Sunshine broke through the gloom shortly after 8:00 on a chilly day. Many complained of losing balls amongst the fallen leaves.

Premier Cru went to Jim Deissler with 36 points to win the Midweek Champagne Chase Junior Division;

In-form Sheena put in yet another sparkling performance on countback for 2nd 35 points to take the win in the Senior Division from vintage performances from Chris N, Uli, Pier, Richard and Ross. Chris & Uli also getting bottles with the better back 9s. In the Junior Division, Richard H and Julian took the bottles.

Pat Barbour effervesced on front 9 – 20 points whilst Sheena and Ian B fizzed the back 9 20 points..

Sporadic showers petered out only to return for the late games; mild for early winter – 13C recorded per bottom of results. Turnout was good with 64 entrants

Pier Maria uncorked 41 points (22 on back 9) to win The Champagne Chase; vintage scores of 39 were settled on a back 9 countback with Toby having the advantage from Mark B. Bubbly 38s from Pete M and Oz followed with Pete winner on countback. Jay Barker NR first hole but normal service was soon resumed with 3 birdies in his round.

As is traditional, the women provided the prizes, this year 1st and 2nd place for each of the Senior (Toby & Mark) and Junior (Pier Maria & Giovani) Divisions, and 1st, 2nd & 3rd for the women – Pat, Susan & Sheena.

In addition to drinks prizes, sweep was paid out to 9th place. Kerry had best front 9 22pts, Paddy best back 23.

Again we were very lucky with the weather, a dry and sunny morning, clouding over mid afternoon. The Prince’s course was in good condition with only very occasional wet patches, although the grass was very lush off the fairways.

This is the first time we have tried the “Best 2 Scores” format and it seemed to be enjoyed by all. The winning team (88 points) of James Deissler, Rannesh Jansari, Jose Manuel Gomez and Richard Owen only clinched it on the 18th hole by scoring 7 points to the runners up team of Uli Katte, Richard Hodgkinson, Graham Cull and Chris Jones’s 4 points. Not too far behind were 3 teams all on 82 points. Colin, Gary and Bob brought up the rear with 70 points, but were disadvantaged by being only 3 members in their team. If anyone would like to examine individual scores in more detail, see the Competitions Scorecards Report attached.

Sweep payout to the winning team (£6 each)

Hard to say if Japan’s victory over Germany during today’s round at the World Cup was a bigger surprise than the weather at the park. 24 brave souls teed off despite doomsday weather forecasts. But that courage (or foolishness) paid off. By some sort of miracle the rain stopped around 9.30. Guess that for once the 3 early starters experienced the worse conditions.

Only 2 women teed off. And the least that you can say is that they stretched the field. Sheena finishing first and Cheryl closing the leaderboard … The women’s captain used scores of 18pts (front 9) and 21pts (best score on the back 9) to leave everyone else far behind. Rob Dykes finishes 2nd but is the winner of today’s sweep. Julian is keeping up his good form with 3rd place and 36pts. Alan could/should’ve done better had it not been for 3 blobs. Wouldn’t be surprising if PCC are adjusted (only 5 players played to their HI today). Only 3 players get sweep payouts. But since quite a few of the better scorers today opted out of the sweep the sweep payouts reach as far 6th place.

Just to highlight what a weird day it was: hole 3 played as SI 5 and the 16th played as SI … 9. It may come as less of a surprise to  see the 17th play as SI 3. 

The early games caught the worst of the rain but it dissipated to give sunny periods.

Women

Hard to recall those summer days when the ball ran forever and we were clubbing down all the time. Now most of us don’t have clubs we can move up to on almost every hole. It’s definitely got wet and soggy underfoot with the 17th winning the worse condition by some margin. A whole host of men must have cancelled when they saw either the forecast or the rain this morning – but overhead it was a lovely day until the end when the clouds started to appear.

Congrats to Silvia who demonstrates the benefit of being able to hit the ball a long way and even though she played off 6 beat the rest of the field by 2 to win today and lead the eclectic by some 8 shots.

Men

This was first Duke’s Winter competition and an extremely tidy 42 points (23, 1 over par on the harder back 9) from Raymond Esin gave him overall victory for the day and Senior division. Indeed with an overnight PCC of +2 Raymond earned an ESR of -1.0 with his HI being chopped from 11.7 to 9.6.

