A warm but showery start followed by a warmer sunny back nine greeted the players today.
Andy Johnson topped the leader board with 39 points 20 points out and 19 back. A good steady round.
Julian James was 2nd with 37 points 19 Out and 18 back. 3rd is Robin Thomas with 17 out and 19 back including birdies on 13 and 18. 4th is Richard Owen 16 out and 19 back for his 35 points. 5th is Mehmet Akdeniz 13 out and 21 back with a birdie on 15. Mehmet beat 4 others on countback who also scored 34 points!!

Weather was bright for the early starters with a modicum of autumnal breeziness for the tailenders. Thankfully the rain that was forecast stayed away even though there was the mildest hint of precipitation around lunchtime. Conditions are becoming a little tougher as only 10 of the 54 starters were at handicap or better.

In Division 1 Maher Sharma had the best score of the day with a most splendid 40 points. Maher takes a 1 point lead into next week, being one ahead of Nick Rogers on 39 with Toby Hunt & Alan Treacy close behind on 38. In Division 2 it’s nearly as close with Niamh Grace scoring an excellent 38 points. Niamh takes a two point advantage over Paul Fulham and Kelly Hewitt who are both on 36 points. There are a few players within 5 points of the leaders in Division 1 & 2, so it’s all to play for next week.

Special shout-out for Paul Kamerling who recorded a crowd-pleasing eagle 3 on hole 9.

A fine pleasant day with a light breeze which became warmer as the round went on greeted 41 entries for the September Monthly Medal and Round 7 of 8 of the Mid Week Grand Medal.
I Div 1 Simon McKnight showed everyone how to play with a gross 68 Net 61. Out in 38 and back in 30. 11 pars, 4 Birdies and 3 bogeys. On the back 9 he finished with 6 straight 3’s following 3 fours for his 3 under par 30 gross.
Dave Cato played more steady golf with 41 out and 38 back with a birdie on each 9 holes for his net 63.
Brian Ransom had 45 out and 36 back for his net 66 which included 3 birdies. Gina had 43 out and 33 back for her net 67 with a birdie on the15th.
In Div 2 Andy Johnson edged out Graham Cull on countback with his net 67. Andy had 41 on the back to Graham’s 42. Graham also had a birdie on the 4th Hole, Peter Miller edged out Chris Jones and Ian Burgess with his 40 on the back nine.

With one round to go in the MW Grand Medal, Angus has a 6 shot lead of 334 over Richard Owen and Julian a further 6 shots back.

It may not have felt like it to Angus at the time, but he had a very comfortable cushion of 6 shots to win the Division 1 MW Club Championship – he had the best gross score in both rounds. Jonathan and Bill both recorded 85 for today’s round, but Jonathan’s better score on Prince’s gave him the runner-up spot.

In Division 2, the top 2 in round 1 swapped places as David Grace’s 96 gave him an overall lead of 2 shots to win Div2 from Jonno who finished as runner-up.

The women’s MW club champs was a runaway win for Gina who finished her round as the only other 2 women playing started theirs. with an 11 shot lead from the first round the result today was never really much in doubt and neither of the others put up much of a fight!

Very impressively with her low single figure handicap Gina is also the net winner from Richard Owen on the back 9 of today’s event. Both players had the same net scores of 68 and 74 in the 2 rounds.

None of those who were ineligible either played today, or had NRs so results include those as well.

Conditions underfoot today reminded us that autumn is well on its way and there was definitely less run on the ball. The course was already showing signs of green returning to some of the fairways after yesterday’s rain, the downside making the ground that much softer for the badgers who looked to have been feasting overtime on a fair number of holes.

The usual weather applied, hot, and then more hot. Lots of run on the fairways, but greens holding quite well.

The winner today, of the Fred Hawtree Cup,, perhaps a little fortuitously, was Susan Smith, with a very excellent 4 up on the course. Well done.
Avi Murphy should have won by 2, but the scorecard, after being checked at least 5 times, to be sure, is not signed by the player. Apologies Avi – maybe can be debated later with someone else in the household.
John Ahad had an equally fine score, matching Susan, but in 2nd place on countback.

