It was third time lucky for the Farrington Park’s Mixed Section to hold their “Festive Fun” competition on the Sunday before Christmas; the previous two occasions having to be cancelled due to bad weather.

The competition format was Greensomes with a twist, double “Festive Bonus“ Stableford points were on offer for scores on the 7th and 14th holes together with a “Bunker Bonus” of three points to be added at the end if a pairing avoided putting their ball into any bunker.

Also, there was a Christmas Hat Challenge, where the competitors had been invited to make, knit or dress a hat in keeping with the Christmas theme.

Votes for the “Top Hats” were given on-line by the competitors the following evening.

The ingenuity and efforts of the hats’ creators was amazing and there were some splendid hats on display, which added to the fun of the day.

The electorate voted Rob Thain and Lin Papadopoulos as highly commended runners-up, a lot of effort had gone into producing their first class delivery!

The winners were the Christmas Crackers: Mike and Min Woodward. Congratulations to them on a truly stunning creation that Mrs Shilling would have been proud to have worn at Royal Ascot !

The Festive Fun golf proved a challenge for the majority of the teams; the Bunker Bonus was not collected by many but most teams collected some lucrative points on the Festive Bonus holes and any poor golf shots were soon forgotten when the teams stopped at the Halfway Hut for mulled wine, coffee and mince pies.

The results were: Nearest the Pin: Bob Baker and Mandy Hobbs

Fourth place with 35 points were Issey and Paul Panton, who beat Sandra & Martin Hares on countback.

Rosi Brown and John Ward scored 36 points but were beaten into third place on countback by second placed Bob and Denise Baker.

The winners had sixteen points after four holes including a birdie at the 9th and went on to amass a total of 37 points. Well done to Sue and Dave Forshaw, the “Festive Fun” champions!

Jane Ball