The first 2 named storms of the year resulted in both courses being closed due to saturated greens.

Fingers crossed that this isn’t the start of many closures this winter.

The forecast wasn’t great and a large number had withdrawn. As is often the case the earlybirds had the best of the day, getting wet on the last couple of holes only with good scores recorded by Mel (39) and Brett (37). A somewhat different experience for the rest of the field with many deciding to keep dry & just go home. A few ventured out and got soaked as their reward and the competition was abandoned as the course started flooding and then there were the four stalwarts who battled the gale force gusts and horizontal rain – all in vain!

After so many months of hard dry conditions, the sudden change whilst expected still takes some getting used to!

Heavy fog in the Park lead to an interesting start today, with Manny doing sterling work half-way down the first to assist with ball-spotting and to relay back when it was safe for the next group to play. The very early starters must have played a good half, or more of their game with next to no visibility whereas the tailenders probably had very little in the fog. For some it looks like having no view of the hole helped and certainly there was some good scoring.

As seems to often be the case, the clubhouse leader gets pipped for the win at the end and in Division 1 Maher went home in the hope that with most scores in, he would keep hold of his very slender 1 shot lead over Toby. It was not to be with Bill Norman playing more consistently across the 2 rounds (36 & 37 today) to give him 73 points and take 1st place from Maher whose stellar performance last week was not matched today (40 & 30). Toby finished with 69 points and Paul Kamerling & Nick 3 further back on 66.

In Division 2, the first round leader (Niamh) was playing a match, but following her were, Kelly, Tony and Paul Fulham all on 36. The result at the end of the day was an 8 point margin for Kelly who recorded the highest one of the day (& her best since joining us) with 43 to take the Division 2 win with 79. Again Tony was leader in the clubhouse for a good while and with his chauffeur (Nigel) 2 behind him alongside PaulF he was no doubt also hoping to end the day at the top, but his total of 71 was some way off.
Kelly can be sure of a handicap cut tomorrow.

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.