When planning this year’s fixtures with club secretary David, we pencilled in two possible dates for this event. Actual Valentine’s Day fell in the middle of the week, so should we have it before, or after? Eventually, we decided on after and thank goodness. Last Saturday, it did not stop raining all day. The weather was beautiful, with blue skies, hardly any wind and a course to die for! Can it really be February?

There was a full field today of 22 couples, and many thanks to the men who went ahead of us as the pace of play was good. Only two twos were recorded though. Pam and Steve Cole on the sixth, and Mervyn Tucker and Heather Morgan on the 18th. The lucky pairs winning back their entry fees were Idwal David and Anne Wilks, Trevayne Keohane and Wyndham Collins, Brian Jones and Linda Tordoff-Evans, and Chris and Issie Lawrence.

Bart’s Bounty Bonanza

The 15 Chickens leaving the coop last Friday had high expectations of success, fame and glory, but with only five names able to appear on the result sheet two thirds of them would be going home reward-less, but they could still improve their standings in the ‘best five scores’ Booker Prize if they could drop their lowest score - whatever that may be!

Off in group one were the Williams/Davies/Cole triumvirate with almost matching handicaps and they came in with only three points between them - 25, 24 and 22 - but 15 one-pointers between them held them back from the podium. It was Peter’s first Trot since November 3 and only his fourth of the season. One struggled rather with his irons, although he did manage to score more on his back five than his front nine effort and one did have a bit of luck with his long putts, but lipped-out a few shorties.

There was another Cole name in group two (this one’s a proper golfer though, as he showed with his 42 points with the Seniors last Tuesday to get cut 1.5!) along with a Waters and a Rees (one still learning how to mark a card properly). Reasonable efforts from a couple of them, although one didn’t reach a score of 18 despite telling family that his form was ‘pretty good at the moment’ - then managed six blobs on the day to mean his three ball finished ‘bottom of the list.’

The third group of Hudson, Stone and Vincent (sounds like up-market estate agents) were next and if there’d been a prize for the best three ball score, they would have won it with their 78, thanks to Stan’s best score of the winter for eighth place and the others getting mentions on the ‘sheet’ due to steady golf, plus a couple of four pointers!

The penultimate group featured Top Chicken in Peter’s last outing last November (Charlie McFee), plus two ‘podium placers’ from last week, with Silver Lamb and Bronze Yates both suffering in the handicap departments - which hit Alan more as he slumped to the booby with two thirds of his six blobs coming on the back six as he notched the lowest score, but got 30p for his pains, plus a two shot boost next time out. Charlie just failed to get on the ‘sheet,’ but David didn’t!

The final group of Dickinson, Jones and Youll kept the clubhouse sitters waiting whilst the Lather Twins readied themselves for the presentation of the prizes for the week but, boy was it worth waiting for. Despite cricked-ness in the back region and playing off a handicap six less than his club allowance The Editor acquitted himself admirably with a top 10 finish leaving him two places and one point clear of Meurig. It was Bart’s card that ended up top of the pile as, despite a slowish start, he ended the front nine on 16 (one less than David L had managed), but after a slight hiccup on the 10th he covered the last four holes in one over gross (getting six shots!) with the pièce de résistance coming with a majestic seven wood onto the 18th green to then sink a six- foot birdie putt for a two - nett 0 - for five points to give himself a total of 30 points to take home £1.20 for first place, plus 75p for the only two of the day - a veritable pocketful of coins - but he’ll be reduced by five to 26 next time out (as you may have worked out he inflicted the booby on himself last week to ‘go up’ to 31 so there’s hope for Alan Yates next week!)

Newman’s better back six of 12 (helped by a par, par, par finish) in his 28 gave him a cut of three shots to 23, plus 90p for runner-up spot ahead of David L’s back side of 11 which left him 60p richer and reduced - for the second week running - this time by one to 23. Des received his money back for his fourth place 26 and managed to escape without a reduction - but he goes down two to 18 anyway. If you understand that, you can knit fog!

We now have 19 of the 38 players with five or more cards in towards the ‘best five score’ Booker Prize, but the leaders couldn’t improve which means Neil still leading on 146, The Chicken Arranger on 139, David L now on 136, Richard and Bart both on 130, Des now 125, Pedro 124 and Derek 121, but a lot can happen with low scores being dropped.

