Captain's Day

I had a vision of a calm sunny day something along the lines of John Major's warm beer quote*; sitting by the trailer on the 12th looking at the view, reading the Sunday papers till people appeared for a drink, strolling down to the first tee and hitting a gentle 6 iron onto the front of the green. And perhaps on another day in 2011 that may happen.

But not this Captain's Day; people tried to say consolingly that at least it will be remembered - for the worst golfing weather for years, and in fact for a cancelled competition.

I woke to the sound of heavy rain and wind; at 8.oo I looked at the webcam and saw two figures trudging along to the 1st green and put aside thoughts of staying in bed. But when I got to the club to get coffee the sun had come out; the wind was still too strong to make normal play possible, but at least it was dry and people were playing, and we set out the trailer at the 12th tee and waited to entertain the windswept players as they came by. Then the rains came, and fewer came by and those that did started to give up.
At the back of my mind - for the last twelve months or so - had been the drive-in. The first is never easy; John Taylor had described the awful silence as you walked down to the tee to drive; 85 people had tried to guess where my drive would go. The first thing was to agree with Keith Whitfield (by the way, I'm very glad and grateful he's vice captain) that the competition would be postponed and to give prizes to the three people (Lance Cope, Ron Bewley and Phil Taylor) who'd actually finished. Then it was time.

The picture of the audience huddled in warm clothing tell the story: although temporarily dry it was very windy. I have no memory of what happened next, except that the drive worked: it went further and straighter than I think anyone expected. The really wierd thing is that photos say that it took less than a minute to walk from the crowd to the tee, to set the ball up and to make the drive. It seemed much longer.
The usual afternoon crowd didn't play. Except for John Southern, Phil McDonnell and Phil Holmes. Crazy? Phil M said later that they had tremendous fun and they formed a nucleus of drinkers at the 12th tee in the afternoon. And John Southern managed 26 points, a clear winner of the six people who finished, and deserved his bottle of champagne (opened later in the evening).
The evening party went well thanks to Paul and Karen who put on the buffet, Ken Howe on the keyboard, Neil Forsyth on vocals accompanied for Baker Street by a one off performance by Hazel. And of course the Coxon's ice cream van.
So ended a pretty messy day, but I guess the drive and the party worked.

* I had orginally meant to link to Major's actual quote, but I saw on Google the link to a "Dull Men's Club" site. As well as the Currie/Major joke the site is fascinating: anything which can list the world's airport carousels and the whether they rotate clockwise or anti-clockwise has got to be worth a look.

Getting Ready

I thought I'd prepare for a busy weekend - AGM, Drive-in, hosting at the 12th tee and the evening party - by going to my first ever Workmen's Club event, the annual trip, which was to the Roxburghe.

The alternative was practising my drives.

It was a tough but enjoyable parkland course with great views of the Borders, and a good change from the windy coast. The closest I got to a prize was partnering Bill Mordue and watching him win one of the nearest the pin prizes - a good effort as we were in the first group out. Based on my drives, I'm predicting a 70% chance of not clearing the dinkie on Sunday.

Michael Thompson won, Chris Hall was second and Phil Holmes, who'd arranged the day, third.

Final 2010 NNL match

The final league match of the season against Wooler at home had many similarities with the others:

Peter Sanderson had won almost before I arrived;

It was mostly a glorious evening - the course and surrounding scenery looked wonderful;


We had a large group of supporters (who, however, didn't venture much further than the 9th tee and who seemed to gravitate bar-wards when it got a bit cold);

To be fair, the level of support is one thing that distinguishes Bamburgh from the other league clubs, and most only drifted towards the club as the various games finished. But Alex Mackay, fresh from being second in the Junior Championship the day before, was taken to a nearly dark 18th green before he could win: a nasty patch of gorse stopped an earlier win, but a great birdie on the 17th put him one up on the 18th tee. (The near dark finish was another factor in common with many earlier matches).

