Brancepeth Friendly

I now understand how Fabio Capello felt.

You take a team of highly trained perfectly functioning athletes to an exotic destination (in our case, Co Durham), and what happens? They fall apart - admittedly with the opponents catching some luck, as when Derek and Tony watched a likely win on the 9th turn into a loss as Brancepeth chipped up and in for a birdie, akin to that goal that wasn’t. The tabloids have still to uncover the inner turmoils that must have been affecting our team – or perhaps the Brancepeth Castle team simply played better? That was certainly the case in my game as we lost 4 and 3; we played well but somehow didn’t seem to win holes. At least Phil Holmes and Shaun McFaul won and Mike Robinson and Derek Stout drew.

Brancepeth Castle is a good trip: the course is excellent with some fascinating holes across a gully, including the 9th and 10th being two almost 200 yard par threes through the remnants of the Castle’s park. The first time I played the course, I managed a 3 and a 4 and have looked on the course with affection ever since (although I’ve never managed to repeat the scores). They’ve now added a half way house (strictly, at the 9th tee): it obviously takes practice to play, eat and drink at the same time.

I was impressed that they have made their treasurer Vice Captain. This prompted me to tell in my thank you speech the only accounting joke I know:
“Why did the auditor cross the road?”
“Because he did it last year.”

You can see why it’s the only accounting joke I’d want to know – although there are in fact others.