Numismatist Chris

Fifteen Rabbits gathered around the settees in the clubhouse waiting for the vice-captain to make the draw and a little light mizzle didn’t dampen their enthusiasm (but a bit of flu and a poorly foot meant only 13 played) writes our links reporter, Warren Hacker.

The first group of Ian J, our new leader Mike and last week’s winner secretary Peter hit away and one couldn’t repeat his winning ways of the previous day as he began with the second worst front nine of 12 (but did improve later) and although a couple of them did improve their ‘best eight score total’ unfortunately for Mr T lightning didn’t strike twice and 10th was all he could manage.

The next group away contained Robin, defending champ Grant and Chris and they all brought out the best in each other as all three scored 21 on the outward nine and carried that on in the second half to all score their best total of the winter (so far). More of them later.

The third batch of Rabbits (the ‘Alphabetical Ones’) contained Dave (the seventh!), money-man Wyndham - handing in his eighth card - and Gareth (only his second) and they had varying fortunes on the first with a team score of five (Gareth managed four to join the list of first birdiers!) and despite a poor start for one of them (the poorest front nine of 11 with only one blob), they all handed in decent scores of 31, 33 and 35 in order - Mr. B, Mr. C and Mr. D!

The final four ball consisted of Rees, John B and a couple of Steves (C and W - no, not Country and Western!) and a pair of them joined Mr. D (and the previous sole ‘First Birdier’ Steve C) by birdieing the opening hole, however for one it was a case of birdie or bust as the drives started to go astray (blobbing seven holes but still managing 28 for last place) and if he was a professional pool player his name would be John ‘8’ Ball - the number of balls he lost- although the wayward tee shot on the 12th resulted in the group locating 27 balls on the sea-side bank, but not the missing yellow one, and he had to scoop his drive out of the ditch on the 16th to not be John ‘9’! They had mixed fortunes with Rees getting his second highest winter score, John matching his second lowest and the vice bettering his best by five.

When the results were announced it was a day of ‘firsts’ - Chris slotted his first two of the winter on the 18th to take sole possession of the twos pot, as well as being announced as the Rabbit of the Day for his first gold podium position of the season with an excellent 42 points (the new treasurer did however give him his winnings in two piles of coins!), and, following a stewards enquiry afterwards, for the first time the Rabbits had to ‘remove’ one and re-jiggle the podium positions after a card-signing mathematical transgression resulted in Robin being eventually assigned silver place following an equally-fine 42 (but losing out on back six by 16 to 15), with Steve W snatching bronze from offspring Grant on back nine after they both scored 39.

The ‘best eight scores’ leader Mike is on 298, now only 12 clear of Grant on 286, Ian J on 283, Robin on 280, Chris and Mark on 275 and Peter on 273. ‘Eight’ had thought he’d reached the pinnacle on the Eclectic, but he’s one of four players on 59 and, on countback, Chris is fourth, Tom third, ‘Eight’ runner-up and that man Turton sits on top of the pile with a back nine of 32! After his win last week, Peter is also the only player this winter to have achieved all four noteworthy places (gold, silver, bronze and booby!) and he’s actually done them in reverse order so his improvement can be proven statistically. Chris is our ninth ‘winner’ this winter and John our 10th ‘boobyer’ in 14 weeks so the glory (and ignominy!) is being spread around because we are such a friendly society!

Two pairs should be mentioned in dispatches for an excellent score of 37 points. Irene Gilman and Roger Schooling, and Anna and Keith Hubbard were just edged out of the fourth prize by Bev Owen and newcomer Mike D Williams, also on 37 points. Remembering the old adage ‘it doesn’t matter how, only how many’, Mervyn Tucker and Heather Morgan had a sad 14 points on the front nine, but 24 points on the back nine gave them 38 points and third place. Battling it out for first place, but again just beaten on countback were Terry Davies and Nel Allen. Beaten this time by Carol and Chris Beecher, both on an excellent 40 points. Chris and Carol are celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary today (23rd February), so pity they couldn’t make 41 points, but very well played and congratulations to you both.

Thanks to Idwal and Laura for running the competition on the computer, to Lee and Kai for manning our refreshments, to Tom for sorting the cards in the Pro Shop, and to all those who played today. Our next mixed event is on Easter Saturday when we will have our traditional Brooks Cup, another foursomes, but this time the men will be off the white boxes. The knock-out Llewellyn Thomas can be signed up for in the pro shop now, and all mixed pairs are asked to be sure to keep the dates for the matches against Ashburnham and St. Pierre free. Check your fixture lists.