The predicted rain arrived around midday but wasn’t too bad, for most of us at least. Glendale’s closure of holes 8 and 9 for drainage trenching works was frustrating, however at least the 11th green was open.

Today’s clear winner was Adrian Wells, 35 points from 16 holes being 4 better than than his par off his Course Handicap. 16 points off the front 7 was the foundation and 19 points off the back 9 with one birdie and one blob completed a very solid round. 2nd and 3rd places, both with 32 points, were Veronica Mitchell and Ryan Jones respectively. It didn’t look as though it would be that way round when Ronnie started with a blob and Ryan had a birdie 3 for 4 points on the 1st, but it’s all about consistency and Ronnie’s 19 points on the back 9 pipped Ryan’s 17 points.

Sweep payout to the top 3 (£8, £5, £3)

Spring golf made a  very welcome return to the park. The Royal Parks deciding to cut trees today was not really part of the plan. Therefore we had to run the competition over 16 holes. Milder temperatures, sunshine, faster greens, better looking fairways and some decent golf were all present. Pity that access to the clubhouse itself was rather limited.

But see photo afterwards of new layout and floor covering

Onto to the main talking points. 3 players recorded 37pts. Chris Rudkin was the best thanks to his 21pts on the back 9 (only matched by Paul G). Brian started with a birdie and maintained an excellent level of golf over the first 7 holes (18pts). 2nd place is a nice return for a steady back 9 (19pts). Alan King was playing like a man possessed on the way out: -1 gross through 6 holes. A DB on the 7th didn’t stop him from scoring 20pts on the way out. He recovered after a wobble on the 10th hole to come home with 17pts. Angus tightens extends his lead in the birdie tree with 3 extra birdies (2nd, 3rd and 17th). 5th place goes to the Women’s Captain today. Pralab and Allan benefit from the women not taking part in the sweep (cf. attachment). The game of Alan King, Alvaro Garcia-Hoz and yours truly managed as a group  to record 5 birdies on the first 7 holes.

The competition also constituted final round of Midweek Winter competition and associated Duke’s Eclectic. Juho Lim and Pralab share the honours on 115 with Mike Jones and Secretary Peter Harrington joint runners-up 114. The Duke’s Eclectic champion is Richard Owen 59.2 with Angus Robertson and Brian Ransom close on his heels at 59.6 and 59.9 respectively.

After the heavy rain we had earlier in the week, the Prince’s course was very wet with standing water in places both off and on the fairways (but not on any greens). The recent bounce and run on the fairways was gone and deep pitch mark repair was necessary on some greens. However, under these difficult conditions scoring was pretty good across the whole field and especially good for some.

Colm (40 points) was today’s winner, reportedly ‘trying’ on the front 9 (25 points including 2 birdies) and just ‘cruising’ on the back 9 (15 points with 3 blobs and 1 birdie). Brian put up a spirited challenge (39 points), with a strong back 9 including a birdie. (Pat had to buy the beers I believe). In 3rd place with 38 points was Peter Finch with a very solid round throughout. Sweep payouts go to these top 3 and as Ryan had to ‘retire hurt’ after 4 holes, his entry fee will be refunded.

It was a lovely mild and sunny winter’s day with much less wind than the past week/10 days. The Duke’s course was restricted to 16 holes (8 and 9 closed for drainage works) and there was a temporary green on the 11th hole. Today’s winners all made the most of the conditions by all posting 35points, 3 shots better than their handicaps.

On countback, the overall winner was James Deissler who played some of the best and most consistent golf Rannesh, I (and Cheryl) have seen for some time – no blobs on his card and 4 pars. In 2nd place on countback was Colm who put in a late charge with an Eagle 2 on the last hole (for 5 points). Seymour took 3rd place with a well balanced card, 17 out and 18 back. Sweep payout goes to these top 3 (£9, £5, £3).

The ‘apparent’ leader in the clubhouse, Pralab with 37 points, was found to have played 18 holes on the Princes course and was therefore excluded from the competition.

Now that storms Franklin and Eunice are a thing of the past a large field enjoyed decent playing conditions (except for some standing water and usual muddy spots).

Pralab went out early and set a very decent target of 40pts. That score held for most of the day. Richard H and Juho came close but have to settle for 3rd and 4th respectively. The only player beating 40pts was Julian. He torched the back 9 for 23pts (his only 1-pointer came as a result of a 6 on the 12th hole). As an FYI: the best front 9 belongs to Russel (22pts – cf. Best Score Analysis Report).  Cheryl was the only one other player recording 23pts on the back 9 (guess 5pts on the 14th didn’t hurt). A bit of last minute scorecard drama was resolved so she takes 5th place.  Chris Rudkin and the MC take 6th and 7th respectively. Looks like in general the women faired pretty well playing off the yellow tees (I believe the only nasty surprise came on the 12th tee).

There’s just one round of the Midweek Winter Comp left – next Wednesday twinned with the Inaugural Trophy; latest position is in attached [software cannot cope with bespoke requirement which insists that best 3 from 8 but at least one round must be played on each course].

A new leader has emerged – Pralab Barua!. His 40 yesterday replaced 30 on Prince’s advancing him 10 points from previous 105. The laws of maths apply but if I were a betting man I would tip Julian James [a course and distance winner] who only needs to have 34 or better to lead Pralab.

