Ladies’ annual dinner and prize-giving

There wasn’t a lot of golf played in the second part of November due to rainy weather restrictions which meant that nobody ventured out on Thursday the 30th for the planned 18-hole stableford, but it was a good opportunity for the lady captain Pam Cole, vice-captain Bev Owen and treasurer Helen Hughes (with a bit of help from Emma from behind the bar) to put up the clubhouse Christmas tree in readiness for the first of the Christmas dinners - the Ladies Annual Dinner and Prize-giving - the following day.

There had been a competition on Thursday, November 23, to report on. This was a ‘team of three’ contest called the Waltz, where the best score is counted on the first hole, the two best on the second hole and all three scores on the thirrd - then repeat this six times, hence 1, 2, 3 just like a waltz!

On the day it was VERY windy, gale-force on times, which meant trolleys were being blown over. To prevent this recurring theme, partners took turns in hanging on to their own plus their partner’s trolley to stop them being blown over or halfway down the fairway.

Despite this, seven groups of three went out and, although there was a bit of rain at the start, the scores were fairly reasonable considering the conditions.

On 61 points in third place were Carol Beecher, Penny Cope and Gill John, runners-up on countback on 64 points were Bev Owen, Trevayne Keohane and Sue Shooter, who were just pipped by Irene Gilman, Sue Ensor and Linda Tordoff-Evans.

There was a Sunday 18-hole stableford competition on the 26th, which saw the best score coming from Sue Ensor on 28 points, ahead of runner-up Trevayne Keohane on 25, beating Angie Gottwaltz on countback. Trevayne also notched the only two of the day on the 12th.

The Ladies Annual Dinner is where all the silverware from the events of the previous 12 months is handed out. This year, the majority of the regular playing members attended the presentation and were greeted with a welcome drink on arrival courtesy of the ladies’ funds. Since there was a birthday girl in attendance, a fine rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung for Ann Marsden, followed by ‘Grace’ from Liz Storey before we all sat down to enjoy Lee’s delicious Christmas offering.

After the meal, lady captain Pam addressed the ldies and talked about how she first became a member at Tenby Golf Club some 45 years ago as a junior member and regaled some of her memories of past events and characters. She spoke of how proud she was to be wearing the badge of office - the Lady Captain’s Brooch - and that she would try to do her best for the ladies and the section over the next 12 months.

On behalf of the ladies present, she thanked Lee, Emma and all the staff for great service and a wonderful meal.

Secretary Anne Wilks then went on to announce the winners of the various competitions and last year’s lady captain Linda Thomas handed out the trophies and prizes that had been won during her year.

President Pat Fox announced her chosen recipients for the ‘President’s Prizes’, which this year went to Trevayne Keohane and Liz Storey - both very worthy choices.

On Thursday, December 21, ladies are encouraged to remain in the clubhouse after the 15-hole Turkey Trot stableford competition in order to watch a demonstration on how to use a defibrillator, which is due to start at 2.30 pm. We all know how useful this piece of equipment has been recently when it was used to save a person’s life on the course. It would be good for all of us to be familiar with this machine in case it needs to be used again in an emergency. This session is also open to non-golf-club members.

P.C.

December Monthly Medal

Seventy-six players entered the December Monthly Medal on Saturday. Leading scores and prize winners were:

Division One: 1. Timothy Davies 79-11-68 (medal plus £41); 2. Allan Morton 83-13-70, on countback (£31); 3. Paul James 82-12-70, on countback (£20.50); 4. Jack Harries 74-4-70 (£10.50).

Division Two: 1. Ryan Dennehy 87-15-72, on countback (medal plus £41); 2. Stephen Maytum 87-15-72, on countback (£31); 3. Gary McKeown 87-15-72, on countback (£20.50); 4. David JP Morgan 94-22-72 (£10.50).

Twos: Stan Hudson, Ian J. Thomas, Martin Morris, Jerry Whitehouse, Stephen Cole, Roy Edwards Jr., Philip Goodridge, Gary McKeown, Ryan Dennehy (£8.44 each).

Bag draw: S. Law, M. Seal, B. Cramb, I. Jarvis, R. Davies (£15.20 each).

Pro Shop draw: S. Hudson (Ping midlayer kelvin top).

Handicap changes: Chris Beecher 12 to 13; Jon Bolter 5 to 6; Austin Davies 18 to 19; Tim Davies 11 to 10; Philip Goodridge 16 to 17; Stan Hudson 12 to 13; Ian Jarvis 18 to 19; Simon Law 14 to 15; Lee Lewis 8 to 7; Allan Morton 13 to 12; Andrew North 16 to 17; Peter Rossi 11 to 12; Neil Webb 12 to 13.

