So we gathered at Stoke Rochford at the first event since the sad news of Bernard’s passing. 18 took part as we continue his ‘Follies’ legacy with I’m sure the same objectives as have applied since 1977 – friendly competition without taking golf too seriously.

The course was in great shape with its spectacular setting and views of Stoke Rochford Hall, we are here just before their centenary celebrations on a lovely sunny day, starting in the traditional way with a bacon roll and a coffee. A warm welcome to the latest Follies recruit, Yim Kong.

Richard Chang triumphed here last year with 37 points but none of us could live with the pace set by Paul Flanders who followed up his winning 38 points at Ramsey with a magnificent 40 points off his 15.6 handicap. In fact Paul’s only weakness appears to be the first hole as he has failed to score on either of them so far! His round included a birdie but Colin Keal managed three of them! Highest points on an individual hole though went to Trevor with his birdie on the 17th which netted him a cool 5 points.

Second place on the day went on countback to Dave Ballard with 35 points (20 after the turn) matched by Kevin Hingle on 35 but 18 after the turn. It was a joy to witness Kevin accumulate 16 points on the final 6 holes and we wish him well when he represents England in Australia in August.

Give a man a marker post :

Nearest the Pin bottle prize went to Colin Keal with one of the closest I’ve seen in a long while, naturally he holed the putt.

As usual there are some antics on the course to report, let’s start by going back to Paul again. Not only did he accumulate 40 points but he was saved twice! Firstly a passing greenkeeper stepped in to halt Paul’s runaway trolley and then the kind lady at the halfway house carried out running repairs to his detached shoe sole with Sellotape! At mention of the halfway house of course I have to praise the cakes. Now some Society’s fill up the next tee box bin with empty cans…………with the Follies it was full of paper napkins and cake crumbs! I can tell you that the delicious selection of home baked cakes was definitely the highlight of your scribe’s round.

Take note everyone that the bunker flunker award requires everyone to keep taking bunker shots until the ball emerges, no pick- ups allowed. Currently Kevin’s four is the most taken so far but it is still early in the season. Thankfully there is no wooden spoon ‘award’ for putting because having reached the eighth green in 3 but walking off with a 7, I would be in contention!

The longest story of the day belongs to Richard and Jim’s painful description of how they came to play each other’s ball. Neither were contenders for prizes on the day so it is left to the disciplinary panel to decide at a later date on any action to be taken. Golf can be a dangerous game, especially after a shout of “Fore Right” but thankfully Jon’s ball just gently trickled between the shoes of those waiting on the next tee. There are some steep slopes on this course but quite what John Dexter was up to I’m not sure. He reportedly over balanced and fell but thankfully no damage done other than to pride.

An old adage came to mind early in our round – Jon’s tee shot to the par three third was shall we say not the prettiest we’d ever seen but it finished up on the green. So we were reminded that it is not how but how many!

Finally I will leave you with something I did not realise until told recently – when it comes to stroke index they are split over the two nines with all evens followed by all odd numbers or vice versa. Possibly quite interesting but I can hear some of you saying quite useless!

Next outing is at Elton Furze on Friday 28 June where as well as the normal Stableford competition, we will be competing for the President’s Cup – a medal competition with the current champion Martin Zebedee hoping no doubt to triumph again.

RIP Bernie – Fritz Follies founder and champion in 1989.

Report by Graham Tooke.

PS There’s a number of new photos added under the Photos tab.