Cooler temperatures and much softer ground after yesterday’s heavy rain greeted today’ competitors. These conditions were not conducive to good scoring, as nobody played to their handicap and 34 points was the best that was achieved.

Winner by 1 point was Rannesh Jansari, 17 out and 17 back – it could have been better if he hadn’t missed a short birdie chance on the 17th and put balls OOB and then in the ditch on the 18th.

Countback separated Uli Katte and Pat Dalton (both on 33 points), Uli’s 17 points on the back 9 pipping Pat’s 15 points.

Payout to top 3 (£9, £6, £3)

Sunshine and varying showers were the order of the day for the challenging bogey format for Fred Hawtree trophy. Major shower just after 3 o’clock.
The oak tree between 4th and 16th had been felled- see attached photos.

I always think it is good golf to be tied (all square’ in old money) but some astonishing golf was played by those ‘Up’, notably winner Giles Rawlinson 7 up and Alan Cobb 6 up.
Very early starter Mitch Cohen was laeader in clubhous for some time 4 up from Rob Dykes.

Best woman was Julie Ryan – Tied

Peter Goodall with 2 birdies was 5 up on front 9 whilst Giles held honours on back 9 . again 5 up.

There was a hint of autumn in the air today with that wind being a touch chilly.

Women

Some new names at the top of the tree today.
Sarita playing in her first competition with us is today’s winner with a nett 66 & another cut to her HI. 4 shots behind were Elisabeth and Bridget.

Take care playing the 18th – Elisabeth was hit a glancing blow to her ear and seems fortunate to have got away quite lightly.

Both will also get small HI reductions overnight.

The sun only seemed to make a proper appearance after we’d finished. But the ball is still running though there is a touch more give in the ground and amazingly the 14th & 15th fairways seemed to show a lot of improvement.

Looking at the scoring today there were some 22 quadruple or worse scores on various holes between us & not one birdie.

Men

Conditions remained dry but breezy and green grass areas continued to expand for the 7th round of Grand Medal Trophy.

In the senior division Adrian Wells net 61 was leader on countback from Kerry Sargeant; well done to both – Adrian kept a six off his card with one birdie whilst Kerry returned 3 birdies. Early starter Russell, Roger Rojas and Richard Smith shared 64s.
Zach score an eagle at 9th!

In the junior division Goran had lowest net of the day 60 finishing a superb round with a back 9 38. Pete Malia had a commendable net 65.

In the cumulative Grand Medal Trophy with just 1 round to go, James A leads senior division 34 from Paul Kamerling and Kerry Sargeant 343s.

There’s an exciting finish coming up for the junior division — Julin J, Goran are tied 327 with the author chasing on 337.

Although quite a few of the Friday regulars were away playing golf or on holiday, there was still a good turnout with most members playing to scores around their handicap and the top 6 separated by only 3 points.

Top of the pile with 40 points was Uli Katte, playing his usual very steady round with 11 pars and only one double bogey (on the 18th). Tied on 39 points were Richard Young (following up on his excellent winning round on Wednesday) and Julian James, with Richard just winning on countback. In 4th place (38 points) was Pralab, who had a very ‘ordinary’ front 9, but a good final few holes which included 2 birdies.

The Best Scores Analysis show that Bridget had the best front 9 (21 points), Pralab and Giles had the best back 9s (21 points) and that Tim Rose matched Pralab’s 2 birdies.

Sweep payout to the top 4 (£9, £6, £4, £2)