Having successfully sprung his car from a locked garage, Farrington Seniors Captain, Mike Henton, led a field of intrepid golfers at Farrington Park who ventured into a gale and torrential rain for the second Medal competition of the season.
The wind resulted in some unexpected behaviour by various golf balls, including 90° turns in flight and in one case, a tail stall followed by a ball travelling backwards, but that is Seniors' golf! The severity of the weather meant that no competitor found his handicap reduced and indeed no one saw an increase in handicap.Results of the Nearest the Pin competition: 5th Geoff Skyrme, 8th Barry Hall, 14th Graham Bradley, 15th Rob Chappell.Monthly Medal – Division One: 1st Mike Bradbury, net 77, 2nd Graham Bradley, net 79 (countback), 3rd Phil Thompson, net 79, 4th Leo Seddon, net 82, 5th Brian Weeks, net 83. Division Two: 1st Chris Simmonds, net 74, 2nd Bob Baker, net 77, 3rd Don Perry, net 78, 4th Graham Marsh, net 80 (countback), 5th Roger Stone, net 80. Third Division: 1st Richard Dancey, net 74, 2nd John Holland, net 78, 3rd Malcolm Brooks, net 79, 4th Steve Mitchell, net 80, 5th Richard Collier, net 81.Farrington Park Ladies
Farrington Park Ladies have successfully marched on to the Fifth Round of the Mail on Sunday, the National Golf Classic. Again, Farrington Park Ladies faced another formidable team. Two years ago, their opponents, Chippenham Ladies, progressed to the last eight out of around 3,000 participating clubs. In their Third Round this year, Chippenham swept aside Mendip Spring Ladies, but it was the gale force winds that were doing the sweeping around at Farrington Park Golf Club in the Fourth Round match played on 5th May, as the ten players and their caddies were lucky not to have all been swept off the course, with heavy showers adding to the extremely difficult playing conditions. Whether the wind was against, behind or from the side, the players found some of their shots flying off in all sorts of directions. It was the focused determination of Farrington Park's Aimee Sawyer, Jackie Walker, Maureen Charlton, Suzanne Young and Sue Stilwell that saw them the triumphant winners, 3–2.
Thirteen ladies took part in the EWGA Medal, with Lin Papadopoullos coming out on top, with a nett 73 points. The full results in the Silver Division were: 1st Lin Papadopoullos, with a nett 73, second Mandy Hobbs with a nett 76 (on countback) and third, Rosi Brown, also with a nett 76. In the Bronze Division, first was Carol Jones, with a nett 76, second Liz Thomas, with a nett 77 and third, Margaret Seery, with a nett 80.
Farrington Park Men
On Saturday, 9th May, the Bristol and District Golf League hosted their annual Hi-Lo Foursomes Competition at the Players Golf Club, which consisted of nineteen teams from the local area. The ten-man Farrington Park team was made up of Shane Phelps and Lee Francis, Clive Stilwell and Gary Prater, Kevin Brimble and Alistair Shanks, Adrian Cronin and Matt Le Feuvre, Rob Riccio and Andy Crowley. The day was particularly tough for scoring, due to very strong winds, but, fortunately, Farrington Park came out the winners, narrowly beating the Kendleshire and Wells Golf Clubs by two points.
The gusty winds of April continued into the first weekend of May, but this did not stop Paul Thomas from taking the honours in Division One with forty points. Steve Longdon was second, with 37 points, beating Jeff Bruton into third on countback. In Division Two, Des Deane had an outstanding round, scoring 43 points, Alan Broadway scored 41 points to take second and Paul Smith's 39 points took third spot.
The weather was less windy on Sunday. Jack Broadway took charge of Division One, with 39 points, followed by Lee Sparks, with 31 points. In Division Two, it was another good day for Tony Guthrie with 37 points, Simon Kidd's 36 points secured second place, with Paul Matthews' 34 points in third.