A significantly reduced field braved the muddy (?) Dukes course in mild, overcast conditions – one can only imagine what it will be like this weekend after the promised rain tonight.

Julian continued his recent good form to win with 42 points (19 out and 23 points in), with late entry Uli taking 2nd place with 37 points (20 out and 17 in) and comfortably the lowest gross score. Ann beat the remainder of the men with a steady 30 points.

Julian wins £5 with Uli getting £1 to cover his entry fee.

Well done to all those who played today in cold, damp and increasingly windy conditions – ‘winter golf’ is truly here, although some scores were remarkably good.

Andrew Brown took the honours today with a sparkling back 9 (25 points) giving him a total of 42 points. In second place with 40 points was a resurgent James Deissler 19 out and 21 back, no doubt disappointed by his double bogey 6 on the 18th. In 3rd place was Ted with a commendable 39 points, 19 points out and 20 back. The limited sweep monies go to Andrew and James, with £1 to Ted to cover his entrance fee.

All the men playing off the yellow tees didn’t make the increasingly muddy Dukes course any easier for most of the field, although there were some good scores on this mild and cloudy autumnal day. All the deciduous trees have now turned brown, red or yellow with many of their leaves deposited on the course, making ball finding considerably more difficult and sometimes unsuccessful.

The best two scores were posted by Game 1, Tim Ash Vie and Adrian, both with 38 points, Tim winning on countback over the back 9 holes. As per last week, poor scores on the first hole don’t mean you can’t win (Tim had a blob and Adrian a 6). Tim then amassed 15 points on the front 9 and 23 points on the back 9, with 6 pars including 4s on the SI 1 14th and on the long 17th. Adrian had a much better front 9 (21 points), which included a birdie 3 on the 4th for 5 points ! – there must be a good story there.

In third place was John Curry (36 points), who it was very nice to see on a Friday. John had a very tidy round with 11 pars and gross 78. Sweep payout goes to these top 3.

Finally a mention for Benoit’s 5 on the SI114th, which I am told was a birdie with his 2nd ball, after the first tee shot went out of bounds – you never know when the golfing gods are on your side.

The round started in dank occasional mizzly rain which persisted for most of the front 9 (longer for Pralab who was out earlier), however the rain stopped by around 11.30am after which it was quite a pleasant autumn day. The muddy conditions made it a ‘long’ and tiring round for many of us and it was surprising to see that Glendale allowed some buggies on the Princes course.

In first and second places were Julian and Darragh respectively. Julian (36 points) got off to a slow start (just one point for the first 3 holes) but then got his net par on the 4th and never looked back, so 14 points out and 22 points back. Darragh (35 points) on the other hand birdied the first hole and had amassed 8 points when he had finished the 3rd hole; after that it was a steady round of 19 out and 16 points back. So the morale must be, “don’t give up if you get off to a much worse start than your playing partners”.

Richard Norden came in with a tidy 34 points to take 3rd place from yours truly. Sweep payout to Julian and Darragh and Richard N. gets his entrance fee refunded.

Finally a mention for Benoit who had his 39 playing handicap ‘capped’ to 32. With his reduced handicap he scored a creditable 31 points but this would have been 38 points if he had been allowed to play off his full handicap (which has now been reduced by 2 shots).

Thanks to everyone for taking part

Richard

Winter seemed to have arrived with a chilly north westerly wind and the heavy rain earlier in the week had left parts of the Dukes course extremely wet, with standing water in places. The 8th and 9th holes were closed making the competition over 16 holes only.

The best score of the day was posted by Adrian Wells (34 points), continuing his recent good form, with Justin Wildman (on half term holidays) 3 points back on 31 points. Richard Back was the best of a trio of players on 30 points, beating Teddy Holt and Rannesh Jansari, respectively, on countback. Sweep pay out to the top two players.

Scoring was not so different to having a full set of clubs, however there is no doubt that the courses are playing ‘longer’ with the cooler temperatures and softer ground (less run) and the smaller fairways and longer semi rough grass.

These difficulties didn’t seem to hold back Stephen Haworth, our winner on 39 points with a sparkling back 9 of 36 shots, just 3 over par – there must have been some very good chipping and putting. Seymour was 2nd with 35 points, also with a strong back 9, including a birdie on the 14th, beating Adrian on countback, who had a more balanced round. Sweep payout to these top 3.

There were some excellent individual and team scores in today’s overcast but largely dry weather conditions, with no wind. Standing water remnants of Monday’s torrential rain were evident at low points on several fairways and surrounding areas but fortunately all greens were in play (although all bunkers were GUR).

It was a close-run result with only 3 points separating the leading 3 teams, who all scored over 80 stableford points.

After scrutiny/checking of the scorecards the winning team was Brian, Peter Goodall and Colm on 84 points, just pipping Cheryl, Marnix and Chris Rudkin on 83 points, with Jayne, Seymour and Richard Owen on 81points.

Thanks to all who participated and sweep pay-out is to the winning team. Next week is an individual 5 clubs and a putter.

After a couple of hours of torrential dawn rain, several entrants were asking whether the course would be open or were contemplating pulling out; fortunately there were only two actual drop-outs.

Although there were very occasional, localised areas of standing water by the time we played, this did not affect all competitors enjoying a lovely dry, warm and sunny round of golf and some of the scoring was indeed excellent. The clear winners (by 12 points!) were Uli, Adrian and Julian scoring 86 stableford points (14 points more than the ‘par’ two-ball score of 72) and all played well/very well. Three teams posted scores around ‘par’, with Seymour, Rannesh and Richard Y. grabbing 2nd place. Bringing up the rear, Jayne, Richard O. and Jeremy could probably have posted a more competitive score if they had given more thought beforehand to their Player 1, 2, 3 order.

The sweep was played in unseasonably warm post-Eqinox conditions and only the bumpy greens, following hollow-coring, were an excuse for modest scoring, especially as the rough has died down further. Cheryl took the honours with 36 points, two ahead of Ted on 34 points, with Rannesh and yours truly a further point back on 33 points. Sweep pay out to the top 2.