Club Championships - Day Two

What a glorious day for the conclusion to this year's championships. Plenty of sunshine and a gentle breeze meant that some very good scores could be made and we were not disappointed.

Ladies
Again, the ladies were out first. With her commanding lead from day one, it was always going to be an uphill battle for anyone to catch Lizzie Swallow, and so it proved as she carded a 78 for a total of 150 to be the ladies champion for the third consecutive year. Runner-up was Fay Unsworth who just pipped Kim Richardson on countback after both scored 170. Sam Whiting was fourth just two shots further back.
Full result - click here.

In the Net category, Maria Tillett returned another solid round to just beat Lizzie Swallow on countback after both scored 142. Kim Richardson was 3rd on 144 followed by Sam Whiting (146).
Full result - click here.


Men
The men's event was one of the closest in many years with up to 15 players in contention and a play-off looked a likely scenario right up to the last hole. In the end, Joe Bell came from 3 behind on day one to shoot a best of the day gross 70 and take the title on 146. Just one shot further back were George Stockley and Max Nicholls, with George just taking the runner-up spot on countback. Another two shots behind were Aaron Stockley and Andy Steadman both on 149.
Full result - click here.


In the handicap divisions, there were some fantastic scores to capture the net prizes.
Div 1 was very close but the eventual winner was Max Nicholls with two solid rounds of 67 & 68 for a total of 135. Runner-up was Jim Green who just edged out Carl McCartney on countback after both scored 136. One shot further back, fourth place was again decided on countback with John Day just ahead of Aaron Stockley and Andy Steadman.
Div 1 full result - click here.


More great scores in Div 2 saw John McCartney the clear winner after returning scores of 62 and 63 for a total of 125. Runner-up was Matt Baillie who also scored 63 today for a total of 132. Third place went to Danny Glover (133) and fourth was Mark Richardson (138) who couldn't quite match his day one form of 64.
Div 2 full result - click here.


Finally in Div 3, we saw the best net score of the day (61) from Dan Green to elevate him to the top with a total of 130. Runner-up was Andrew Moore (132) after two consistent rounds of 67 and 65. Third place was grabbed by Tony Ilsley on 137.
Div 3 full result - click here.


As you can imagine, an event like this takes a tremendous amount of organisation and hard work from a lot of people to make it the success that it was this year, so I think some thank-you's are in order.
Firstly to Richard Holmes and all the green staff for presenting the course in excellent condition for both days of the championships. Next to Fiona and the staff in the clubhouse for providing food and drink for all of us throughout both days and also for the drinks buggy that was out on the course today. Also thank-you to the Wessex committee for generously presenting clubhouse vouchers to all of today's winners. A special thank-you to John Taylor who volunteered to do all the starting for both days and some course marshalling as well. Also thanks to Judy Willson, Dan Seymour and Andrew Buchanan for their help processing all the scorecards. Finally, thanks to all the competitors this year - our largest field ever for the championships and everyone turned up on time for both days - excellent.

Club Championships - Day One

The warmer weather arrived, albeit a bit later in the day than was forecast. A record field this year of 78 players (11 ladies and 67 men) completed their first rounds today in the Men's and Ladies Club Championships. Our thanks must go to the green staff for preparing the course in excellent condition for the Championships. Even though the morning conditions were not ideal, there were many good round-one performances to ensure an exciting conclusion on day two tomorrow.

The ladies were first out on the course, and Lizzie Swallow leads the way with a superb gross 72. Lizzie will be difficult to catch, but I'm sure the chasing pack of Kim Richardson, Maria Tillett, Sam Whiting and Fay Unsworth will be trying their hardest.
Round 1 gross results
The net scores are also led by Lizzie, but as you cannot win both gross and nett prizes, there is still plenty to play for here. Maria Tillett(net 69) is leading the charge followed by Kim Richardson(net 70) and Sam Whiting(net 73).
Round 1 net results

The Men's competition is extremely close this year with a lot of players in contention. After round one there are 15 players within 5 shots of the lead. This is held by Max Nicholls and Ian Martinez who both scored gross 73. Lloyd Childs and Carl McCartney are within one shot followed by Conor Dick just 2 shots adrift.
Round 1 gross results
In division 1 of the net category, Carl McCartney leads the way with a 66. One shot behind is Max Nicholls(net 67) followed by Will Green and Ian Martinez both on net 69.
Round 1 Div 1 net results
Two great scores in division 2 sees John McCartney(net 62) and Mark Richardson(net 64) leading the way. Their closest rivals are Danny Glover(net 68) and Matt Baillie(net 69) after their good performances.
Round 1 Div 2 net results
More excellent scores in division 3 with Andrew Moore and Tony Ilsley ahead at the half-way stage on net 67. Dan Green is not far behind after scoring a net 69.
Round 1 Div 3 net results

Special thanks to John Taylor for doing the starting today and some course marshalling and to Judy Willson for processing the scorecards.

