Another beautifully sunny day to lull everyone into the idea of removing a few layers – not a good one if playing early with ice on the author’s windscreen this morning. However, the sun did it’s job and things warmed up considerably before the cold wind started to pick up again in the afternoon. Increasing temperature lagged slightly behind solar radiation per bottom of main men’s results. There was a little run and with the sun now noticeably higher in sky balls were easier to follow in flight.

Women

Perhaps I shouldn’t have told everyone ahead of playing how far behind the leader we were in the eclectic!! Still the weather went a long way to compensate. There was an interesting mix of conditions, with slightly firmer ground allowing for a bit of run, but in what direction – hard bits of mud/wormcasts lying around could certainly send the ball off course.
The largest field in the 4 rounds of Duke’s eclectic saw Ronnie take 1st place with a 32, 2 clear of Doreen in 2nd spot.

But as indicated in the start sheet there was little chance of catching Gina in the eclectic who improved her score by 2 to win on 76.4 from Sheena, just a few shots back on 81.8. However that was a 10 shot improvement on her previous score.

Both eclectics thus having the same outcome – 1st Gina, 2nd Sheena

Men

Continuing his Midweek winning streak Julian James was victorious with a late 42pts thwarting hitherto clubhouse leaders Mike Shabani and Pat Dalton (Pat if only those putts….). There were very spirited 38s from James P, Richard O and Colm.

Holes 8 and 9 were out of action for Saturday entrants but Dilip had 2 birdies on 7th and15th (4 and 5 points respectively).

This was final round for the Winter Comp so congrats to winner Colm 121 from Julian and Richard O 118.

Richard I is confirmed Duke’s Eclectic Champ 60.2 from Richard O. 63.4.

It was a lovely mild and sunny winter’s day with much less wind than the past week/10 days. The Duke’s course was restricted to 16 holes (8 and 9 closed for drainage works) and there was a temporary green on the 11th hole. Today’s winners all made the most of the conditions by all posting 35points, 3 shots better than their handicaps.

On countback, the overall winner was James Deissler who played some of the best and most consistent golf Rannesh, I (and Cheryl) have seen for some time – no blobs on his card and 4 pars. In 2nd place on countback was Colm who put in a late charge with an Eagle 2 on the last hole (for 5 points). Seymour took 3rd place with a well balanced card, 17 out and 18 back. Sweep payout goes to these top 3 (£9, £5, £3).

The ‘apparent’ leader in the clubhouse, Pralab with 37 points, was found to have played 18 holes on the Princes course and was therefore excluded from the competition.

Now that storms Franklin and Eunice are a thing of the past a large field enjoyed decent playing conditions (except for some standing water and usual muddy spots).

Pralab went out early and set a very decent target of 40pts. That score held for most of the day. Richard H and Juho came close but have to settle for 3rd and 4th respectively. The only player beating 40pts was Julian. He torched the back 9 for 23pts (his only 1-pointer came as a result of a 6 on the 12th hole). As an FYI: the best front 9 belongs to Russel (22pts – cf. Best Score Analysis Report).  Cheryl was the only one other player recording 23pts on the back 9 (guess 5pts on the 14th didn’t hurt). A bit of last minute scorecard drama was resolved so she takes 5th place.  Chris Rudkin and the MC take 6th and 7th respectively. Looks like in general the women faired pretty well playing off the yellow tees (I believe the only nasty surprise came on the 12th tee).

There’s just one round of the Midweek Winter Comp left – next Wednesday twinned with the Inaugural Trophy; latest position is in attached [software cannot cope with bespoke requirement which insists that best 3 from 8 but at least one round must be played on each course].

A new leader has emerged – Pralab Barua!. His 40 yesterday replaced 30 on Prince’s advancing him 10 points from previous 105. The laws of maths apply but if I were a betting man I would tip Julian James [a course and distance winner] who only needs to have 34 or better to lead Pralab.

Of course the winner could be someone with just 1 score from each course so far.

