Autumn is back at the park: chilly temperatures for the early tee-times and lots of clouds. Fairways are still suffering from lack of rain. The greens are starting to dry up too.

Peter Osgood had an excellent front 9 (20pts). The back 9 could/should’ve been better were it not for bogeys on 11, 17 and a double bogey on 10. 39pts made him leader in the clubhouse though. Nigel Ward was on fire on the way out (22pts). Unfortunately he had a poorer back 9 (17pts) so he wasn’t able move ahead of Peter. However this day belonged to the ladies. First Doreen came home with an excellent 20pts on the back (4x 3pointers didn’t hurt). Those 9 holes move her ahead of Peter O. Victory finally went to Fiona Coombe. Her excellent score of 41pts was the result of a steady front 9 combined with a fantastic 23pts on the way in. As a result Fiona’s handicap drops to 26. Doreen’s handicap also receives a healthy chop (down to 22). Ronnie Mitchell and Martin Heinrich complete the Top6. Results…

CSS: 36pts

In the Men’s Top Dog Trophy Toby retains a 1pt lead over Tony Bergqvist. R6 leader board…

An early autumnal nip in the air gave way to glorious sunny condition with fairways softened by Sunday’s rains. With good conditions for scoring it appeared that the partners Gina Jillet and Jon Cooper led with 47 points. But due to the system not being ‘up’ until later in the day, the 47 was unsupported by the unerring accuracy of system processing. 47 had arisen by the pair having recorded manually two points at the 2nd SI 15 (actually 1) and zero shot allowance for ladies (stableford, Prince’s).

A countback on last 6 holes separated eventual winners Damian Hackett and Veronica Mitchell 46 from Gina and Jon. Mike Jones and Henry Lindesay Bethune took 3rd 45 from Cheryl Woodhouse and Michael Choo 44. Results…

Afterwards competitors basked in the sunshine outside clubhouse.

Ladies

Results due soon. Results…

Men

The ominous weather forecast for once materialised and the vast majority of the field decided to stay home and keep dry. Eleven brave (or foolish – make your choice) players decided to have a a go at it.

Bruno Clerckx and Jon Cooper went out first. Both players had decent front 9’s. Bruno recovered very well from a double bogey on the first with birdies on 8 and 9. Jon unfortunately recorded bogeys on those holes. Jon’s slide continued through holes 10 to 12. Late bogeys on 17 & 18 resulted in a net score of 70 Bruno, closely followed by Jon’s 71. Gunnar Sundberg and Alan King finish on 72. Looks like Nigel Ward used up all his good shots in yesterday’s victory in the Autumn Mixed Foursomes. Results…

CSS: 70

Jon Cooper retains his lead in the Monthly Grand Medal Trophy. R7 Leader board…

Wind from the remains of storm “Ali’ made itself felt but there were some good scores – notably from Jessy Diasilua winning with 68 following his round from the previous week. One behind was Hassan Mouilah again following a good round from last week. With lowest gross of the day, James Barker edged Parkash Arora on countback 71s. Results…

James’ 71 proved to be of strategic importance and replaced a 75 (& dislodging previous leader Sheena Harrington) to win the overall Midweek Anniversary Accumulator on 210, 1 ahead from Jon Ramphul. Final leader board…

Ladies

A breezy September day that warmed up as it went on and conditions underfoot still decidedly dry meant that the ball was running as much as ever. This seemed to benefit about half of the field such that the CSS dropped to 72.

With back to back birdies on holes 13 & 14 to add to the one at the 1st, Tenesi Karakaneva recorded a net 69 to win by 3 shots from Doreen Dolby on 72. Tenesi receives a 0.9 cut in handicap to 17.3. Results…

Men

Perfect conditions to play golf and no pressure of a qualifying comp: all conditions were present for a stress free round of golf. Jay and Oli posted an excellent score of 39. The no score on the 15th was the only blemish of the day. Two other teams joined them on that tally – Carl Latham/John Rose and Toby Hunt/Ray Esin. Usually a score of +40pts is required to win this comp. Damian Hackett and Lee Marshall were the first to reach that target. They couldn’t quite follow up on their excellent front 9 (22pts). Martin Heinrich and Brian McMahon’s round was the mirror image of Damian and Lee’s round. Birdies on 17 and 18 sent them onto 22pts on the way in. Enough to take the Burgess Cup off of Pete/Roger’s hands. Shout-out goes to HLB whose hybrid into the 14th set his team up for a birdie on that hole. Results…

A lot of competitors didn’t fill out their individual handicaps on their scorecard. This is a violation of Rule 6-2(b) and results in a DQ. Keep that in mind for the pairs comp.