This win completed a clean sweep so although the overall result for the year (3rd or 4th, depending on the Dunstanburgh/Rothbury result) was not as good as some earlier years it was a very encouraging finish. There have been a number of new team members this year, especially from the juniors, and this bodes well for the future.

Update: a 6-6 draw between Dunstanburgh and Rothbury means we are third in the league this year. Congratulations to those who played in the team this year, which includes the team manager John Cairns.

The league is sponsored by nearby Kaims Country Park, for which thanks, and appropriately one of their partners Robbie Redpath was one of the new - and successful - team members this year.

Friendly vs Royal Burgess

I woke to the sound of Radio 4’s weatherman saying that while most of the country would have showers, the North East would have torrential rain and high winds would make it feel cold*. Just the weather for our friendly against the Royal Burgess Golfing Society. Fortunately, the torrential rain only affected the last two or three groups, those with our carefully selected backloaded bad weather bankers.

The Royal Burgess match is probably the most prestigious of our fixtures given their status as – probably - the oldest club in Great Britain (and therefore the world): this year’s was particularly special as they were celebrating their 275th anniversary.
Our determination to win was typified by John Southern’s gazelle-like stance for his second on the 8th, and our inability to win by my drive on the 8th failing even to reach the downslope. The results were quite close in the end, however, except that they were four wins to them, two to us and a couple of draws.After fortification on the 12th tee, we had as always an excellent lunch, followed by the wit of Derek Haggerstone, Ken Howe, David McAdam and Dick Little. The jokes – on the subjects of tractors, vanilla ice-cream and pig hunting amongst others - are probably best left to the dining room’s memory, although the Burgess Captain tried to add a touch of class with a joke about social interaction in Edinburgh high rise flats.

Meanwhile, next door, Claire Whitfield’s birthday party was waiting to catch those who needed a gradual de-tox from the day’s activities.

*I went to sleep to the sound of radio 4’s weatherman saying that Boulmer had been the wettest place in the UK that day.

The Sport of Kings

Race Night at the club was a great success: Derek Wymes had pushed for an event like this to get the clubhouse used more, to provide an enjoyable evening for members and friends and to raise money for the club. It worked at all three levels and I hope will be repeated in future years.

Over eighty people came along, the race organisation was seamless and expertly introduced by Neil Forsyth, seeking an alternative career from being a torch singer.

My betting policy was as scientific as the format allowed, and was based on amusing names of horses ("Rehabs for Quitters"; Builders "Crack") or on liking the horses' "owners" (people had been asked to sponsor races and to buy and name a horse for the evening). This was pretty effective, as I picked winners in four of the eight races, and I was the winning owner in the second race. (The only trouble was that I had also bet on lots of others that didn't win).

The evening had an added piquancy as there was a quiz handed out in the second part of the evening. A bit Blue-Peter like, I had invited my regular quiz team along (without realising they'd be needed) so we swung into action. But failed to win by two points - I'm sure we'll have a post mortem later.

So overall, success and failure for all the attendees: but an evening everyone enjoyed.

The real winner of course was racing itself.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

The Junior League team has been doing well this year, and I went to watch their final match against Linden Hall, the leaders. We knew a 6-2 win would make us top of the league (we knew because we had been told so by the league secretary).

All four matches were well supported and close. But we became 4-2 up with one match to play, and better handling of the psychology of the 17th tee meant we were the winners. (I say "we": it's interesting how I felt I had done something successful even though all I had done was follow the players.)
We all celebrated and some of us felt a little sorry for Linden Hall.

But then a call came from the league secretary to say that in fact we had needed an 8-0 win, that we were second and Linden Hall had won. Mick Aldred had to break the news to both teams as they were eating.

On the bright side: at least our team knew what winning felt like. And second is actually a great result. But was a cruel way to learn you were second. Sport can be cruel.

The Agony and The Ecstasy: Michaelangelo's story