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Report from Sam Roberts
The NTLPA Autumn Golf Meet - Thursday 19th October 2006
The weather forecast the night before predicted a window in the rain from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. As we were scheduled to tee-off at the Test Valley Golf Club from 10 a.m. onwards and as your average game of golf lasts four hours, this was good news. But how accurate are the weather forecasts?
Most of us travelled through a shower en route to the Club, where a bacon butty and cup of coffee awaited those arriving from 9 a.m. onwards but, sure enough, from 10 a.m. onwards it was a pleasant, if not breezy, day. It was a two club wind on occasions which is enough to affect your game – mind you, there is a multitude of other points which affect your game, so the wind is only an excuse for many!
The three ladies teed off first. Ann Dean, our hostess for the day, romped home with a very creditable 35 points, as did Trish Manuel (née Cowling) the ex-IBA clerk at Caradon Hill. Ann’s guest, Elaine Withers, dropped a couple of strokes on her partners. Behind the ladies, we had two more three-balls and a couple of four-balls, making a grand turnout of 17 players. The menfolk teed off with the lower handicaps leading the higher handicaps. With Pete Thompson away in India (now playing off 10!), the lowest handicapper was Mike Deren on 14, who was joining us for the first time. Mike won the longest drive competition on the 18th, so went away with a handsome prize to persuade him to come back next time; not that he will need to be coerced as the camaraderie amongst the players is great.
Ann Dean had acquired two nearest the pin prizes and chose the 5th par three on the front nine and the 13th on the back nine as the competition greens. Ron Chamberlain won on the fifth, Dave Cowans admitting that none of his group (Brian Woods, Chris Allerton and Richard Attewell) managed to get on the green – come to think of it, none of my group (Dennis Fowler, Ken Aldus and Peter Rowlands) did either! On the 13th green, David Manuel just pipped me by two inches, David playing with Mike Holt and Dave Jones.
We gathered in the clubhouse afterwards for a meal and the usual banter and post mortems on our games, before awarding the main competition prizes. Third in the order of merit was a delighted Dave Jones with 37 points – delighted because he beat me by two, which is why, earlier, I said that 35 was a very creditable score! The runner up, with 39 points was Brian Woods, who was playing in the group in front of us and, from his comments, seemed to be not doing too well – but then, that’s Woodsie for you. The winner, with an astounding 41 points, was Mike Leonard, who received the trophy, a bottle of plonk and well-earned pecks on the cheeks from Ann.
There were no cries of ‘Bandit’ from the assembled throng as Mike has offered to host the Spring 2007 meeting at his club, The Royal Winchester, on a date yet to be negotiated with the Club. We are looking for an even better turnout at that meeting.
And so, after a very enjoyable day’s golf, we headed to our chariots in the car park in the pouring rain, and home. The weather men had been spot on for a change.
Sam Roberts
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