Farrington Park Ladies

Oh dear, what has happened to the weather? After the glorious sunshine last week, it was back to wearing waterproof clothing and playing in the swirling wind and heavy rain showers for the Ladies on Thursday.

The competition was the Sycamore Trophy, first instigated in 2008 in honour of Chris Symes, a former club member who loved team golf.

Twelve teams consisting of three players with a wide range of handicaps played a 123 Bowmaker with one best score to count on the first hole, two best scores on the second, and all three scores to count on the third before repeating the process.

Scoring was not as high as previous years, but pretty creditable given the difficult conditions. One point separated the second and third placed teams; a 64 from Carol Redman, Jane Richardson and Issey Panton was enough to take second place ahead of third placed Pat Roscow, Tracey Watts and Peggy Edwards.

The only two-spot birdie of the day was scored by Rosi Brown at the 15th hole; with her playing partners Bridget Rylance and Jill Holland contributing seven points between them at the same hole, the resulting total of ten points helped them secure the Sycamore Trophy with a very good final score of seventy points.

Jane Ball

Farrington Park Men

With players getting used to playing from the white tees again, there were some great scores recorded so early in the season for the Saturday Stableford on 20th April.

Two players scored forty points in Division One. Dave Swain, won on countback from Dave Allardyce, and in-form Jackson Carey took third spot on 39 points. In Division Two, Ian Nicholls had a good day, scoring 37 points, followed by Mark Smith (35) and Eric Withey one point behind for third place.

With the beautiful Easter weekend weather continuing, the Sunday Stableford golfers worked off their Easter egg calories. John Brown took the honours in Division One with 37 points, followed by two golfers with 36 points; Steve Kingman winning on countback from Kevin Kehoe. In Division Two, Neil Morgan’s 33 points beat Nic Jordan into second place on countback. Richard Hayes was third with 32 points.

There was a good field for the Easter Monday Texas Scramble played in lovely Spring weather conditions. A good chance for players to try out the tough shots they would not ordinarily chance playing in an individual competition. Fractions of points divided the top three teams. In third place, Dave Collins, Eric Hogg, Jon Gregory and Jacqui Gregory scored 55.875. Second place went to Adrian Beale, Warren Cowling, Paul Brown and Eric Reddy with 55.75.

The winning team of George Abbott, Tom Webb, Kyran Wookey and Freddie Lenihan scored a fantastic 53.75.

Steve Ball

Farrington Park Seniors

Well the Bank Holiday weather was a bit special, wasn’t it! Most unusual to have all three days with fantastic sunshine and the BBQs working flat-out. Hopefully more of the same for the May Bank Holidays.

The weather conditions for this competition were reasonable for the first nine holes, especially for the early-starters. After that, the heavens opened, and the rain was relentless for several hours.

Waterproofs were put to the test for most of us, but one unlucky individual does not listen to weather forecasts – or maybe doesn’t believe in them! Turning up to play totally unprepared once back in the clubhouse, he was easily spotted with steam rising from his sodden clothing and wearing a soaking wet jumper now considerably larger than when he started!

This inaugural playing of a Russian Roulette competition appeared to be well-received by the members, and will no doubt feature in the future. Well suggested, Roger.

Results:

Paul Cains, Martin Clark and Roger Stone – 119 points; Jeff Bruton, Steve Banfield and Jeff Kelly – 113 points; Rob Thain, Phil Bryant and Steve Mitchell – 110 points; Tony Waldron, Mike Woodward and Bob Baker – 110 points.

Nearest the Pins on 5th and 15th – Alan Elkington; 8th – Mike Ashwin; 14th – Steve Ball.

Two’s Pot: Jeff Bruton, Kirk Bizley and Alan Elkington.

Rob Thain