MW Winter Comp: Pralab (115), Mike J (114), Peter H (114), Julian J (113), Tamas (112) Juho (112). Last round of the MW Winter Comp will be held next week. MW Prince’s eclectic goes to Peter Goodall

The storms of Dudley & Eunice did not appear to have caused too many fallen trees on the courses although sadly the rain has brought a return to the very wet conditions underfoot. Luckily the rain kept off as umbrellas would not have survived in what were still very windy conditions. Those with long memories will recall the October 1987 Hurricane – outcome more esp. with trees in full leaf multiplying the wind force.

Women

The scores don’t seem to have been unduly affected by the weather.

Susan is today’s winner, 4 clear of Sheena in 2nd and would have been more had she not book-ended her round with 7s. Interestingly, only 1 person scored on the 18th today.

It was also the last round of Prince’s eclectic (winter must be coming to an end!!) and we actually completed all 4 rounds which has become something of a rarity. The result of this never seemed in doubt from the first round, but in the end was a close result but Gina hung on in, winning by the slender margin of .5 on 68.4. Susan’s score improved by 1 but Sheena overtook her with a 2 shot change.

Congrats to both Susan and Gina

Men

A leprechaun provided a lucky tee to Sean O’Sullivan who smashed the back 9 – 25 and a ‘blob’ at 7th for 43 points; separated by countback on 41 were Saturday entrant Suhail and Colm. Marnix and Richard O put in strong 40pts performances.

Colm ensured winning of the Prince’s Eclectic on 55.1 from Paul K and Richard O 58.5s


Colm seems to have the Winter Comp sewn up on 118 from Roger R 115 with 5 on 114 – Secretary Peter, Sean, Richard O, Brian and Julian. With just 1 round left to play results are no longer on MS since misleading since software ignores the minimum of 1 round on each course.

Strange conditions at the park today. The field enjoyed mild temperatures. But the rain of the last days had created lots of areas with standing water. It even forced the greenkeeper to close 2 holes. The greens were very receptive. Although it was a surprise not having to face any temporary greens. Distance control was tricky today. There was very little roll (believe that quite a few tee-shots must have plugged on the fairways). The swirling/gusty winds made things even more complicated.

It was a case of one man v the rest today. The men’s secretary took the course apart today with an outstanding score of 38pts. 17pts on the front 9 was already quite a feat. His 21pts on the back 9 look even more impressive since he didn’t score any points on the 17th. The best of the rest was Alan King. It has to be said he had to use the countback rule to claim 2nd. Riding high on his nomination to the club’s main committee he recorded 14 and 19pts. Yours truly took 3rd. Brian Ransom used an excellent back 9 (20pts) to steal 4th place from Richard O.  Only 3 birdies were recorded today. Four of the hardest holes were on the back 9. The 5 most difficult holes today were (in descending order): 12th, 14th, 13th, 6th and 17th. Jeremy Prescot managed to score 2 4-pointers today.

Looks like Rob Dykes wins the Duke’s eclectic (TBC).

Forecast rain started 1 o’clock per main results report with some sunshine preceding. So later games caught the rain on the back 9 . Saturday and early games escaped dry. 37 turned up for Sunday.

Other events conspired to keep most of the women away from the course – so no report for them this week.

Overall winner with a tidy 67 was Sean O’Sullivan with the in-form Gunnar chasing with 69; Julian James again performed 70as did Cuneyt.

Senior Division Medal winner was Toby 73 and Junior Sean. Bucking the normal trend, the Senior Division had far more NRs than the Junior despite less entrants.

A smaller than usual field enjoyed a lovely sunny winter’s day on the now much drier/less muddy Dukes course.

Uli posted the best score of the day (39 points) with birdies on the 2nd and 11th holes; second place was taken by early player Pralab (35 points) who had a very steady round throughout. Peppe and Julian came in 3rd and 4th, respectively, both with 30 points.