Wil B took 2nd place in Senior division.

In the Junior division Julian emerged ahead on countback 35 from Paul Green.

In the Winter Comp round 2 Raymond and Will B share the Senior honours 76 points; Paul Green heads Junior 74 from Giovanni; in the associated Eclectic Raymond and Richard Back share lead with 76s

Morning sunshine, low in the sky, made ball spotting difficult on a number of holes but as the day progressed the clouds rolled in and it must have started getting a bit dark for the late finishers – at least it was dry for everyone and the course was in reasonable condition after the heavy rain earlier in the week.

It was a 3-way tie on 38 points at the top of the leaderboard, with Rannesh’s birdie 3 on the last hole giving him top spot. Rannesh had 16 points out and 22 points in, beating Julian James into 2nd place (19 points out and in) and Ian Burgess in 3rd place (22 points out but only 16 points in). Ian’s 9 on the 18th hole meant that he also lost out to Pat Dalton on their 18th-hole match, so an expensive hole for him.

Leading woman was Pat Barbour on 35 points, gradually chipping away at her handicap which I’m sure will soon be in the 20’s.

Sweep payout to top 4 (£10, £8, £6, £3) and Best Scores Analysis report attached.

Recent rains made the course very wet. The early starters arguably faced the worst conditions.

Silvia managed to score 21pts on the front 9. Her back 9 was a bit softer. But a birdie on 16 allowed her to close with 17pts. Good enough to become leader in the clubhouse. Tamas looked to build on a strong result in R1 last week. And the least you can say is that he delivered. 20pts on the way followed by 19pts on the back 9 make him today’s winner. A closer look at his scorecard learns that he recorded no less than 7 3-pointers (Steph Curry would be proud of that – but we are talking different sporting disciplines). Alan matched Silvia’ score of 21pts on the front 9. But unfortunately for him he recorded 4 1-pointers (Steph Curry would call them free throws) on the back 9. May be the fact of not signing up for the sweep relaxes him and allows him to play well … Stephen and Angus both record 36pts. But a better back 9 moves Stephen into 4th. Suppose that Angus’ 3 birdies are only a small consolation for finishing in the last money position. Since there fewer sweep entrants than usual Richard O misses out on some cash despite finishing 6th.

MW Winter Comp
Tamas and Alan K lead the way.

MW Prince’s Eclectic
Silvia takes the lead here.

Prince’s didn’t seem to have coped with the rain as well as Duke’s which always seems odd as it’s the higher of the 2 courses and signs of the water table getting higher were evident with some water back in the pond on the 10th.

Women

Pat’s best ever round since she joined us has deservedly put her top of the pile today with 39 points. A score that some of us can only dream of! Cheryl & Joan’s dreams are pretty on track with 37 and 36 points respectively.

Pat will see her HI drop to 30.5 tomorrow and Cheryl and Joan also get a drop.

The eclectic sees Susan at the top at this very early stage.

Men

This first round of the Winter competition saw Brendan overall winner and leader of the Senior division 40pts; he was chased in the division by 38s from Nigel W, Will B and Russell S

In the Junior division Giovanni leads on back 9 39pts from Paul Green and then Nigel G and TomS 37s.

Initial Prince’s Eclectic off 1/2 hcap shows Armi (off 0.5) a half-shot ahead from Jay who in turn a tenth of a shot from Brendan 69.0 . But early days with most having ‘NR’ due to at least 1 hole Nr’d.

It was a lovely dry and unseasonably warm (17 deg C) November day with afternoon sun and the Prince’s course was in great condition for the time of year (and by comparison with the more muddy Duke’s course).

Today’s clear winners (79 points) were the team of Peter Flint, Pat Dalton and Richard Norden. The foundation of the score was an excellent round by Peter, who had 41 points individually including lots of Pars (including the 7th) and a birdie on the 16th. Richard and Pat chipped in when needed and Richard had a strong back 9 (19 points).

In 2nd place (71 points) were the team of Adrian Wells, Uli Katte and Peter Goodall, who always looked good on paper for a high score. Their team’s performance was anchored by Uli, who had a personal score of 39 points, lots of Pars, a birdie on the 15th and a gross score of 75.

Sweep payout to the winning team (£6 each).