Thursday Evening League - Week 6

Conditions weren't ideal last evening with a strong breeze blowing, but still the good scores keep on coming !! There were seven scores of 20 points or more. Lloyd Childs(Allsorts) and Maria Tillett(Fore Pears) scored 21 points each, but the individual winner on the night was Matt Baillie(Birdies & Bogeymen) with 23 points. The team winners on the night were Allsorts who just edged out Birdies & Bogeymen on the fourth score with Easily Second in third place. This gives Easily Second a 15 point lead in the league over Birdies & Bogeymen with Captains Eleven 2 points further back.
Full details - click here.

Monty's Golf Challenge

Some of you may remember that last year one of our Senior golfers Monty Norman played a "Longest Day Golf Challenge". For this he completed four rounds of golf in one day all in the name of charity. It took Monty over 15 hours, but he successfully completed the challenge and, mostly due to your generosity, raised £900 for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity. Can you remember how you feel after playing in the 36-hole Stableford? Imagine going out straight afterwards and doing another 36-holes again - no buggy or electric trolley, just walking and playing 72 holes.
This year Monty is on the same quest. He will complete another four rounds of golf in one single day on Monday 27th June. He will be accompanied and supported along the way by Steven Vale, Lesley Cratchley, Judy Willson and Chris Moore who will each play one round with him.
This is a very difficult challenge and a worthwhile cause and Monty is again asking for your support to help him meet his target of £900.
If you want to support Monty and donate to this worthy cause, please visit his donation web page at http://original.justgiving.com/montynorman2
Thanks in advance for your help.

Edward Pearce Trophy

A very good field of thirty-nine Seniors played for the Edward Pearce Trophy today. The early weather was fine, but late morning an absolute deluge arrived at the course and conditions became very testing indeed. There were a number of NR's and a few partial rounds, but most players stuck it out and managed to complete their rounds.

The clear and deserved winner today was Steve Thompson with a fantastic score of 44 points. Runner-up was Paul Tebbutt on 39 points followed by three players on 38 points with John Taylor just holding off Mike Pritchard and Monty Norman on count-back. Best ladies score today was Judy Willson with a very creditable 37 points.
Full Result - click here.

Club Championships

Please note we have had a re-draw of the Club Championship first round tee times. Most people's times will only have changed from the original draw by a few minutes, but please check your start time by clicking here for the draw.

NRGC vs Theale

The first leg of our annual match against Theale was played yesterday , resulting in a four-two victory. Only time will tell if this is a big enough win to take to Theale in July but I'm quietly confident we have the talent to get a result there , even if we will be without the services of a few who played yesterday. The winning pairs were Jim Green and John McCartney, Mark Allen and Mark Richardson, Nigel Huszarick and Ian Folwell and Jon Miller and Dean Butler. Roy and Russell were unlucky to come up against their best player Darren who played under par on the day and Jeremy and Jake went down by the narrowest of margins. As always we much enjoyed the company of our friends from Theale and thank Fiona and Rachel and staff for their efforts on the catering front.
Jon Miller.

June Junior Medal

A decent turn-out of 12 players yesterday for the June Junior Medal played in testing conditions.
A very close result with Danny Glover just beating Will Green on count-back after both carded net 70. One shot behind was Josh Wallin closely followed by Max Nicholls, whose 78 was the lowest gross of the day, and Luke Bannister.
Full result - click here.

In the Junior Masters Trophy, Max Nicholls is still ahead by only 2 points from Danny Glover with Luke Bannister a further 2 points back. Full details - click here.

Bicester Away Day

The hardy golfers decided to go ahead with the planned Captains Away Day to Bicester on Saturday afternoon and were rewarded with sunshine and only one small shower. Jim Purvis had an outstanding 1st nine holes and (nearly did a McIlroy) almost blowing up on the back 9 but held it together just in the last 3 holes winning with 31 stableford points closely followed by Roger Tillett & Jeremy Twaits who had 30. Great afternoon/evening was had by all.
Maria's last away day to Bicester will be on Saturday 16th July, tee times from 3pm. Notice/sheet will be on the board soon.
Maria Tillett

Thursday Evening League - Week 5

Well - the course is certainly getting some water lately. This evening started off with a bit of sunshine, but ended with some quite heavy showers and a few claps of thunder. But, I think all will agree, the course is looking excellent and the greens are the best we have seen them.
After five weeks, the good scores are still being returned. This week's winner of the individual prize went to Luke Bannister(One For The Road) with a superb 25 points, two ahead of Jake Chambers(Easily Second) with 23. Luke's score helped his team to gain maximum points this week ahead of Easily Second with Puurre in third spot. This gives Easily Second a healthy 15 point lead over Captain Eleven (who had a poor week) in the league table with Birdies & Bogeymen and One For The Road not far behind. But with handicaps diminishing every week and still 9 weeks of competition to go, there's plenty of time!!
Full details - click here.