Many thanks to Uli and Richard Norden who both marked handicap cards for prospective members.

A large field enjoyed pretty decent playing conditions: forward tees, mild temperatures, quite a bit of bounce & roll on the fairways and faster greens.

Early starter Chris Newman came in with a net score of 56. Turns out he put the bar (too) high for the rest of the field. Peppe put up a valiant effort. But his putter was stone cold today (a tap-in birdie on the 15th was a rare exception).  Unfortunately he came up just short with a net score of 58. 3rd place goes to Rudkin (despite 2 snowmen). Jim Deissler was the best of a group of 60. His 2 birdies on the last 3 holes allows him to (ab)use the countback rule to finish 4th. The men’s handicap secretary finishes 5th. Despite an eagle on the 3rd hole Brett Colley loses out Seymour for 6th. Some other highlights: Jeremy started with 2 birdies but his last 4 holes were less inspiring. New Committee member Alan King was on fire on the first 6 holes (1 under gross). Let’s not discuss the next 11 holes.

Early rain cleared earlier than forecast – at 09:30 according to plot at bottom of men’s results attached, sun came out with UV peaking shortly after midday. The author received a very poor weather forecast and did not play but apparently drainage operations were much in evidence 1st / 18th.

Women

What an interesting set of results and conditions on the morning after the club dinner. At least the rain went away, but that wind was somewhat strong and gusty.
A hazarded guess that Cheryl was the designated driver last night because those who imbibed quite freely at last night’s dinner did not appear to enjoy a great day on the course today. Certainly Gina’s score today does not match with her horde of trophies she gathered last year whereas Julie had a mere shandy all night. Prosecco to blame perhaps??
But that’s the golf gods for you – a few weeks ago Julie walked off after 5 or so holes as she struggled to hit the ball whereas today she won with 33 points. 3 ahead of both Cheryl & Jenny.

Despite her unusual poor result today, Gina still improved her eclectic score to move further away from the rest of the field. With the vagaries of WHS Susan has actually gone backwards as her handicap had a small cut, but is still in 2nd spot with 1 round to go.

Men

The winner proved to be Saturday entrant Richard Owen 40 points from Justin Wildman 38 with Brian McMahon and Paul Kammerling 37s. Richard went out in 22 points , Paul 21 with birdies at 4 and 8.

Winter Comp round 6 results are attached – manually retouched (at least 1 round from each course has to count and the HM software does not cater for such a bespoke feature so on MasterSoreboard the report is for rough guidance only) – Roger currently leads 115 from Julian and secretary Peter 114s. Colm, Tony and Adrian are in touch – 113.

The penultimate round of Prince’s Eclectic reveals Colm leading 57.3 from Roger 62.1 and Ed 62.8.

A band of heavy rain ‘blew through’ between 7.30am and 10.30am causing a little standing water and wet patches on some greens and fairways and a good deal of puddles on pathways. The early rain caused some entrants to ‘cry off’ and early starter Pralab to abandon his round after 1 hole, but those of us who turned up to play enjoyed a very pleasant, entirely dry winter’s day with spells of sunshine.

Julian James again tops the leaderboard with 37 points from 17 holes; the 18th being closed due to ongoing drainage contractor’s work. As usual, a very steady round from Julian, scoring on every hole and with a birdie 3 on the 15th. In 2nd place was late entrant Russell Stewart, with 35 points, also birdieing the 15th but then making a mess of the 100yard 16th. Three players came in on 34 points, with 3rd, 4th and 5th places to Brian, Chris Rudkin and Seymour respectively on countback. Brian also birdied the 15th but was then unfortunate not to find his drive down the middle of the fairway (reportedly !) on the 17th and had to go back for 3 off-the-tee. Quite a few players ‘made hay’ by scoring 3 and 4 points on the shortened first hole.

Sweep payout mainly to the top two (£8 & £5 respectively), with a £1 ‘ return of entry’ to 3rd, 4th and 5th, and no charge to Pralab.