A decidedly chilly day with a nagging northerly for the Bank Holiday Plate – contrasted with unseasonable warmth during the week. Still dry with plenty of run for balls.

Scoring was good with Tom O’Hare the winner 6 up from Joan Mulcahy on a countback; 3rd was Brian McMahon 5 up ( Brian was 6 up on front 9). There followed 3 on 4 up – Lee Frost, Jenny Lawrence and Toby Hunt.
Women scored well – congratulations to Joan, Jenny, Elisabeth Piner and Seema Sandhu for being ‘up’ on the course.

Special mention to Craig Johnstone who scored eagle 2 on the par 4 3rd hole. -see attached ‘Tree’ report.

It was a glorious day for golf with clear blue skies, hardly a breath of wind and temperatures around 26 degrees. Perhaps it was a bit too hot for some which might explain the unusually high number of disqualifications for unsigned or unreturned cards!

Making hay while the sun shone was our winner Chris Jones. Playing off 20, Chris put together a very tidy round scoring 18 points on both 9’s. Chris didn’t card higher than a six throughout his round.
Hot on his heels in second place with 40 points was Pralab Barua (19). Pralab compensated for 2 blobs on his card with 2 birdies. Third place goes to Lee Frost (16) who headed up a posse of players on 38 points. Lee scored 17 points going out and his 21 points on the back 9 secured third place on countback.

A bright sunny day for the Coronation Cup – dry and plenty of run available.

Scoring was good with Alan Treacy on top form with 65 chased by Peter Abbott and Mel Dunn with 66s. Bernie McDermott again a good round of 67 along with Charlie Whiteman, Alison Chadwick returned anther splendid round with68 and the best woman score. Mel, 1peter and Bernie shared front and back 9 honours.

For the men this was first of the Top Dog competitions and points by division are attached. Due to a number being in Turkey, in the junior divsin only points down to 6th place depicted.

We thought Spring had sprung but Mother Nature had other ideas! Today we were playing the first round of the Founders Cup series and the early starters were met with the last knockings of the heavy overnight rain which had fallen throughout the south east. Luckily, it soon began to ease and the later starters only had to deal with a rapidly diminishing drizzle. However, there was a chilly breeze (quite blustery at times) which persisted all day long. That said, the Dukes course held up very well and there was hardly any surface water.

Winner today with an impressive 40 points was Alison Chadwick(27) who scored 18 points on the way out and 22 coming in despite blobbing the 12th hole. Just behind her on 39 points came Henry Lindesey-Bethune(10) and Dave Cato(18) with Henry winning on countback. Henry played a very solid round off the white tees scoring 18 points out and 21 in. Henry also had the second lowest gross of the day with 78; just one more that Naveed Manazir(6) who grossed an impressive 77. Dave scored 19 out and 20 back. He was rightly proud that he didn’t card higher than a six throughout his round. The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted that unusually, all the top 3 scored more points on the supposedly harder back 9 than they did going out.

A bright but chilly start with some wind for the Easter plate ; but it remained dry again.
Scoring was generally good but Justin Wildman was the clear winner with on astounding 41 points; his 21 on back 9 included 5 pars and a birdie. Best woman was Seema Sandhu with an excellent 39 (21 out 18 back). A couple of points behind on 37 were Paul Kamerling, Alex Catlow, Bernie McDermott and Elizabeth Piner. Women scored the only birdies at 10th – Alison Chadwick and Elisabeth – well done!

The Princes course was in good condition but the wind made scoring rather Tough at times. Keeping the ball on the fairway was the order of the day.
Russell Stewart showed us all how to do it with a 4 Up score. His gross score of 80 was helped by parring holes 17 and 18. Alex Braun had a chance to equal Russell but had an 8 on 18 to drop to +3.
Only 5 players beat level rounds.

Women

Fortunately Caroline was incorrect with her forecast of rain at noon.
It was back in September that Sheena last had a good round. She was apparently channelling thoughts of the Masters, which had to suffice as the driving range had a queue at 8.30 & it seemed to work. With a birdie start she followed with 3 pars and finished 4 shots ahead of Joan who has been the regular winner this year.
A few other additions to the birdie tree today after its barren start until about a month ago. An indication of the changing conditions underfoot.

Men

A grey and cooler day than of late for 2nd round of the Grand Medal; fortunately any rain came after play.

Scoring was generally good with an excellent 63 from Tamas Ladacs to take the senior division on the day. Tamas was followed by a 65 from Simon McKnight (lowest gross on the day) and 68s from Raymond Esin and Alan Treacy.

In the junior division Bill Norman and Brian Ransom were the leading lights with 64s followed in turn by Jonno Mclean, Bernie McDermott and Sean O’Sullivan who returned 66s.
Front 9 honours went to Simon [2 over] whilst back 9 to Aidan Hurley [1 over].
In the Grand Medal series comp, Raymond Esin 137 leads Tamas in the senior whilst Gerard Ouattara and Richard Hanna are currently tied 141s.

We enjoyed a lovely spring day with blue skies and warm sunshine. A cool wind blew but not as strong as in recent days. Of the 57 competitors 17 played to par or under.
Brett Colley off 14 had a very steady round of 39 out and 40 back for a winning score of net 65. Which included a birdie 4 on the 12th hole. Three players had net 67’s with David Grace coming 2nd on countback ahead of Kevin Prendergast , Charles Haines and Bernie McDermot in 3rd and 4th and 5th. The best lady was Cheryl Woodhouse with a net 68 in 6th place.

The competition also doubed as last of the 8 midweek winter competition rounds[with at least 1 round from each ciurse] and also the last of the 4 Duke;s Eclectic rounds.

The results show Richard Norden the Winter comp winner on 117 points from Julian James and Brett Colley both 115.

Brett won the Eclectic with 63 from Kim Chaffart64 and 65s from Kevin Prendergast and Bill Norman.

Well done to all.

Women

Captain Cheryl obviously liked the look of the prizes she’d bought for 1st place today and pairing with Alison they came home with 43 points. It was close though with Caroline & Elisabeth just 1 point back on 42 followed by Jayne & Sheena on 41.

A lovely sunny day saw the women tucking into pizza and chips afterwards for their Spring Meeting get together.

Men

Another gloriously sunny day for the final round of the Spring Stableford; after what was the sunniest March for England recorded.

Scoring generally was a bit better than on Duke’s with some good individual performances.
In the senior division Greg Wright had a good 36 with 20 points on more challenging back 9 holding Henry Lindesay Bethune on countback. Raymond Esin followed with 35 which included 2 pickup holes. In the junior division Sajid Khan was the runaway winner with 42 points – setup with 1 pickup and 8 ‘3 pointers’ for 24 points on front 9. Adrian Wells followed with an excellent 38 points [19 out and in]. Third was Tom Simpkins with 35 and (Well done Tom!) an eagle on3rd hole.

James Burr’s great score of 39 wins the senior division for the aggregate 71. 2nd was Adrian Wells with 70; 3 chased for next position all with 68 – Michael Hayden, Iker Lanzagorta and Mel Dunn.
The junior aggregate was again won with 70 – by Gerard Ouattara from Lee Frost 65 and Nigel Ward 64.