Seniors Club Championships

The second 18 holes of the Senior Club Championships was played today in cooler conditions. Twenty-five men and five ladies completed two rounds of stroke play for the prizes. The course was in excellent condition and the Seniors thank the green staff for their hard work in preparing the course.

In previous years, this has been a mixed gender competition, but from this year there is a separate Senior ladies competition for the Kampala Trophy kindly donated by Judy Willson. The men still play for the Quarry Cup.

Men
In the Men's gross competition, Jim Green managed to hold on to his first round lead to take the title scoring 160. He was pushed all the way by runner-up Raymond Bilton. Third was Malcolm Passey followed by Brain Bailey.


In the Nett category, Mike Pritchard took the honours with a score of 142. Two shots behind were three players, but John Taylor just pipped Bob Evans and Jim Green on count-back.



Men's Gross details - click here.
Men's Nett details - click here.

Ladies
The winner of the inaugural Kampala Trophy was first round leader Sam Whiting with a score of 178. Judy Willson was the runner-up and Linda Vale third.

The nett prize was won by Liz Evans with a score of 149 closely followed by Sam Whiting and Judy Willson third.

Ladies Gross details - click here.
Ladies Nett details - click here.

Nine-Hole Qualifier

The next monthly 9-hole qualifier will take place on Wednesday evening 22nd June.
Anyone can enter especially those members who are unable to play in the usual club qualifiers and members who can only manage 9 holes. This 9 holes competition can help in obtaining the necessary three qualifiers in order to have an ACTIVE HANDICAP for this year and in the year 2012.
There are 3 more competitions this year in June, July and August. Entry is by way of £3 stamp placed on the entry sheet on the notice board and cards for the competition should be collected from the Pro-Shop on the day.

Captain's Day

The annual Captain's Day event was held yesterday in "not very summery" conditions.This is a day dedicated to charity and we managed to raise £662 pounds in total. In memory of Wendy Seymour, £170 will go to the Rarer Cancer Foundation from selling Dan's Pro drive on the 13th hole. The rest of the money will go to Action for Children and was raised from a raffle, balloon surprise, captain's charity parking space and putting & chipping competitions.
In the main competitions, John McCartney won the men's category with Jon Miller in runners-up spot followed by John Butcher. For the ladies, Kim Richardson was triumphant followed by Sandra Chamberlain and Sam Whiting in third spot. Full details - click here.
The Men's longest drive was won by Carl McCartney.
The Ladies longest drive by Fay Unsworth.
Men's nearest the pin by Chris Adlem.
Ladies nearest the pin not awarded as no-one was on the green!
Putting competition went to Chris Adlem.
Chipping competition to Bob Stevenson.
Captain's charity parking space was won by John Baron.

ooooOOOoooo

The rain didn't spoil Captain's Day. Although we all got wet, I didn't hear one member moan, in fact we had a few laughs along the way. Jim Green being robbed at every turn, Bob Stevenson weighing up the chipping green, taking several practice swings then promptly rolling his ball into the hole, Chris Adlem rolling or was it whacking a 30 foot putt into the hole to win the putting competition and Jon Miller having drips on his drips!

All in the name of charity and friendship, Maria & I would like to thank each and everyone of you for the support and friendship shown during our time as Captains, it rained all day but it didn't stop us.

We would like to thank everyone who helped us along the way, including the bar staff, club shop, green keepers, committee & Andrew Buchanan for his help with the score cards.

A special thanks to Maria from myself for all the hard work done behind the scenes.
John Graham.

Lost ...

During her round today in the Senior Club Championships, Judy Willson lost a gold earring. It's a bit of a long shot but, if anyone found it or subsequently finds it could you please contact her.
Many thanks.

Seniors Club Championships

The first round of the 36-hole Senior Club Championships were played today. Although the temperature was warm, there were some strong breezes and squally showers which added to the difficulty. In previous years, this has been a mixed gender competition, but from this year there are separate Senior Men and Ladies competitions.

Men's Gross
In this category, 2009 winner Jim Green leads the way with a gross 77. He is followed by 3-time winner Ray Tillen and John Day who both carded 82.
Full details - click here.

Men's Net
Jim Green also leads the way in the net category on count-back from Ray Tillen both on net 69. Andrew Buchanan, John Day and Bob Evans are three shots back all on net 72.
Full details - click here.

