Very breezy conditions persisted for the 2nd round of the Midweek Club Championship; despite no rain in the last week green grass patches expanded.

In the net for the day, Richard Young put into action all recent tips to win with a marvellous 64. He was chased by José Manuel Gomez and Rob Smyth 65s (Rob shooting 2 over par gross 73 with 5 birdies); José had 2 10s but otherwise excellent round which earned him an ESR of -1.0 and a cut in HI from29.4 to 27.1.

The midweek Handicap Trophy was tied with 131s from Rob Smyth and Hilary Casey 131s. Mike Sands and Mayumi were amongst chasers with both sixties rounds on 134.

In the overall men’s scratch the deserved Senior division winner was Richard Back 147 from Rob Smyth 148; the Junior winner being Roland Godfrey 173 from Colin Price 175.

The women’s scratch was won by Silvia Bortoli 161 with Sheena runner-up 169.

The wind ran counter to normal direction; green shoots of grass recovery were evident and as on Prince’s seeded grass in new drainage channels had germinated with rain earlier in the week.

Brendan Sullivan off 12 was the winner of the Bank Holiday Plate with an excellent 43 points just beating Robin Thomas on the back 9. Excellent golf. Curiously, WHS awarded Brendan a -1.0 ESR but HI didn’t change [‘hard cap’ ?] whilst Robin cut from 18.5 to 17.5. George Taylor and James Parker followed with very good 40s.

Best woman was Jayne 37 with 22 points on back 9. In the last game the author scored most on the par 3s [9pts] whilst another Paul (Kamerling) joined Kerry Sargeant and Richard Back with a ‘Two’ – only Russell also had a Two on 10th.

Another lovely summer’s day for golf, although possibly a bit too warm for some. The rain on Thursday had further encouraged the fairway grass to green up and grow.

There was good scoring with a tie at the top on 41 points. As Fridays are non-trophy sweep competitions, players are now allowed to play off 95% of their Course Handicaps, with no cap of 32 for men or 38 for women, and Tony Barnett took full advantage, beating Justin Wildman on countback. Tony’s 20 points out & 21 in pipped Justin’s 21 points out and 20 in – Justin’s double bogey 7 on the 17th was his downfall from a very sound round including 8 pars.

Recent new member Bill Jennings takes 3rd place with 39 points, 21 out (a birdie and 2 pars) but only 18 points in (2 pars); 7s on the 17th and 18th spoilt a very tidy card.

Toby Hunt and Teddy Holt both had 38 points and both had a birdie on the front 9, Toby beating Teddy on countback.

The Best Scores Analysis shows Teddy had the best front 9 (23 points), Adrian had the best back 9 (22 points) and 3 players had 2 birdies each : John Curry, Rannesh and Richard Back.

Sweep pay out to top 3 : £12, £8, £3

The quality of the golf today was excellent. And it has to be said that the pace of play was pretty decent too.

Senior Division

Naveed went out early. 3 birdies set him on course for a very tidy 71 (gross) to become leader in the clubhouse. 2 other early starters (John Perkins and Rob Smyth) came pretty close but couldn’t better Naveed’s marker. Richard Owen as per usual posted an excellent round on Prince’s. None of the late morning starters threatened Naveed’s gross score. The last remaining threat were the pm starters. And the sting was clearly in the tail. Strong of his win in the main CC RIchard Back managed to record no less than … 7 birdies. Scores of 34 (gross) on the front 9 and 32 (gross) on the back 9 give him a reasonable cushion for Round 2 next week. Jay must absolutely hate hole 10 on Prince’s now. Rather uncharacteristically he experienced the same problems as in the main CC. Despite that costly misstep he remains within touching distance of Richard B.  Silvia put in an excellent round and is first woman today (no trophy for that unfortunately).

Silvia leads women’s round 1 scratch 76 from Sheena 83′

Junior Division

Roland ended front and back 9 with birdies to take a 1-shot lead into next week. Colin made a good birdie on the 6th to fully remain in the hunt. Chris Jones and Pat Dalton are a further shot back. Not surprisingly the field is much tighter in the Junior Division.

Nett Results/Handicap Trophy

Results are a bit different re: the MW Handicap Trophy. Hilary is keeping up her recent good form by posting an incredible score of 58 (Nett). Richard B is a close second with his score of 60 (Nett). John Perkins and Naveed are a bit further back on Nett 63’s.

Conditions were cooler than of late with sunny intervals extending to sunny periods. After rain a week or so ago random bounce was not quite so pronounced and still plenty of run.

