A cold frosty start but sunny and it did become milder. Worms seemed to keep low in the ground re mud.

This was 3rd round of the Winter Competition – previous round 17 November.

Both divisions were won with 39 points.
In the senior division Paul Kamerling had a very consistent 20 out and 19 back which included birdie at 12th; Iker Lanzagorta had another good round 34 points shared with Peter Harrison.
In the junior division Duncan Taylor’s 39 comprised 16 going out and a magnificent 23 back with birdie at 17th. Sajid Kahn followed on 36 points with a best front 9 of 22. They were chased in trn by Tony Kopczak and Paul Fulham 35pts.
After 3 rounds of Winter Comp. Greg /wright leads senior division 109 from Paul Kamerling 107 and in the junior it’s Duncan Taylor from Tony Kopczak 103; after 2 rounds of Prince’s Eclectic Duncan 62.1 leads Paul 62.3.

Women

For the sake of completion – 5 women turned out to play on one of the lovelies Sundays of winter so far. With frost underfoot there was no mud until later in the round as things started to thaw and the blue sky and sun was a real treat. So much so, the women decided to have a friendly knock with 5 temps in play and the ball inevitably taking on a life of its own on the ice. At the finish they all agreed how much fun it was!

Conditions deteriorated from midday with persistent rain and many walked in with incomplete rounds.
For those that finished there were some good scores in this hastily arranged sweep on Prince’s; the winner was Iker Lanzargote 36 points from Gerrard Quinn 35, Giovanni Caboni 34 and Sajid Khan 33. Iker had best back 9 with 17 points whilst front 9 shared between Gerrard and Adrian Wells (just 10 holes completed) with 21.

It was a cold, overcast and damp sort of day with clingy mud everywhere.
However many players found it to their liking for scoring.
Julian James played a consistent front 9 of 18 points with a zero points on the ninth hole. Then very steady on the back nine with 21 points to win the competition. His back nine had 2 birdies on hole 11 and 17.
In 2nd place was Peter Fisher who amassed 17 points on the front nine and 20 on the back nine with 3 no score holes!!
Next came James Deissler on countback who was leading the field after nine holes with 20 points with a birdy on hole 1. A steady back nine of 17 points and 37 total. Tamas Ladacs scored 15 on the front and 21 on the back for respectable 36 Total. Beating Richard Norden on countback who also had 36 points.

Women

Another scramble for the women with both teams receiving 14 shots, and scoring the same on the front 9. The back 9 was a different matter with the team of Deb, Reiko and Sheena falling short on pars, giving the team of Ali, Doreen and Caroline to win by 2 points with 37.

Men

Another cold and grey day but dry for the January Medal.

In the senior division Greg Wright teed off right on the first three tees – 3 birdies and was out in level par to win! His form continued to finish on a glorious 65 (and leads the Sunday birdie tree this year) .Michael Hayden and John Perkins chased with 69s – Michael sharing back 9 honours of 36 with Paul Green.
In the junior division Sajid Khan was the clear winner with an excellent 66, 4 ahead of Sean O’Sullivan, Jethro Pearton and Nigel Ward 70s.

Well done indeed to Mel Dunn and Iker Lanzargorta for recording first eagle 3s at the 9th this year.

The Princes course was rather muddy but not too bad given the conditions from previous days. The greens were slow and putting long distances was a real lottery. Only three players equalled or bettered par of net 68 so there maybe a WHS adjustment to be made overnight – but there wasn’t!

Women

After ‘playing’ in the mud before Christmas the women decided to book slots on Prince’s and I think we can safely say that we enjoyed our day a lot more than the men did on Duke’s – brutal was one word heard, but of course they had to do it all on their own whereas we could share the good & the bad outcomes. The ball of course hopped and skipped in any direction with the frozen conditions.
The team of Jenny, Joan & Sali didn’t need their 4th player, who had cancelled, to beat the other 2 teams easily by 6 shots with all 3 teams playing in 3-balls.
Between us we had 28 pars and most intriguing was that the winners were the only ones to have birdies and double-bogeys – 2 of each.
In a scramble everyone plays their part, but Jenny said she was putting like a demon.

Men

A cold frosty day for the January Plate. Variable bounce and stuck pins due to icy conditions.

Well done to the winner of the day – Tom Laybourn. Tom scored 30 points with 18 on the more difficult back 9. Lee Frost came 2nd on countback from Giovanni Caboni, both 29.

A cold day for the 2024 Plate. No wind, some fog and again muddy. Very difficult to score well.

Well done indeed to Richard Smith and Greg Wright – Richard winning on a back 9 countback. Julian James challenged on 31 but got into a muddy bunker on 18^th for zero points.

Next came Mel Dunn and Adrian Wells 30 points each with Mel clinching 3^rd place on back 6 countback.

14 pairs braved the wind and sticky mud to take on Princes at American Greensomes. The overall scoring was very good but Chris Rudkin and Justin Wildman scored a gross 73 and 46 points (23 out and back) to win by a comfortable margin. Runners up Richard Young and Ed Robinson excelled on the front nine with 25 points but found the back nine a little trickier and managed only 17 to accumulate a total of 42 overall. In third place was Seymour Laird and Brian Ransom with a steady 19 out and back for 38. There were gaggle of 37 scores and I’m sure that they are reliving the putts that got away.
Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the format and the chance to play a team game despite the conditions.

A grey but mild day for the re-scheduled Christmas Hamper. A good turnout of 51 competed in very muddy conditions.

The winner seemingly unaffected by the conditions was ‘Sunny’ Lall 40 points – 20 out and in; he was chased a point behind by Lee Frost 39. The in-form Julian James claimed 3^rd 38  from Abdulla Almasoud 37. Abdullah had scope for considerably more : 21 out but picked up on 2 hole on the back 9.

Best of women was Jenny Lawrence 27. Separate hamper prizes for men and women.