September 2023
September 2023
Rickmansworth match, 2nd leg
With Rickmansworth having “outperformed” in the first leg at the Park to the tune of a 3-3 tie, the return leg at their course was always going to be a prodigious feat. Despite a stern challenge to the assembled team by captain-for-the-day Nigel Gaymond , delivered in the style of his former rugby playing days, full of expletives and a call to arms, and the valiant efforts of all those assembled, the result had a depressingly inevitable feel about it. On the day it was a 5-1 defeat leaving an overall score of 8-4 to Rickmansworth who thus returned the cup ‘Home” to their clubhouse.
In Game 1 the familiar pairing of Richard Owen and Uli Katte quickly went 2 down in the first two holes and despite keeping it that way at the turn eventually succumbed to a 5 & 3 defeat. In Game 2 Naveed Manazir and Paul Green endured the same experience of being two down after two, trailed by 4 at the turn and also similarly endured a 5 & 3 defeat. In Game 3 the experienced pair of Nigel Ward and Tony Kopczak fought valiantly but ultimately succumbed 2 & 1. In Game 4 Tamas Ladacs and Justin Wildman ceded a number of shots to their opponents and despite keeping it close on the front nine ultimately succumbed 4 & 2. In Game 5 Jon Cooper and Peter Needham kept it close throughout but ultimately slipped to a 2 & 1 defeat on the 17th Hole. The last game of the day featured Nigel Gaymond and Aidan Hurley who bucked the trend and won the two opening holes and led by as many as 3 holes and went dormie with 3 holes to go only for the Rickmansworth pair to make a serious charge taking the match to the 18th hole. Nigel had basically overheated by the 14th hole leaving Aidan to steer the team home on his own. He played the last five holes in 1 under and coolly sank the 7 foot par putt to seal the win and prevent the whitewash. In the associated sweep, Nigel/Aidan came first with 40 points, Tamas/Justin second with 39 and Uli/Richard third with 37. There’s always next year!
Friday Sweep
Another blistering hot day with temperatures topping 30 degrees C but fortunately no-one was overcome by the heat.
It was another good round by Charlie Haines, who tops the leaderboard with 40 points (including one blob), 2 ahead of Graham with a commendable 38 points. Every steady Colin takes 3rd place with 37 points, just one in front of dog-walker Rannesh (who reportly let Yangu off the lead to collect opponents balls!!).
Best front 9 was 21 points by both Graham and Jose and best back 9 by Tamas (22 points). Uli didn’t win any sweep money this week (for a change) but did record 4 birdies in his round for the first time.
Sweep monies to the top 3 (£11, £7 , £4)
The Fred Hawtree Cup
A scorching day in September for the difficult format bogey Fred Hawtree competition.
The winner Mtch Cohen was the very early clubhouse leader being 7up; but he was actually 9up on back 9 and 2 over for front 9. Seymour was runner-up 6up whilst Club Champ Richard B was third 5 up – all on front 9 with 2 under par 33
September Monthly Medal (GMT R7/8)
Glorious sunshine with increasing heat for the September Monthly Medal. Conditions were excellent for scoring.
Women (Autumn Meeting Medal round)
What a lovely sunny day for a round of golf & it looks to have suited Silvia to a tee or more appropriately to par. Her gross score of 73 looks more like a nett to many of us & despite already having a low handicap is getting a 0.6 cut tomorrow down to 6.4…. the rest of us can only dream of such a score. So well played Silvia who finished with a nett 66.
Just 2 behind was Jenny with a 68 but with an identical score dropping off the back of WHS there is no change to her handicap.
Men
Exceptional golf from Jim ‘Mr 59’ Matthews with 1 over par front 9 gave Jim a 59 – well done! Jim had an ESR of -1.0 applied after his early 8th WHS score to reduce his handicap from 14.8 to 9.0. he was followed by in-form Jim D 61 – again normally exceptional Oz re turned 62, Charlie W 63 , Paul K 64 Paul G 64 and indeed there were 18 scores in the 60s.
Jay returned 2 over par 66 for best gross and his HI reduced to 3.6.
This was 7th of 8 rounds for the Grand Medal Trophy and order is little chaged from rond 6 –
Will B leads senior 328 from Tamas 329 whilst Duncan leads junior 345 from Dilp 349.