The deserved winner of the President’s Putter with an immaculate 45 points was Susan Smith and she also earned an ESR with HI dropping from 17.8 ->15.7. Ryan Jones led the challeng with and excellent 42 pts with Silvia and Charlie Whiteman 40s Charlie’s 40 included 2 ‘blobs’. Brian McMahon had best back 9 – 23 points.

There were novelty NTP par 3 prizes as below
NTP 2nd Louis Dickey
NTP 4th Tim Rose
NTP 11th Paul Kamerling
NTP 13 in 2 Richard Inglis
NTP 16th Roger Rojas

The competition was the 6th of 7 for the men’s Top Dog:
Senior division is headed by Richard Smith 24 pts from Ryan and Richard Owen 18s
Junior division is a 3-way tie on 24 points for Duncan, Goran and Charlie Whiteman.

It was a very pleasant, mainly sunny summer’s day with a slight south-westerly breeze and it was good to see a tinge of green on the fairways after the torrential downpours earlier in the week.

Our winner Teddy Holt, with 39 points, played consistent bogey-golf for the first 13 holes, interspersed with a birdie and 3 pars (33 points over 13 holes !) but struggled slightly to finish it off with just 6 points over the final 5 holes. Anyway, good to see Teddy back in the winner’s circle.

Rannesh finished 2nd (38 points) with 8 pars and a birdie on the difficult 8th hole. He could probably have beaten Teddy if he hadn’t needed 2 shots to get out of the greenside bunker on the 18th hole.

A further point back, 3rd place went to Martin Hay, a steady round with 3 pars and just one blob.

The best scores analysis shows Pat Dalton had the best front 9 (22 points) – similar to his front 9 on Duke’s last Sunday – and he was one of 5 players to get a birdie, the others not already mentioned being Andrew Brown and Naveed.

Sweep payout to top 3 ( £12, £8 & £3)

Avoiding the forecast showers proved a bit more straight forward than expected. The apocalyptic forecast of the Met didn’t materialise. So luckily the field was spared thunderstorms. Truth be told the late morning starters experienced the heaviest downpour. But everybody made it to the clubhouse without too many problems.

A stellar performance (24pts on front and back 9) by Adrian Wells was the biggest highlight of the day. On top of some sweep money Adrian will also receive an ESR. Best of the rest was John. The MC had had a very rewarding couple of days. After a thumping in the Bontor he put up 19pts on way out and 23pts on the way in to take second. 3rd place goes to Rob. But his scores on the 6th and 18th will leave a very bad taste in his mouth. Oliver was a late starter and struggled through the downpour. But his perseverance gets rewarded with a nice 4th place finish. Toby is keeping up his good recent form and is the last of the players on 40+ points.

Anther hot day – and the author stayed away.

Conditions suited the day’s winner of the Golden Jubilee – Sheena with a net 63. She stamped her authority at beginning of both 9s with birdies at first and10th. Sheena shrugged off another -1.0 ESR (first on Captains’ Day last year with HI reduced from 14.5 to 12.3.
3 behind were Goran 66 on countback from Mike Shabani. Former captain Kim shot lowest gross 68 and last week’s winner Nick continues to impress {with Louis] on back 9 -39.

This was 3rd of 4 Jubilee rounds and the Anniversary Cup sees John Morris leading 204 from 3 on 206 -Mike Shabani, Sheena and Oz.

Divisional Top Dogs for the men show Richard Owen leading Senior on 18 from Oz and Richard Smith 16s. The Junior currently has a tie – both Duncan Taylor and Goran with 24 pts.

An excellent turnout considering the blisteringly hot conditions, where the sensible choice was to be in a buggy. Scoring was good, particularly by the women, who took 4 of the top 5 places.

Our winner, Ann Gardner (42 points), played an even better round than her best ever winning score on Wednesday and her HI (handicap index) has dropped from 32.7 to 30.4 as a result of those 2 rounds – her comment was “I couldn’t have done it without the buggy”.

Occasional Friday player Jayne Maxwell (39 points) took 2nd place with her usual very steady round, scoring on every hole, 19 points out, 20 points in, 8 pars (and no buggy !!). Brian Ransom was 3rd (38 points) “best of the men” and being the best on countback from 4 players on 38 points, the others being Sheena, Mayumi and Rannesh. Brian and Sheena both had 19 points out and 19 points back but his two late pars on the 15th and 16th clinched it. On the other hand, Mayumi and Rannesh both had great front 9s (23 and 24 points respectively) but ‘fell away’ on the back 9.

Results and Best Scores Analysis reports linked below; sweep went to top 4 (£12, £8, £4, £2)