Calcot welcomed us with some challenging weather conditions ! Beautiful sunny, blue skies interspersed with very windy - heavy showers some of which included some fierce hail squalls. However the sunny periods won the day eventually.
A good turn out of 18 hardy golfers participated, going off in groups of three. The recent extremely dry weather allowed the ball to run fast and long - sometimes into hazards or through the greens. The undulating greens were tricky and overall the conditions made for difficult scoring opportunities which presented in the overall lower scoring. Best score of the day went to Phil Richards with a score of 36 points which was significantly better than the 18 man field average of 25 points. 2nd and 3rd were Nathan Tidbury and Paul Risk with 34 and 31 points respectively (only 3 out of 18 players bettering 30 points).
The dinner wasn't the best but the beer was good as was the pre golf brunch selection..
Captain Dave Shorter handed out many fines for misdemeanour's.
Frazer Webb was fined for unsuccessfully looking for his ball when he had parked his trolley on top of it.
John Furness for allowing his trousers to almost fall down on the first tee and for leaving his scorecard in his car and for repeatedly asking Nick Rothery what his score was on the previous hole (5 X).
Dave fined 9 players for arriving after 1 pm - even though tee times were up to 2:38 pm (easy money ! but harsh).
Samir and Chris Turvill were fined for spurning birdie chances (Chris twice !). Samir was also fined for having a "too bright" golf bag and doing the pointy finger thing lining up his putts and 3 putting.
Ian Turvill fined for letting his trolley fall over three times and repeatedly exclaiming "this isn't a 13 mph wind". Nathan Tidbury for chasing his runaway trolly downwind on the 9th.
Tony fined for losing his dob-in sheet and for not winning when Captain Dave had drawn him in the sweep. David was fined for using too many bunkers on the 1st hole !
Finally - on the 6th hole from the stream in front of the green Ian Dowdswell played a wedge shot with his ball sitting 2 inches below the running water surface onto a good position on the green. INCREDIBLE SHOT - nobody likes a show off ........ £1 fine 😀
Skill Prizes
Nearest the Pin in 2 shots on 2nd Phil Richards
Nearest the Pin on 7th Darren Anderson
Nearest the Pin in 2 shots on 10th Nick Rothery
Nearest the Pin on 17th Nathan Tidbury
Strongest Man Darren Anderson!
3rd place Paul Risk 31 points
2nd place Nathan Tidbury 34 points
1st place Phil Richards 36 points
Winner Phil not receiving the trophy from Captain Dave, as Paul Healy hadn't realised he had the trophy we were playing for so got fined for not bringing it!
Roving reporter Tony Peters