Shocking day for the Seniors

There might have been a few seniors at the lower order of the day’s play ready to claim their game on the day was shocking, but that is not the reason for the headline.

Following the day’s play, all those who remained in the clubhouse were given an explanation and a demonstration on the use of defibrillators. The club already has one, put to good use six weeks ago on the course, when club secretary, David Hancock, was called into action on the 15th.

Volunteer First Responder and co-ordinator of the Tenby and Saundersfoot Community First Responders, Tony Wall, enlightened those present on the necessity, use, safety and need for locally sited defibrillators. A second one will shortly be placed in the area of the sixth, 10th and 13th greens to help fulfil this need. It is hoped that it may never be needed, but the group who were enlightened by the presentation will feel more confident should the need ever arise.

The seniors were appreciative of the fact that we have volunteers like Tony who are prepared to educate and enlighten us as well as devote their time to helping the community.

Forgetfulness was also a theme for the day. Our treasurer, Stan Hudson, had left home in the morning without his brief case of paraphernalia and so had to hunt around for paper and envelopes to help him organise his finances.

Our esteemed captain, Idwal David, had also left home empty-handed. While he remembered his clubs, he forgot the numbered balls used to draw the weekly raffle. After some hunting around, he was able to salvage a part-used book of tickets and enlisted help to complete the procedure - that is after he had spilled the container holding the tickets on the floor. Old age doesn’t come on its own.

The draw eventually took place and this week’s lucky winner was Bart Youll.

Idwal did, however, remember to welcome Geoff Rees, a newcomer to the group. As an early starter, he (Idwal that is) was leader in the clubhouse, but only for a short while. His 37 was equalled by David Blackmore, but David didn’t figure in the top three.

Twenty of the 39 who braved the early light showers scored 30 or more, while the remaining 19 spanned a 10-point difference between 29 and 19. Conditions were favourable, cool, but with little breeze to make life difficult. We were also treated to some bright winter sunshine.

Richard Davies made the most of the occasion and claimed two 2s, one on the sixth and one on the 17th. Joining him, but with only one two apiece were Jim Moffatt and Des Stone on the sixth and David Blackmore on the 17th.

As previously mentioned, Idwal David claimed third place with 37 points, but ahead of him, on 38 points, was Ross James. This week’s superstar, John Stevenson, claimed first place for the second consecutive week and romped home with a magnificent 40 points. As a reward, his handicap had been cut from 20 to 19.

Coled Chickens

It was a frosty start for the dozen Trotters who took to the Tenby Links last Friday in the battle for fame, glory and riches beyond belief - well, to be honest, their name in this paper and a few pennies for their Christmas Present Fund. They could also enhance their attempt to add their name to the long list of two winners of the Booker Prize, awarded to the best five aggregate scores through the season. More of that later.

Leading off first at a quarter to eight were the ‘wrong-handers’ Richard Davies and Peter Ellis - quite an achievement as sunrise time was 8.02! They were both in the ‘sin-bin’ following previous successes - in fact, half the Chickens this week were suffering in the handicap department. This twoball even managed to sneak in an extra three holes on top of the competition 15 holes, before coming in with a couple of scores in the 20s to both finish in the top half.

The Chickens have been bereft of a ‘two’ for a fortnight, but that was going to change this week as Richard ensured an appearance on the result sheet when he holed his second shot on the sixth, but his name was joined by that of John Hancock, who matched his score on the 12th to share the 5p per player - both 30p richer as a result.

The breeze picked up somewhat during the morning, resulting in the early Trotters being accused of having the best of the weather, supported by the fact that the early first five filled five of the top six placings. ‘Pedro’ Ellis managed sixth place with his 22 points (back six of six), 5th place being later-starter (and birthday boy) Ken Gouldsbrough (back six of nine) and fourth place was John Hancock (back six of 13, earning him a prize of 30p but no handicap cut), all with a score that matched the par for the day.

In bronze position we had Paul ‘Bungee Strap’ Bradley who managed to pull his socks up after being 18th of 19 in his previous outing this season and scored 24 to take home 60p, but he’ll have to play off one less (16) next time.

In silver place we had Pre-Sunrise Richard after his 27 points (with two blobs and off an already-reduced handicap of 13), who added an extra 90p to his prize fund of the day, but he’ll have to put up with only 11 shots next time out.

Between the 12 players they managed 46 blobs and our winner this week had the only blob-less card of the day - well done Steve Cole on your 30 points, spend your £1.20 winnings wisely and enjoy your new handicap of nine on your next outing!

The other person to get his name on the result sheet is Derek Bath who won the booby prize (but only just - it was close) and he gets his 30p entrance fee back and will have his handicap increased by two on his next Trot.

