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Texas Scramble result from Elton Furze in November:

1st 61.40 Gabe Stokes, Andy McHattie, Paul Flanders & David West

2nd 64.3 Jon Kelly, Brian Bates, Jim Daley & Les Wells

3rd 64.5 Colin Humphreys, Trevor Chapman Martin Zebedee & Colin Keal

4th 67 Andy Izod, Dave Ballard, John Dexter & Alan Wensak

5th 67.2 Steve Walker, Roy Fletcher, Geoff Delany & Sean Melia

Nearest The Pin

2nd Hole Colin Keal

5th Hole Andy Izod

15th Hole John Dexter

12th Hole David West

Jim Daley put up a bottle of Port for starting and finishing with the same ball and “not in your pocket.”

3 managed it – Les Wells, Geoff Delany and Andy Izod with Geoff winning after a draw

The Shirtie 2023 was won by Chris Munro

See you all in March for the first outing and a date for your diary:

Friday 8th November 2024 – Fritz Follies Golf Society Annual Supper and Prize Giving 2024

Our Chairman and Secretary Les Wells hands the Fritz Follies Champion Golfer trophy to Colin Humphries. A splendid total of 116 saw Colin clear of Darren Pears, Graham Tooke and Martin Zebedee who all finished with 113.

A great end-of-season Supper was held with 22 in attendance:

Texas Scramble and other results will follow in due course.

“When in China do as the Chinese do”– so Chris did!

He went and walked along The Great Wall.

First photo is early in the walk, and he eventually reached the final accessible tower which is over the horizon top left in the second picture .

And he’s got the medal to prove it!

The Chinese characters are a famous quote from Chairman Mao which translates roughly as “To become a True Man first you must climb The Great Wall”.

Now has he done enough to win The Shirtie to complete the collection?

In Tydd St Giles, on this autumn day,
We set out on our golfing play,
Though skies were gray and weather foul,
We ventured forth with hearty howl.

Last Friday’s plan was put to rest,
As storms threatened our golfing quest,
Today we took a different road,
To Tydd’s greens, where stories unfold.

With Google Maps as our trusted guide,
We traversed roads where troubles hide,
Down farmer’s paths, through muddy lanes,
We braved the elements, wind and rains.

Reception’s maze, a puzzling tale,
In search of where the Spike Bar hails,
Double doors or singles, we wondered,
Lost in instructions, our minds asunder.

But fear not, for sustenance we found,
A bacon burger, coffee abound,
A morning tee-off, ‘neath the rain,
Les’s plea, “Keep scorecards dry,” our bane.

Soaked through the first hour and more,
Our spirits dampened, but not our core,
Then, the sun broke through the clouds,
As Tydd’s golf course sang aloud.

Dave, from one-forty yards away,
Chipped in for a birdie in splendid display,
Five points earned, a remarkable feat,
A tale to tell, our hearts did beat.

And Sean, with prowess, on the back nine,
Five pars, a score quite divine,
22 points on the return,
A score of which I can only yearn.

On the 18th, in a fateful bind,
Geoff, in the nick of time, Sean’s ball did find,
Two minutes and fifty-nine seconds past,
Two points for Sean, a moment to last.

In the bar, Roy’s miles did amass,
“7.5 miles,” his phone did compass,
Brian quipped, “You missed the fairway wide,”
Roy replied, “Their lost balls, I did find.”

Les and David, Roy they did misplace,
Lost between greens, in that vast space,
Signposts vague, our group’s plight unseen,
Searching for the 14th tee, a tricky scene.

But the day concluded with great delight,
Sausages and mash, a culinary flight,
Raspberry and Vanilla Roulade crowned,
A feast of flavours, our taste buds astound.

Nearest the Pin, David West achieved,
His golfing skill, we all believed,
Now, for the grand finale we await,
Results, scores, secrets of our fate.

The Follies Champion Golfer’s reign,
Will remain unknown, a golfing campaign,
Till the Supper on November’s eve,
We’ll celebrate, and stories weave.

_{With a little help from ChatGPT}

Well it’s another Follies adventure into the countryside(ish) and we find ourselves at Spalding Golf club. Yet again the weather God Les has arranged for a sunny day, but unfortunately he forgot to tell the wind to go home.

Apparently, Legal aid was sought by Kevin Hingle from Geoff Delany at the start – something to do with getting more shots I am led to believe. Kevin’s request was denied by Geoff as the fee offered did not meet the requirement for the amount of work that it would require!!

