf Club1:30pm tee-off - 18 holes
    August 27thSandford Springs Manor Golf Club8:30am tee-off - 36 holes
    September 22ndTo be confirmed1:00pm tee-off- 18 holes
    October 27thLeatherhead Golf Club12:00pm tee-off - 18 holes


    The calling notice for the first event will no doubt be forthcoming in the near future.