The annual battle of the sexes – renamed by one of the newer members as Love Island when the women & men pair up…except the idea is to beat each other!!

An amazing and unexpected result as it ended 5 wins apiece – according to the engravings, this was the first such result since 1984 which is quite incredible.

The winning men were: Nick, Captain Paul, Maher, JamesD and DavidG.
Which means the winning women were: Sheena, Ellie, Niamh, Doreen & Els.

Looks like the closest match was played by captain Paul who got his win on the 18th.

A re-match in November was suggested when I don’t think there’d be many women signing up. The hard parched fairways probably give the women more help than they do the men who don’t want to ball to keep running when it’s getting close to those ditches that don’t tend to affect us.

The protected pin positions probably required either a super high shot, to get it to stop, or somehow lots of back spin. That may have been difficult for many players today. Any slightly off target shots could also be severely punished due to the slippery baked hard fairways. A PCC of perhaps 1 tomorrow may be a possibility.

Brett Colley nonetheless managed to figure it all out, and was the one and only player in the whole field to play to his handicap. Really well done.
On countback with a very good 34 points, Bella Mahale secured second place, along with Cheryl Woodhouse in third. Tom Simpkins also had a very good 34 points but, and perhaps too much information, carded a 9 on 18, Costly, but then the 18th from the white tees always a tough shot.
Only a few men played white tees today..

NTPs as dollows:

In 2 2nd – Hunt
NTP – 7th – Tom Simpkins
NTP – 10th – Suhail Salim
In 2 15th – Richard Marriot
NTP 16th – Toby Hunt
In 2 18th – Brett Colley

A bottle of sparkling wine or 3 Pro V1’s to the winners

Women

Much better scoring today on the course that is generally considered the tougher of the 2 – but the greens on Duke’s are much less contoured in general, even if the pin positions were tucked behind bunkers or at the far most point (as expected of course).
Going in to today Lia had a 2 shot lead which she extended today to win the Club Champs by 4 with a gross 189 from Joan on 193.

There is no divisional split in the gross event and Jenny is 3rd in this with 195.
This converted to net 142 in the Pembroke Cup which Jenny wins by 8 from Seshi on 150.
Lia also wins the net in the Handicap Cup division by 5.

With only 13 women involved in this, prizes will only be awarded to the winners of each net trophy.

Lia & Jenny brought their A games to this event for both weeks and will get handicap cuts tomorrow – it looks like both will be cut to their current ‘low’ handicap index.

Congratulations to Lia & Jenny

Men

Overcast early morning but the sun broke though by mid morning to provide a very warm and windy day. Although the fairways were ‘rock hard’, the rest of the course was ‘well presented’ by the greens staff to provide an appropriate challenge for our club championship, with all pins sited close to the edges of the greens, and often on tricky slopes.

In Division 1 Richard Smith is crowned Club Champion with a total gross of 158, 4 clear of past champion Aiden Hurley, who had lead by 3 after round 1. Paul Kamerling retained his place in 3rd on 165 strokes. “Well played Richard”.

In Division 2 there was also a significant change with Tony Kopczak clawing back a 9-strokes deficit to equal Ed Hall, both with a combined gross of 185. In the event of a tie, an 18 holes ‘play off’ is required to determine the Junior Champion. Just 1 stroke behind, in 3rd place, was James Deissler (186), with a best net score of the day (67).

The Handicap Trophy is won by Richard Smith (140 strokes), from Tony Kopczak (144) and Paul Kamerling (146).

There was a slightly unusual separation of 3 players at the top who were well clear of the rest of the field by 5+ shots. Not sure how to explain that, although the tricky pin positions might be something to do with it. Many pins needed Scheffler’esque discipline to aim nowhere near them.

Kevin Prendergast was the well deserved winner, and now holder elect of the iconic Claret Jug, not only with an impresssive net 62, but also the lowest gross. Very well done. (It could have been very different though…with a thinned wedge on 18, but the ball happily managed to stop short of the pond.)
In second place was James Deissler, who looking at the other scores would be forgiven for being fairly confident of victory. James in the end fell just one short.
The final spot for the top 3 went to Julian James, with an equally excellent net 64.