A good start was not made by Trevor when on the second hole his tee shot went 90 degrees into the river. He did recover with a tee shot to the middle of the fairway and walked off with a six. His group started the round with all three getting the same score (6,6,7) for the first three holes. A similar experience happened with Geoff Delany’s group with (7,7,7).

Jon Kelly’s new £49 chipper/chip putter/whatever it’s called performed very well on its first outing. It chipped in from off the green on one hole, and did its usual job of getting the ball onto the dustbin lid several times early on. Sadly, like its owner, it ran out of gas well before the 18th.

Steve W arrived early and managed 50 balls on the driving range before we started. Dedication to his art, which earned him a 12 on the 8th! Time well spent?

Meanwhile, on the 10th, Gabe used the water in front of the green to skip up onto the green. Geoff Delany chipped in from 50 yards plus on the 11th for 4 points, Trevor almost made a birdie on the 13th with his chip but still walked off with 4 points.

Spalding this time seemed to earn a reputation as a dangerous course, with the following list of fortunately mainly near misses – with the exception of Colin H whose ball on the 5th slammed into a tree at about 8 foot high and then proceeded to slam into Roys’ forehead causing a massive bruise and much concern. Fortunately, Roy felt able to continue and Colin thanked him for the header back onto the fairway.

Other incidents included, Martin Z trying to take out Paul Flanders on the 17th, but Paul’s lightning reflexes saved him. Then the course tried an attempt at revenge as the last group walked off the 18th, a tree fell down between the 1st and the 18th. John Dexter did ask if they followed etiquette and shouted “Fir”.

Les summed it up as a challenging course hence the lower than normal scores. Personally, I would say that it just had too many bleeping trees, and the first cut and some other parts of the course show how good Ramsey has become by comparison. I, for one, doubt if I will return to Spalding.

The final scores on the doors were:-

1st Paul Flanders – 35 pts.

2nd David West – 33 pts.

3rd Paul Bellinger – 30 pts

Nearest the Pin – Roy Fletcher

See you all at Pidley, no sorry correction Tydd St. Giles, on the 20th October.

• Report by Trevor

Jon Kelly in deep thought about his new chipper / putter thing. “At the start of the round I thought this new putter had been a great purchase, now I am not so sure.”

Even John D had to scratch his head for a while wondering how to play this on the 16th.

On what felt like the hottest day of the year 19 players turned up at Woolfox, 18 of whom had the sole agenda to catch Paul Flanders at the top of the leaderboard, and by the end of the day many participants will have left very happy with what they had achieved.

After welcoming newcomer Andy Izod and scoffing down a tasty bacon roll with a cup of coffee, players headed out into the afternoon heat, a number then opting to put up their umbrellas to create some shade from the early afternoon sun.

A nervy start on the first saw only 7 players manage to hit the fairway, and a special mention goes out to Roy who managed to hit his drive straight into a 20 square foot fenced off enclosure to the right – surely that warrants an end of season award!

Thereafter players started to relax and put in some sterling performances despite the fact that the tram lines on the greens sometimes appeared to be wider than the grass that was left; Paul Bellinger chipped in on the 6th for 5 points that ultimately led to a Woolfox victory, although John Dexter will be kicking himself until the end of the season for taking 8 on the 18th as he was only 1 point behind Paul once the final scores were counted up.

By no means Trevor’s best performance of the season, but he hit a lovely drive to win the nearest the pin prize, although he did not quite match the hole in one that Les had achieved earlier in the week at Elton Furze – congratulations to both Les and Trevor.

After a long and hot afternoon it was back to the clubhouse, well actually the driving range, for a well deserved cold drink. The scores were calculated and the presentation ceremony commenced. For the first time in the last 10 years 6 players achieved 40 points or more, one of whom was Andy Izod with a very creditable 41 points (I assume Les has already worked out how much Andy’s handicap will be cut for the next outing!)

Paul Bellinger came first with an excellent 43 points.

Colin H opened up a 3 point lead at the top of the leaderboard with 42 points, just nicking 2nd place from John D on the count back system.

The next meeting is scheduled for the Friday 6th October at Spalding, so get practising as Colin H won this event last season with 38 points and is now odds on favourite to regain the Follies trophy, particularly as his current score of 116 hasn’t been matched since 2014 when Colin H last won the trophy.

Darren Pears (Match Reporter)

All 16 participants arrived in good time for coffee and a bacon roll despite traffic congestion on the A1 following a nasty accident near Wittering.

