Friday 19th July - Rain enforced Scramble
..and the Sidmouth Result
First, from our Captain who was busy once more down in Devon.
We complain about the slopes at Cricket but we are much more Senior-friendly and you need to be very fit to play Sidmouth on a regular basis.
No excuses though they are only one of a few teams that have beaten us at Home this year so their success by the margin of 5 to 1 should not be a surprise.
Big thanks to Mark Cording and Lyndsey Gage who saved us the whitewash and a well done to John Wandless who won the wine for nearest the pin.
Apart from the result who could ask for more?
So Friday arrived and the Forecast was not great.
This was to have a devastating affect on the planned 'Eat your Cake' event celebrating 50 Years since Man Landed on the Moon and Raymond Gudge first played up at Windwhistle , then owned by Sir Leonard Fisher. It was a Traumatic Time for any Member of Windwhistle as it was owned by the Mayor of Chard and astute Businessman Len & his Family. Another contemporary was Des Denning, Club Captain and he was to fall foul of Len when he chastised the local Round Table for un 'Golf-Club' like behavior in the small Clubhouse just above the Pro Shop.The Round Tablers complained to Sir Len who in turn bollocked Des (Club Captain) - saying "You look after the Golf & I'll look after the Clubhouse " - which had the effect of Des saying "Well you can keep them both" - as he resigned and went to Lyme. Ray too was Club Captain and somewhere along the line he too left for a while and played at Chedington. 5 Operations on his back (humping all those beer barrels) - robbed him of golf for nearly 8 long Years...Remember the Club changed hands several times, was under a cloud of uncertainty for many years and suffered several false dawns before being rescued by Steve and Jackie to be transformed into Cricket St Thomas Golf Club.
..So we did meet with some negativity this morning as the Cake was announced , but luckily some of us are happy to celebrate happy times despite the sniping and the cake was produced at 13:00 and avidly devoured by those of us that remained.
It's just unfortunate with the forecast thunder & lightening - the early Birds hung on to about 09:00 before calling it a day..but 3 groups decided to give it a go as it was more low cloud than rain - but with moderate visibility we Bob asked about and gathered that a Scramble would be more sensible to save looking for balls.
As soon as we started off, however, the Mizzle turned to Drizzle and it was not too peasant for a while, but we did have moments of brightness and even a glimpse of sunshine, with the back 9 spent in foggy but thankfully dry conditions.
Somewhere in the Mist we lost the leading group of Frank, David and Steve - with no Card we assumed they called it a day - so that was three more slices of cake to spare.
With 10 Players it was tricky numbers, but as no-one cared too much the Elite Players formed into 2 Threeballs and the rag-tag bunch of stragglers were destined to follow on behind in a 4-ball.
Where is Mike Hone when you need him ?
Frank Martin, David Asquith and Steve Holt - hot favourites but for all we know they are still out there somewhere...
Team 2 was just as Star-Studded with Roger Davis, Bob Barrow and the Winner from Wednesday Dickie Hall.
Luckily we had decided not to bother with drives. Unbeknown to Bob & Roger, Dickie was getting rather worried by the 14th as he had not registered a Drive and he thought he had 5 Drives to get in !
With a Divisor of 6, they were able to keep nearly 17% of their summated handicaps or 8.33 Shots.
The 4-Ball had a bigger deduction and were allowed to retain only 10% of their 104 total, so a meagre 10.4 shots..but how important was that 0.4 against Bob's 0.33 was to prove.....
As expected, despite Roger having to wear some 2md-hand cheap borrowed gloves, they were level Par after 6 holes.
The 4-ball comprising Mick Aldridge, Nobby Hodder, Ted Bryden and John Pearce were 4 Over-Par after 6 .
The worm turned on 7,8 & 9 as the 4-ball had a run of Pars to narrow the gap.
A strong Par on the 4th put Bob ahead even more until a superb iron shot to the heart of the green on 11th by Mick set up the Birdie. Both Teams came back in 35 strokes as the weather was much better and outer layers were shed - but we never really saw Bob & Co in the Mist and we had no idea Frankie had quit.
Nobby did not know how important his Birdy putt on the 18th was to be, as the 3-balls left theirs an inch short.
The Maths was done and amazingly the result was 65.60 against 65.67 which was finally accepted by Farmer Bob who re-checked it 7 times.
Both Teams had 2 Birdies (No Twos) , so the 0.50 part was spilt but Mick, Nobby, Ted & John took home the rest, ending with £2.50 Each.
Back into the Clubhouse for a huge slice of Cake and we are sorry there were not more of you to enjoy it.
Ray had seen some of the messages on the Blog & came up to the Clubhouse, but our paths never crossed and I'm not sure if he ever got a slice of Cake.
