Match report

2006 Spring meeting

Date - 19th May 2006
Venue – Frinton Golf Club
Attendance – 43
Weather – Fine weather with exceptionally strong winds

The spring meeting this year was held on the Friday 19th May at a very windy Frinton Golf Club. 43 players were competing: 42 were members of the society with 1 guest (Baard’s brother) who had stepped in at the last minute to ensure there was an even number of players – a plan which had worked well until another last minute drop out ensured that there were still an odd number of players.

Frinton was a real challenge as the scoring on the day shows. I spent some time talking to Peter Taggert who is the professional at Frinton and he said that the course needs a bit of wind to make it difficult but that the wind we had on the day was as strong as he could remember making the course extremely difficult. The greens were running true if a little on the slow side and the rough in places was very long, which meant that a drive that wavered off line a fraction, was caught by the wind and ended up in deep rough!

Peter had arranged for us to start on both the 1st and the 4th tees which allowed a reasonable start to the day but the wind made the pace of play slower than usual which meant that the pairings for the afternoon singles had to be initially put back and then eventually abandoned with players making up their own groups for the afternoon. The lunch of ham, egg and chips was well excellent and just what was needed to prepare us for more wind in the afternoon. Despite the difficulties caused by having to rearrange the afternoon pairings all the golf was finished in plenty of time for the evening meal and presentations.

In the evening we were served an excellent meal of mushroom soup, roast beef and trimmings followed by citron tart which went down very well. This was followed by the presentation of prizes for all the winners of the day. The winners of last year's knockout competitions were also announced and trophies handed out to the winners.

The scoring on the day was very close in most of the competitions with all of the competitions needing countback to decide winners and placings. The 4BBB competition saw a very close result with Mark Warren and Gabs Martins just beating Jon Hopkins and Graham Walker on countback with 36 points. The prize for the winners was a round of golf on the BT corporate membership at Wentworth, a prize that I am hoping to be able to get for future events as well. The singles low handicap competition was won by Baard Grindberg with 34 points, helped by 2 birdies and an eagle in his round! Lowest gross was won by Andrew Wright with 83 which was an excellent result given the tough conditions. Andrew also won longest drive with a straight drive on the wind assisted 10th. Ivan Catling won the high handicap singles competition with 36 points, an excellent result when you consider the best 4BBB was only 36 points. Clifford Merlo won the closest to the pin competition on what was a very tough hole given the wind conditions – 144 yards straight into the wind meaning that it was playing 3 or 4 clubs longer than normal. Simon Mahoney was nearest the pin in two with an excellent approach which I watched all the way as I played with him.

The complete winners list is available at the end of this report.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and hope that the confusion at lunchtime did not disrupt your enjoyment of the day. I had a lot of positive feedback from everyone about the day, the course and especially the food which is very pleasing. Given the windy weather I was extremely glad that the rain managed to stay away and that the waterproofs were only needed to keep out the wind! Thanks again to everyone for taking part, thanks to Simon Mahoney and Steve Boswell for their help with collating all the scores at the end of the day. Thanks also to Golf Galore for a good discount on prizes and to the BT Corporate Sponsorship team for letting me take advantage of the corporate membership at Wentworth.

I am now looking forward to a good golf summer with many society events to come, and I hope to see you all participating in different society events throughout the summer. The autumn meeting will be at Royal Norwich on Monday 18th September - I look forward to seeing you there.

Stuart Wyse
BTRGS Captain

Position	Players	Points
	4BBB
1st	Gabs Martins / Mark Warren	36
2nd	Graham Walker / Jon Hopkins	36
3rd	Chris Burrows / Martin Beasley	35
	Singles - Low handicap
1st	Baard Grindberg	34
2nd	Mark Warren	32
3rd	Graham Walker	32
	Singles - High handicap
1st	Ivan Catling	36
2nd	Steve Boswell	35
3rd	Roger Mayhew	35
Lowest gross	Andrew Wright	83
Longest drive	Andrew Wright
Nearest the pin	Clifford Merlo
Nearest the pin in 2	Simon Mahoney
Mystery high	Peter Noble	15
Mystery low	Conrad Simons	4
	2005 Knockouts
PORGS Match Play Championship Cup (singles)	George Courtney
BTRGS Pairs Knockout Cup (doubles)	Andrew Wright / Rob Glassford