Unfortunately, our Chairman, Les Wells was unable to partake due to a wrist injury. There was some speculation as to how he incurred such an injury but playing too much golf was thought to be the likely cause. Brian Bates was therefore in charge and distributed the score cards in his customary efficient and courteous manner.

Les had made it known that Stoke Rochford is one of his favourite courses. The course is very challenging particularly for those who even have the benefit of a high handicap allowance. Many of the tee shots demanded length as well as accuracy otherwise a severe penalty awaited a poor shot.

In my capacity as the Match Reporter, I requested a player in each of the 4 groups to let me know of any incidents which would merit reference in this report. However, only one incident was brought to my attention which satisfied such a test.

My thanks to Jim Daley for sharing the following incident with me. He explained that he had driven his ball on the 16th par 5 straight onto the green! However, the green on which his ball came to rest was that of a nearby Par 3 which was almost at right angles to his tee box. Fortunately, his ball missed the players on that green and who had no connection with our Society. One of the potential victims of being hit by Jim’s ball approached him in what at first appeared to be a hostile manner. However, it transpired that he simply wanted to hand Jim a signed card which he had found on the course.

He correctly suspected the card belonged to one of our Members and knew he could “bank” on it being safely returned to its owner. It could be said that this gesture was much to the “credit” of the finder of the card.

The lost card was in fact a Bank Debit Card in the name our Roy Fletcher who was playing in the last Group. The Bank Card was duly handed back to Roy in the Clubhouse but with Members first thanking him for their drinks which possibly may have been financed by the use of his card. No doubt Roy will check his Bank statement!

The star performer in the last Group was Graham Tooke. His driving was a joy to witness. He capped his display by winning the nearest the pin competition. Graham will be particularly chuffed that his excellent performance has been reported because his brother, who lives in New Zealand, apparently reads our match reports. No doubt Graham’s brother will spot that Graham has closed the gap on the leaders in the race for the Follies Trophy. It looks as if we are again in for an exciting end to the season!

The highest stableford score was achieved by Richard Cheng with an excellent score of 37 points. Richard had also put himself in the position of being the likely winner of the nearest the pin award until Graham produced the winning shot.

In second place was John Dexter with a score of 35 points. He achieved this commendable score without the help of trees unlike when he played at Ramsey Golf Club when hitting trees often resulted in keeping his ball in play.

Third place went to Martin Zebedee who continues having a successful season. Both Martin and Graham scored 33 points but Graham would have won the golf ball on count back had he not opted for the large bottle of Port being the prize for nearest the pin. As we know, it is our custom that Members should not receive two prizes in the same competition. Thus, Graham had made a snap and unselfish decision to ensure that he would not deprive Martin of a brand new golf ball.

Our next meeting is scheduled for the 8th September (Venue to be confirmed). Fingers crossed that the weather will prove to be as perfect as we had at Stoke Rochford.

Geoff Delany (Match Reporter)

The last Group comprising Roy, Colin, Graham and the Match Reporter

16 members had a very pleasant competition at Ramsey. Les had again arranged for a sunny afternoon. How does he do it?
The greens were in reasonable condition, but play was held up on a few occasions by dog walkers and a family outing using the footpaths that crossed the fairways.
There were a few notable incidents.
Ramsey annual bar maid quote: When told we were upstairs, Geoff Delany pointed out the Gents sign on the door leading to the stairs and said to the Bar Maid “no women allowed upstairs” to which he had the quick response “would you like some ladies upstairs”
Trevor Chapman kept saying that he hated the course as he played into the trees on up to 20 or so occasions but not many of his balls bounced back onto the course, many going out of bounds but he still managed to score 27 points.
John Dexter was competing with Trevor for tree strikes but most of his came back onto the fairway. He even managed to hit a telegraph pole and claimed a free drop.
Darren Pears made a birdie on the 16th giving him 5 points.
Richard Cheng also made a birdie on th 18th. His tee shot landed in deep grass on a sloping bank and he played a great 2nd shot to within 5 ft of the flag.

Follies Champion matchday 4:

3rd place – Graham Tooke with 38 points
2nd place – Darren Pears with 38 points (on count back)
1st place – Dave Ballard with 40 points.
Nearest the Pin – Kevin Hingle. The only player to find the green even if it was 30 ft from the flag.

Onto the next outing – Thursday 24 August – Stoke Rochford Golf Club

Our thanks to Colin H for the report plus photos of all players!

A Follies team hoovered up another trophy recently: the Graham Phipps Golf Day held at Woolfox GC on the 22^nd June.