With Duke’s closed the Midweek November Plate was played on Prince’s – with 5 temporary greens at 1,2,3,5 & 8.

Andre Pelser proved the winner with 46 points playing off 31; in his first 3 holes alone he scored 2 4 pointers and11 points! 25 out and 21 back – well done.. Returning to the clubhouse in almost dark, Umran shot an amazing level par 68 gross – all 3s and 4s [gross] except on 12th where a rare 7 ensued. Well done indeed to Umran and 2nd on 44 points.

Bill Norman won 3rd position 43 points on countback from Niel who returned best front 9 of 24 points. Richard 1marriott edged Mike Sands on countback with both41 points; special mention for Richard’s back 9 of 25 points in contrast to 3 ‘blobs’ on the front.

Best woman Gina 37.

 Nowhere to hide from the casual water and mud (all of us took their fair share home …). The 2 temporary greens and forward tees on a lot of holes rendered the course fairly short.

So you could argue the above offset each other. Gerard O recorded 5 3-pointers and 2 4-pointers. That translated into 19pts on the front 9 and 21pts on the back 9. Pretty impressive in these conditions. Another early starter Robert C finished 1 point back of Gerard. He may regret the 3 5’s to start his back 9. 5 players scored 38pts. Chris J and Richard O matched Gerard’s score on the back 9 (21pts). But Chris’ last 6 holes were marginally better than Richard’s. Adrian W and Mike J had a softer back (20pts). But it was enough to claim the last “money spots”.  Pepe M had the best front 9 (21pts).

MW Winter Standings
Julian J, Robert C 73pts, JM Gomez 72, Serhat G 71

MW Princes Eclectic
Richard O 71.9, Robert C 72.1, Adrian W 73.6

Cool and grey with the odd spell of light rain. 2 temps & a non-qualifier for handicap.

Women

It was Joan’s turn to make it look easy this week with 35 but she was closely followed by 3 on 34. Think Katharina and Sheena were playing in a parallel universe but it gives us plenty of room for improvement in the next rounds of the eclectic.
In the eclectic, Gina tops it followed by Jayne & Joan courtesy of the half handicap allowance- you can check the holes you need to improve from the report on MS

Men

The senior division was headed by Peter Needham who started with a welcome birdie and against normal form had a better front 9 (22pts) than back (17pts) for 39 total; in a similar vein Thierry Andretta had 21 out 16 back for his 37. Paul Kamerling finished 3rd with steady 35 then club champion Roger Rojas 35.

The junior division returned higher points scores with Onursal Soyer 42 [best front 9, 23pts ], Paul Green 41, Sean O’Sullivan 3rd 40 on countback from Julian James and Paul McGrath .

The first round of [8] for Winter Comp. reflects the above whilst in first [of 4] Prince’s Eclectic is headed by Peter Needham 70.1 from Julian James 72.2.

A small field faced tough conditions. Autumn/Winter golf was back with a bang at the park. Even though the rain was less present the last 36h mud and casual water were ever present. There were still 3 temporary greens (3rd, 11th and 12th). Avoiding the rain today proved impossible. Even though the rain wasn’t very hard it was very persistent during the whole day.

Early starter Brett Colley put up a valiant effort to come home with 35pts (17+18). But the day belonged to the late morning starters. Arguably the weather was worse for them. 3 players finished on 36pts. Julian had the best back 9 of the three. The last 6 holes of Julian James and Bill Norman were the tie-breaker: Julian had 12pts over those holes . Bill scored 1pt less. José-Manuel Gomez scored 16pts on the back 9 so he finishes 4th. Mike Jones was the only player “to beat his HI”. 38pts (20pts out and 18pts in) make him the clear winner. For 1 week at least he leads the MW Winter Comp standings. 

Breezy and bright but dry after recent storm/rains for the November Medals. With 3 temporary greens the competitions became non-qualifying for handicap.

Women

Silvia made it look pretty easy but am assuming conditions were pretty much as muddy and horrible as they were today and possibly raining as well? Your author was enjoying some sun in Spain!

So congratulations to Silvia who wins the last of the 2023 women’s medals – on to team games next month.

Men

Pete Malla led the way in the Senior division with net 70 just 1 from Paul Kamerling; with 73s came Umran Ali, Aidan Hurley and Joe Goncalves; Aidan had lowest gross of the day.

With a glorious 65 Charles Haines won the Junior medal from early leader Alan King 67. Mark Laverty teed off with a birdie for his 68 whilst Richard Hanna shot 70 with a promising front 9 gross 41 net 31.

The course was muddy after more recent rain.

The winner of the Medal was Serhat with an amazng 63 with Graham C 2nd 65 on countback from Robert C.

With the 2 Matchplay KOs finished and now the final competition – Lissaman Cup, final Senior and Junior positions are shown below:

The weather was foul and autumnal – not cold but persistent spells of rain. A number understandably completed a few holes and walked in, The condition of the course was discussed by the Committee before agreeing to proceed to issue the results. The sun did finally come brilliantly out for the last game.

Well done to all who completed the 3 Clubs and putter Lissaman Cup competition and especially those below with less than 70 net.
Joe Go and Brian M both had 67s with Joe winner on countback rule – 36 on back 9 Brian 39. New member Iker L in his 5th qualifying round shot a commendable 68 with Paul K and Joseph Go 69s; next was best woman Bridget S 70.

A couple of ‘Twos’ – Kim 4th and Rannesh 11th.

For the men this was the final competition in the Top Dog and with the 2 matchplay Kos completed, divisional results are as attached.

In the Senior division we have a tie with Brian M’s 8 points awarded for this comp making him joint winner with Kerry S both 26; they were chased b today’s winner Joe Go 20 and Paul K 19.

In the Junior division Paul McG wins from Dilip 28 to 26 with Duncan T 24 and Gregory 20.

The field must have thought they were playing Round 1 of the Spring Stableford. The overnight rains were a distant memory and made way for mild temperatures and a lot sunshine. The geese were causing some drama/delay by picking apart the work of the green keepers on the 1st green. Scoring was more than acceptable.

Mike J went out in the first game. A solid round of golf translates into 20pts (front 9) and 19pts (back 9). Good enough to set the mark/become leader in the clubhouse. Ian B also went out in 20pts. But his snowman on the 17th means he finishes 1pt behind Mike. Peter G must really likes the current greens. Apparently he only had 15 putts through 12 holes. On top of that he had his usual salvo of birdies (3 to be precise). 2 of them occurred on the front 9 (21pts). His back 9 was solid until a brain freeze on the 18th tee. A blob on that hole limits his back 9 to 18pts. Unfortunately for the 3 of them (and the rest of the field) there was no match to day for Tom S: 18pts on the way out and a staggering 25pts (!!!) on the way in.  Enough to claim victory today by a margin of 4pts.

Tamas, Angus and Andre all finish on 37pts. But the countback rule decided that Tamas and Angus are the last players to receive “Purse Adjustments”. Tamas L missed out on 3rd spot. He was never on the right hole when playing the 6th. He still managed to get on the green in 3. But he then missed the par put sending him back to the group on 37pts.

A perfect autumnal day with plenty of sunshine for golf. Temps nudged 15C.

Greens were unevenly mown with quite a bit of growth showing.

Rannesh rose to the challenge and breezed to victory to win the Charity Cup; he excelled on the back 9 with birdies at 11 and 18 to give 22 points for a total of 41 ponts. 2 points behind again with 22 on front 9 was Mark L who in turn edged Sean who had 38. 4th was Charles H on 37 – Charles had a super front 9 with 23 pints.

Best woman was redoubtable Avi M with 33 points.