A small field met on the scorched ground of Princes today to compete in the August Midweek Monthly Meda [August Desert Classic].

Playing early to avoid the heat proved a sound strategy for quite a few players (numbers 2-5 in the rankings today went out before 8AM). Second observation is that the women in particular seemed to deal pretty well with the conditions (suppose the extra run didn’t hurt). Maybe this explains why a lot more women signed up for the sweep than usual.  Pralab survived bogeys on the final 3 holes to take the clubhouse lead with a score of 63 (Nett – 78 Gross). Pat Barbour came in 3rd with an excellent score of 64 (Nett). Giles and Pat were 1 stroke further back with 65’s (Nett). Hilary seems to keep up her recent good form to finish alone on 66 (Nett). Gina had the best back 9 overall. But no-one was a match for the best thing to come from Canada since Bryan Adams, Wayne Gretzky, Pamela Anderson, maple syrup and poutine (the spelling is correct – it is a dish) (FYI: ranking is totally random) . Ann Gardner shot a remarkable round of 61 (Nett) to steal today’s honours. Her result could/should’ve been better had she been able to avoid an ugly 7 on the 18th hole. You probably saw Oliver copying Omar Sharif/Lawrence of Arabia by showing up all dressed in white today.

MW GMT ranking: Tamas (335), Gina (339), Peter G (344) Mayumi (350).

Another warm, sunny summer’s day with plenty of extra run on the bone hard fairways and we have a “New Winner”!

It’s not often that Graham Babington-Smith enters the competition and I can’t see any record of a previous win on his scoring record, however his intuition was good this morning (or did he enter the competition ‘by mistake’ ……… ?). Anyway, a very solid round, scoring on every hole resulted in a winning total of 41 points (20 out; 21 in).

The 3 players in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places all scored 39 points and, based on countback were Sheena, Peter Flint and Pralab.

Sheena’s round was pretty faultless, with 10 pars, except for the opening blob and the finishing double bogey. John Ahad will certainly have his work cut out tomorrow playing matchplay against Sheena in the annual men versus women competition.

It’s good to see Peter posting a good score again after a bit of a barren patch; he too could have challenged Graham B-S if he hadn’t blobbed the last hole.

Another steady round from Pralab (the best front 9 and the best overall on the par 4’s) – however blobs on the par 3 2nd and par 3 11th were his undoing.

A mention must be made of Andrew Brown’s round: a good looking 24 points after 11 holes and then only one more point on the remaining 7 holes – looks like a nightmare.

And finally, after his round Richard Norden (see picture attached) declared “I just don’t seem to be able to play golf anymore” – I’m sure his next win is just around the corner.

Sweep payout to top 4 : £9, £6, £4, £3

Humidity increased as temp nudged 29C for the Midweek Captain’s day – and there was a wind with which to contend; sunny intervals developed into sunny periods.

The individual winner with an outstanding 46 points [26 out!] followed by Chrs Jones (24 back). It was a pleasure to welcome best woman Mayumi Takahashi into the winners’ enclosure (24 back) In 4th position on countback was Ronnie from Rob Wilhelmsson and Seymour. Both Ronnie and Chris Newman had a couple of birdies whilst Teddy had the only 2 on 10th.

Captain Henry arranged some novelty challenges :

Nearest the Pin (NTP) after 2 shots – Hole 2 Pralab Barua
Nearest the pin after 1 shot – Hole 7 Paul Giles
Nearest the pin after 1 shot – Hole 10 Henry!
Nearest the pin after 1 shot – Hole 16 Angus Robertson

Henry also arranged a mystery [random draw] teams comp with all 3 stableford points counting. A separate results report file is attached confirming the team of Pat Dalton, Chris Jones and Rob Wlhemsson to be winners 125 pts 9 clear from ante-post favourites Seymour, Ronnie and Sheena.

6 shared in sweep and with some non-participants 9th place earned last prize.