Ladies Gross
Sam Whiting leads the way in the ladies gross after scoring 87 followed by Judy Willson on 91 and Linda Vale on 98.
Full Details - click here.

Ladies Nett
The same three ladies are top of the net leader board, but this time it's Judy Willson leading the way with net 73 from Sam Whiting on 74 closely followed by Linda Vale on 76.
Full Details - click here.

Still all to play for in all categories. Round 2 will be played next Wed 15th June.

June Medal

Much cooler conditions for today's medal with a bit of a breeze blowing, but there were still some very good scores from all divisions. Thirty men and six ladies competed for the June medals.

Division 1
The top division was dominated by an in-form Lloyd Childs with a net 68. His gross 72 was also the lowest of the day. The next three players all carded net 71. Jim Purvis just nabbed the runners-up spot from Andy Steadman and Gordon Souter on count-back.
Full result - click here.

Division 2
More excellent scoring in division 2 and another fine round from the improving Chris Richardson saw him grab the honours with a net 66 and the lowest gross in this division of 79. Chris is now promoted to division 1. Two shots back was runner-up Tim McAuley who is also promoted to the top flight. Third was Ian Turner on net 69 who just beat Geoff Denner on count-back.
Full result - click here.

Division 3
It was a long wait but worth it for Bob Stevenson whose last medal victory was in March 2000. Bob carded a net 65 (lowest gross of 85 in this division) and now moves up to division 2. Nick Turner's net 68 was good enough to claim the runners-up spot from John Swallow who scored net 70.
Full result - click here.

Ladies
Yet more good scores for the ladies as well. Sarah Purvis claimed her second medal of the year with an excellent net 65. Runner-up was Fay Unsworth who equalled her best stroke-play round score of gross 79 (net 67) the best ladies gross of the day. Third place went to Sam Whiting on net 71.
Full result - click here.

Two's
Plenty of two's today ... all from the men!! The sharp-shooters were Andy Stockley (11th), Andy Steadman (14th), Paul Seymour (2nd), John Butcher (2nd), Russell Bowers (2nd & 14th) and Nick Turner (14th).

Pace of play
Again thanks to the players who put their finish times on the scorecards, please get into the habit of doing this as it helps us to identify the round times and where we can perhaps do our bit as a committee to try and improve things. But the bottom line is that it is the players responsibility to get round the course without delay and within our guidelines.
The average round time for this month's medal was 3hr 50m - slightly outside our target of 3h 45m. But for one of the early groups taking just over 4 hours, I think we would have easily met our target. It is obviously particularly important for the early groups to make good progress on the course, otherwise this has a knock-on effect. Please be aware of this especially when you are out in the first few groups. Thanks for your continued co-operation and support.

Thursday Evening League - Week 4

Totally different conditions this week ... 24 degrees and a light breeze left the course nearly defenceless which reflected in the scoring. Twenty four players scored 18 points or more and there were fourteen scores of twenty or more points. Consequently the team scores were much higher this week accompanied by many handicap cuts!!!

This weeks winners were Easily Second followed by Birdies & Bogeymen with One For The Road in third spot. Three people scored 22 points (George Baker, Shey Walder and Shaun Irlam), but the individual winner was Ian Folwell with an impressive 25 points. In the league, Easily Second now lead the way by six points from Captain's Eleven followed by Birdies & Bogeymen a further eight points behind.
Full details - click here.

Please note - there is no league next week due to racing, so next league night is 16th June.

May Junior Medal

The posponed May Junior medal was played today in ideal conditions and the juniors took full advantage carding some great scores.
The winner was Luke Bannister with net 63 followed by Danny Glover on net 65. The two in-form scratch team players Lloyd Childs and Max Nicholls both recorded the lowest gross of the day of 72.
Full result - click here.

This result keeps Max at the top of the Masters Trophy table by 3 points from Luke Bannister and Danny Glover a further 2 points back. Latest Junior Masters table - click here.

My thanks to Judy for helping process the cards today.

Chris Moore

Seniors June Medal

Thirty-four men and six ladies competed for the Seniors medals today on a nice sunny day at the racecourse.

In the men's division, Brian Faithfull was the clear winner with a fine net 65. Two shots back was runner-up Monty Norman whilst third place was decided on count-back with Steve Thompson just edging out Rob Seaton after both carded net 69.
Full details - click here.

For the ladies, Liz Evans made it a double after her win last month with net 74. Runner-up was Linda Vale just one shot behind on net 75.
Full Details - click here.

Captain's Day

CAPTAIN'S DAY

SUNDAY 12th JUNE

"HOT PICKS" GOLF

For more details - click here