A very busy day for the Society at Burnham Beeches.
With Paul H taking up his new position as Captain there were sure to be a few changes made as he put his foot down with a firm hand.
With early start club members filing back into the club house looking like drowned rats and the weather seeming to be set in for rain and wind, the club made an excellent suggestion that we delay our start time by 30 minutes or more. This allowed time for the weather to clear and time for an extraordinary general meeting to elect a new vice Captain. In the apparent absence of other candidates, Dave S bravely threw his hat into the ring and was duly elected as the man to help as deputy to Paul H.
With the formalities out of the way and the rain almost stopping, play commenced on a lighter note with Chris T making a fine birdie on the NP2 first hole. This may have proved to be the high point of his day as he and many others found the course challenging in the usual ways (and in some very unusual ways!). Chris hit the sleepers on the long Par 3, bouncing backwards over the bunker to embed in the mud and on one hole avoided the fairway by playing tee to green via the trees.
Alan B’s ball hit a tree on 18th and wound up 40 yards behind where he started. Paul B, suffering from his usual flatulence, nearly hit Alan with one of his ‘golf’ shots. Ian T hit the ball from 10th tee straight at the group in front on the 11th tee. They were saved by a lucky deflection off a tree branch.
Hebbo had tried to get out of playing at Burnham due to the weather forecast, until he realised he had already paid to play. It didn’t help his maths as he had a scorecard of 16 out and 14 back to total 27. Tony P and Luke had turned up, sniffed the air, but then gave up and went home for a ‘nice cup of tea’. Alan B was late as he was having sports enhancing injections at the doctors before playing. (they did not work). Sharp eyed undercover agents (Russian FSB?) noticed that Ray S’s phone went off in his bag before teeing off and twice on the round (one of which he answered). Glued as usual to the phone, he could not resist showing blue movies to his playing partners (is his store of exploits ever to be emptied?, to which we now add having a pee outside Mike J’s house when he picked him up to go to golf...and both managed to be late despite the time saving micturition) What is it about phones these days...John F was fined for talking about being drunk in Thailand for several holes (was that for talking or talking about being drunk again) and showing a video of a topless lady on his phone on the course. Mike J surpassed himself with awful jokes ("Did you have to use a tree wood Frazer"), wearing a South African Flag inspired golf hat and ,later in the day, an undertakers suit. John T, fresh from foreign travels seemed to have met the Del Monte man in the desert and stolen his jacket! (but it did brighten up a dull day!) Frazer W had to scale a tree to hit a ball 3 feet up from the ground. Alan, Beardy & Hebbo were fined for parking in the members' car park and Ray and Hebbo Kept their hats on whilst shaking hands on the 18th green.
Rob Lamond’s very thin excuse for not going on The Vale Masters Weekend trip was that he was having a wedding planning weekend with his fiancée. Some people cannot get their priorities right!
And finally...Matt T was fined for not winning, as the Captain had picked him in the draw!
Winner Ray Steele below in photo with first-time-as-captain Paul Healy - well done all!
Quick mention must be made of the menu as Luke Peters filed a motion at the recent AGM to not have Chicken and Crumble everytime! Look what you missed Luke!
Roving reporter: John Thorp