There have been 32 different players in our seven weeks this winter and nine have now played enough games (5) to have an aggregate total in the Booker Prize competition, with the top six getting into three figures - Meurig Jones on 105, Bart Youll on 108, Neil Dickinson on 112, ‘Pedro’ with 124, Richard on 126 and that bloke Cole just ahead on 130. Richard is the only one to get a podium position of every colour so far. We’ve had 109 cards taken out, 403 ‘blobs’, a total of 2,281 points scored, with the average number of players being 15.5 each week and the average score of 20.9. Aren’t stats wonderful?

There won’t be an official Trot today (Friday) and we’ll have one more on the 15th before our Christmas break. Come on down!

Jarvis pulps Rabbits

As a result of the impending festive season, a large number of Rabbits (apparently that is known as a ‘colony,’ according to Warren Hacker, our links reporter and owner of an O Level in English) gathered in the clubhouse ahead of the eighth week of the Rabbits Winter League aware that if they managed two good shots in a row to hole out on the par three holes they may earn themselves a huge amount of money due to a double rollover on the Twos Pot - maybe enough to get the ‘other half’ a semi-decent Christmas pressie and have some money left for a down-payment for the Rabbits trip to St. Mellion in April 2018.

In the first group we had two previous Winter League champs - Kieron Plested (2016) and Grant Watkins (2017), alongside Captain Paul Crawford. They obviously brought out the best in each other as they only had seven blobs and all ended up with a score in the 30s (that’s nine between them this winter).

The second group consisted of another former Winter League champ - John Ball (2014) - alongside buggy-buddy Phil Carpenter in his first outing since his toe op, with treasurer Wyndham Collins on foot, fresh from his recent hols to the Horn of Africa. Despite 14 blobs between them, they all went home richer than they came.

Third off were another couple of Winter League winners (Chris Smith (06 and 09) and Bill Beynon (04)) from the days when it was a pairs competition, along with secretary Peter Turton. They managed seven blobs between them on the front nine, plus a further five on the back nine and only one could manage a score in the 30s.

The fourth group saw a further two ex-Winter champions in Rees Davies (05) and Ian Jarvis (he won it way back in 1999!) accompanied by vice-captain Steve Watkins. Two managed front nines of 19 and one had 17, but from there they went in different ways - one notching the joint-lowest back nine of 10 and one getting more than a dozen more, and they had six blobs between them.

In the final group we had newbie Ian Williams in his third ever outing, alongside Robin Bradbury (who made the last group a fourball), plus Mark Edwards (winner in 08) and ancient Steve Cole who won both in 2015 and in the last century - 1993 - before some of our Rabbits were even born! One had the joint-highest front nine of 22 and one had the least-highest front nine, but he then managed to avoid the wooden spoon and the four notched 11 blobs.

After a fortnight of no twos, we ended up with half-a-dozen - London buses come to mind - with twos on the short sixth from no-one, on the 12th from Phil, Mark and Rees and on the 17th from John, Wyndham and Ian J, so they all went home with a £6 share of the rolled-over pot.

Eleven Rabbits got scores of 30-plus, with Peter getting fifth place with 36, behind Grant in fourth on 37, third place going to Kieron on back three countback after his 39, runner-up being Robin also on 39 to get his entry fee back, with the highest score coming from Ian J, who took the rest of the prize money and who only dropped two shots to par on the back nine for 24 points to total 43 points - our best score of the season so far.

In our eight weeks to date, we’ve had five different winners, five different runners-up, five different thirds and surprisingly five different ‘boobys’. The ‘Steves’ are the only two ever-presents, so from now on the league will take shape with the other ‘non-Steves’ hoping to close the gaps in the coming weeks whilst they clock up their eight scores.

On the Eclectic front, there were some huge increases- Rees +8, Paul +7, Kieron +6, Wyndham +4, Phil and John +3, Ian J, Mark and Bill +2 with Steves W and C, Peter, Chris, Robin all up 1.

One more league week next week, then we’ll have the Dilwater Shield - a pairs fourball betterball ‘high’ and ‘low’ draw on December 17 before the Christmas break.

Top 14 Rabbit scores:

P Eclectic Total

Steve Cole 8 51 249

Steve Watkins 8 57 241

Mark Edwards 7 50 221

Grant Watkins 7 52 218

Ian Jarvis 6 54 208

Peter Turton 6 54 189

Chris Smith 6 53 188

Robin Bradbury 5 52 168

John Ball 5 54 167

Wyndham Collins 5 54 162

Kieron Plested 5 53 149

Bill Beynon 4 49 130

Mike Williams 3 54 116

Paul Crawford 5 49 113