Winter Tour

It was agreed that we should aim for tour dates of Thursday, 2 December to Saturday, 4 December.

Venue: Manor House Hotel and Ashbury Golf Hotel www.manorhousehotel.co.uk

Format: There are multiple sports and numerous golf courses. Initial thinking is that there will be two rounds for the Masters trophy as well as plenty of other side competitions, leading to an overall Sporting Superstar. Check out the manor House website to see the range of activities you will be competing in. David is already preparing for the jewellery event.

Prizes: Everyone attending (or not) is expected to bring a trophy with a value of no more than £5.00. Trophies can then be allocated to events as fit.

Mike will be making a preliminarybooking of five rooms, I think. Ideally we would like six competitors to ensure team sports can also be considered.

New Name

New tournament, new name on the trophy. Martyn beat off all and sundry to win a masterful Masters yesterday. There was some discussion after the event as to whether this was the least keenly contested Masters, based on a winning score of 35 points, but I can now reveal that last September Kevin won it with just 32 points. So, credit where it is due, Martyn is a worthy winner. It is also worth mentioning that this was the first event off the white tees, the competition tees, no less. Therefore a new standard has been set.

The story of the day is pretty uneventful. There were five competing for the trophy this quarter. Richard T and Harry hold the lowest handicaps ion the society and both were notable absentees. Malcolm was up in the air so could not defend his title, and Richrd M is now working!!

Heading off from the tenth, the first nine produced little excitement, especially in the first group of Mike and Kevin. Their combined stableford point score for this half was 23. Meanwhile the three ball of Charlie, David and Martyn produced a more compelling 14, 15 and 16 points respectively. The second half resulted in a combined 26 points for the leading pair, while Charlie, David and martyn carded 18, 15 and 19 apiece.

So final scores: Martyn 35 points, Charlie 32, David 30, Kevin 28 and Mike 21.

Congratulations to Martyn - we look forward to seeing whether the etching of Burnham & Berrow can compare the standards set in Tiverton.

As a postscript, it should be mentioned that Martyn was the pre-tournament favourite given that he had emailed me to complain his handicap was too high!

Masters Reminder

Just to remind everyone, next Friday is the date set for our quarterly Masters competition. Ahead of that, I have updated the handicaps and they now stand as follows. I know some will play a round or two next week before the big event, so there may be some late changes.

Charlie 15.7 (16)
David 22.7 (23)
Harry 12.2 (12)
Kevin 13.6 (14)
Martin 14.7 (15)
Malcolm 13.9 (14)
Mike 13.7 (14)
Richard M 18.5 (19)
Richard T 12.6 (13)

And if you are playing, don't forget to bring all appropriate clothing and trophies.