Early rain petered out to just the odd spot to give excellent conditions for scoring. For a long time John Ahad’s excellent 45 points remained at the top of the leader board but a one under par back 9 [27 points!!!] from Jessy Diasilua won the Fred Hawtree Cup on 46 points.

These were otstanding rounds from Jessy and John – and John earned an additional ESR to now play off 15. Best rounds from mortals were 41 – Mike Mouilah (off 7) and Mike Assender (off 9). Damian Hackett had two ‘twos’ at 2 and 11. Cheryl Woodhouse had an excellent 39 points to lead the ladies. Results…

The balance of play on Prince’s was (yet again) raising of CSS by one to 38 points.

The field were met with quite windy conditions. The theme of the day seemed to be: go broke on the front 9 and see what happens on the back 9. No less than 7 players recorded 20 or more points on the way out.

It only seemed fitting that on the day of their national elections that the Swedes would steal the show. Christer Larssen netted 24pts on his front 9! Through holes 4-9 he scored 3pts on each hole. He got off to a great start on the back 9 with a par (giving him 4pts). Two no scores (13 and 18) “only” yielded 17 in total on the way in. His total score of 41pts still proved to be good for the rest of the field. Christer’s handicap gets cut by 2 strokes to 29. Kerry Sargeant played consistent golf (20pts out and 19pts in) to take 2nd. Phil Flanagan recorded a chip-in eagle on 17 (rewarding him with 5 stableford points!) on way to 18pts on the back 9. 21pts on the front mean he has to settle for 3rd. Gunnar Sundberg (Swedish too – cf remark above), Tony “sausage roll” Kopczak and Martin Heinrich complete the Top6. Results…

CSS: 38pts (Men & Ladies)

Hollow-tining and sanding of greens had been freshly completed and within weeks the positive benefits will be felt. Scoring was good and CSS was pegged back one from SSS as a consequence. No fewer than 12 playing handicap changes arose.

Ted Holt had another good round to win the September Medal 67, one ahead of Damian Hackett and best lady Elaine Elborn 68. Results…

Jay Barker consolidated his lead in the associated Midweek Grand Medal, his 72 [best gross of say] replacing a previous 76 to now lead on 339, 11 ahead of Ted with Toby Hunt and Jeremy Ryan one further back. R7 Leader board…

Perfect conditions for golf at the park today: some patches on the fairway are drying up again generating some unexpected roll but the greens were fairly receptive.

Ray Esin set the mark with a solid 38pts (20pts out & 18pts in). Susan Smith’s front 9 included birdies on the 1st and 6th. 21pts were a just reward for a solid front 9. Even with a no score on the 12th she still netted 18pts on the way in to take the lead on 39pts. The President felt a real desire to hold on to his putter. His score of 38pts unfortunately was not enough to keep his beloved trophy out of the grasps of new member Kamil Naidoo. In his first comp Kamil used the countback rule to win the 5th of the Top Dog competitions. Peter Needham and Caroline Stilwell complete the Top6. Results…

Collapse of the day has to go to the MW Captain, Kim Chaffart. After recording 32pts over 14 holes he ruined any chance of victory by scoring 0pts (15th), 0pts (16th), 1pt (17th after missing a tap-in par putt) and 3pts (18th misreading the birdie putt).

CSS: 37pts (Men & Ladies)

Results of the President’s challenges:

• Ladies:
  Nearest the pin in 3 on the 6th: Susan Smith, birdie
  Nearest the pin in 3 on the 15th: Lia Donath
• Men:
  Nearest to the pin 7th: Peter Jagger, using his driver to delicious effect, and he did make the birdie putt
  Nearest to the pin in 2 on the 18th: Keith Cassidy, missing the birdie putt
• Men & Ladies:
  Nearest the pin 10th: Sheena Harrington