Of course the winner could be someone with just 1 score from each course so far.

MW Winter Comp: Pralab (115), Mike J (114), Peter H (114), Julian J (113), Tamas (112) Juho (112). Last round of the MW Winter Comp will be held next week. MW Prince’s eclectic goes to Peter Goodall

Strange conditions at the park today. The field enjoyed mild temperatures. But the rain of the last days had created lots of areas with standing water. It even forced the greenkeeper to close 2 holes. The greens were very receptive. Although it was a surprise not having to face any temporary greens. Distance control was tricky today. There was very little roll (believe that quite a few tee-shots must have plugged on the fairways). The swirling/gusty winds made things even more complicated.

It was a case of one man v the rest today. The men’s secretary took the course apart today with an outstanding score of 38pts. 17pts on the front 9 was already quite a feat. His 21pts on the back 9 look even more impressive since he didn’t score any points on the 17th. The best of the rest was Alan King. It has to be said he had to use the countback rule to claim 2nd. Riding high on his nomination to the club’s main committee he recorded 14 and 19pts. Yours truly took 3rd. Brian Ransom used an excellent back 9 (20pts) to steal 4th place from Richard O.  Only 3 birdies were recorded today. Four of the hardest holes were on the back 9. The 5 most difficult holes today were (in descending order): 12th, 14th, 13th, 6th and 17th. Jeremy Prescot managed to score 2 4-pointers today.

Looks like Rob Dykes wins the Duke’s eclectic (TBC).

Forecast rain started 1 o’clock per main results report with some sunshine preceding. So later games caught the rain on the back 9 . Saturday and early games escaped dry. 37 turned up for Sunday.

Other events conspired to keep most of the women away from the course – so no report for them this week.

Overall winner with a tidy 67 was Sean O’Sullivan with the in-form Gunnar chasing with 69; Julian James again performed 70as did Cuneyt.

Senior Division Medal winner was Toby 73 and Junior Sean. Bucking the normal trend, the Senior Division had far more NRs than the Junior despite less entrants.

A smaller than usual field enjoyed a lovely sunny winter’s day on the now much drier/less muddy Dukes course.

Uli posted the best score of the day (39 points) with birdies on the 2nd and 11th holes; second place was taken by early player Pralab (35 points) who had a very steady round throughout. Peppe and Julian came in 3rd and 4th, respectively, both with 30 points.

Many thanks to Uli and Richard Norden who both marked handicap cards for prospective members.

A large field enjoyed pretty decent playing conditions: forward tees, mild temperatures, quite a bit of bounce & roll on the fairways and faster greens.

Early starter Chris Newman came in with a net score of 56. Turns out he put the bar (too) high for the rest of the field. Peppe put up a valiant effort. But his putter was stone cold today (a tap-in birdie on the 15th was a rare exception).  Unfortunately he came up just short with a net score of 58. 3rd place goes to Rudkin (despite 2 snowmen). Jim Deissler was the best of a group of 60. His 2 birdies on the last 3 holes allows him to (ab)use the countback rule to finish 4th. The men’s handicap secretary finishes 5th. Despite an eagle on the 3rd hole Brett Colley loses out Seymour for 6th. Some other highlights: Jeremy started with 2 birdies but his last 4 holes were less inspiring. New Committee member Alan King was on fire on the first 6 holes (1 under gross). Let’s not discuss the next 11 holes.

Early rain cleared earlier than forecast – at 09:30 according to plot at bottom of men’s results attached, sun came out with UV peaking shortly after midday. The author received a very poor weather forecast and did not play but apparently drainage operations were much in evidence 1st / 18th.

Women

What an interesting set of results and conditions on the morning after the club dinner. At least the rain went away, but that wind was somewhat strong and gusty.
A hazarded guess that Cheryl was the designated driver last night because those who imbibed quite freely at last night’s dinner did not appear to enjoy a great day on the course today. Certainly Gina’s score today does not match with her horde of trophies she gathered last year whereas Julie had a mere shandy all night. Prosecco to blame perhaps??
But that’s the golf gods for you – a few weeks ago Julie walked off after 5 or so holes as she struggled to hit the ball whereas today she won with 33 points. 3 ahead of both Cheryl & Jenny.

Despite her unusual poor result today, Gina still improved her eclectic score to move further away from the rest of the field. With the vagaries of WHS Susan has actually gone backwards as her handicap had a small cut, but is still in 2nd spot with 1 round to go.

Men

The winner proved to be Saturday entrant Richard Owen 40 points from Justin Wildman 38 with Brian McMahon and Paul Kammerling 37s. Richard went out in 22 points , Paul 21 with birdies at 4 and 8.

Winter Comp round 6 results are attached – manually retouched (at least 1 round from each course has to count and the HM software does not cater for such a bespoke feature so on MasterSoreboard the report is for rough guidance only) – Roger currently leads 115 from Julian and secretary Peter 114s. Colm, Tony and Adrian are in touch – 113.

The penultimate round of Prince’s Eclectic reveals Colm leading 57.3 from Roger 62.1 and Ed 62.8.