With the Fritz Follies Ramsey outing very fresh in the minds, an unexpected trip to Stapleford Park followed a week later to join Graeme Phipps in his annual birthday celebration team competition. This annual get together apparently is related to Graeme recently reaching the same age as the Follies!

With an impressive total turnout of 20, not only had the Follies an opportunity of winning a few golf balls (and a bottle of Les’s Xmas port) the lucky few also had the chance of get their name on a solid silver ‘Open’ like jug, which could be kept for a year…whoopee they cried!

With the confusion of running two competitions with different handicaps, confusion initially reigned in the clubhouse, so it was very apt that a bookkeeper and solicitor were on hand for dealing with the expected confusion and disputes that duly arose later.

With a few of the Follies mixed in with Graeme’s friends, a sunny and warm day greeted the starters, albeit with a very strong wind later being encountered to make this a difficult day on some of the longer holes.

A few tales to tell with the best being Colin Humphries who apparently managed to chip his ball into his own golf bag!  Not sure on the rules for that one, but apparently it was played from the point of rest…..

With a hand picked team that didn’t deliver, birthday boy also came a cropper by going out of bounds three times, thus ruining his chance of glory in both competitions.  Les will not be joining him next year.

A non folly also took the prize for the most bunker shots ever despite lessons from Les.

With the score cards checked, double checked, corrected and further amended the final results were announced with the Follies team of Andrew Bramwell, Trevor Chapman, John Wakefield and Colin Humphries winning the birthday jug.

Follies winners were:

Trevor Chapman with 35 points followed by Roy Fletcher and …….

Nearest the pin was won by Andrew Bramwell

Trevor is clearly making an early get away to lead this celebratory year.

Les was particularly galled that his well deserved reputation for arranging good weather for our matches suffered so miserably on this occasion. Indeed, he was so “galled”, that he has booked an operation to remove his gall bladder on the 6th May.

There were 19 players on the starting list including the prospect of début appearances by Terry Moon and Steve Preston. However, Terry withdrew due to Labyrinthitis which apparently afflicts those who worked in the Ordinary Branch Department of Pearl. This impression was given because Brian Bates, who had worked in that Department, was asked about the condition on the basis members of that Department were necessarily familiar with it.

After play began, the weather deteriorated with squally heavy showers and hail which resulted in the greens turning white!

Despite the tough playing conditions, Colin Keal and Graeme Tooke both achieved a creditable top score of 34 points with Colin taking first place on count back. Third place went to Brian Bates (32 points) as Andrew Bramwell declined the offer of a golf ball in favour of a bottle of whisky for winning the nearest the pin.

No players reported any particular newsworthy matters other than Geoff Delany who made his bid for the 2017 Bunker Flunker Award by taking 5 shots to escape the greenside bunker on the 2nd hole.

David Oliver merits special mention for his good scoring. Unfortunately, this was as Brian Bates card marker rather than his own golfing prowess. Brian achieved a net hole in one on the 5th which impressed David so much that he added a bonus point giving 5points in total. Any suggestion of foul play was refuted notwithstanding money was seen being exchanged between them in the Clubhouse afterwards.

We now look forward to the hospitality of Graeme Phipps at Stapleford Park on the 5th May. A ballot will take place as to who will partner David Oliver due to his improved popularity as a scorer!

Another Follies season began at Sleaford with some great weather for March and the course, as always, in fine condition (due to its sand base, I am told).  16 members appeared with a debut (to my knowledge) for John Dexter and welcome returns for the lesser spotted David Oliver, Andrew Bramwell and Richard Cheng. Les had arranged a cracking deal with the course with a bacon roll before the golf and pie and chips afterwards.

Stories were thin on the ground but Les put an early marker down for Bunker Flunker at the 7th.  Several strokes were taken before he gave in and abandoned the hole. The BF committee will sit to decide how many that all adds up to. Les did say “another 2 or 3 inches would have made the difference” – something many men have said down the years.

On Nearest the Pin, Roy was sitting pretty until it was snatched away by Geoff D. in the last group.

The Road to Elton competition (with due acknowledgement to the UEFA Champions League) saw Trevor win the first outing with an impressive 40 points – and I can attest to several putts sliding past that would have made the total even worse better.  Second was Les on 33 points with Jon Kelly in third on 31 points winning on countback from Andrew, Roy and John W.

A special mention to Colin H, who returned early from his 50th Wedding Anniversary trip to Derbyshire, especially to play the Follies. We’re not sure if he brought his wife back with him or left her there. Nor are we sure if she is talking to him.

With more orders being taken for Follies shirts and some great dates in the diary, things are on the up for the Fritz Follies Golf Society.

See you at Ramsey on the 26^th.

Impressive early entries from David and Geoff taken at the Dubai Desert Classic Golf Event. Ask them who took the photo of them with the trophy.

Fixtures are out!  See 2017 Schedule tab.

And the 2017 Shirtie is underway . David collected the Shirtie trophy at the Supper in November for his Grand Canyon shot.  Send your entries in as and when.

Another Follies year comes to a close with a very sociable Texas Scramble followed by the End of Season Supper at the Cuckoo.

Scramble result:
Winners – Delany/Humphries/Zebedee/Wakefield net 66

Runners-Up – Phipps/Savage/Bramwell/Fletcher 68

Third (and being a three never had a chance but we’re not bitter) – Wells/Carter/Kelly 69

and Nearest Pin on 5th was Andrew Bramwell

Of course the serious business is how did the Leaderboard end up?
*** Geoff Delaney is this year’s Champion Golfer ***

Despite a few yapping at his heels right up until the last hole, Geoff held on to defy cries of “Stop the Solictor!” Had John W squeezed out another point to his already impressive 37 on the last round, we would have had a tie – great effort John.

So Geoff did the Treble this year – Champion Golfer, President’s Cup and Texas Scramble!

• Our customary thanks to Les for all his arranging and re-arranging of fixtures, people and times. Thanks also to Brian for making our subs and green fees go a long way.
• It was especially pleasing to see Bernie at the Supper when it was annouced that 28th February 2017 is the 40th anniversary of the first Fritz Follies game. Les is already working on suitable events to mark the occasion as well as next year’s schedule. To date, he has two dates for your diary:
  ** Tuesday 28th Feb – an anniversary event on the day itself. Venue to be revealed in due course.
  ** Friday 31st March – 2017 Follies competition begins at Sleaford

With Rutland County being the last round of the year and wanting to maintain the suspense for the Supper, results are not published at this time but David Carter and Colin Humphries were good enough to provide a flavour of last Friday’s proceedings:

Picture two old codgers and a younger one bestriding the uplands of Rutland, playing golf (roughly speaking).  Earlier conversations had been about growing old, particularly sight deterioration, and GD’s liking for the 17th hole at Rutland County.

We ascended to the heights of the 17th tee and GD rushed to take his drive, Roy and I just looked on (nothing else to do).  GD set himself, swung his club and sent the ball zooming off in the direction of Boston (Lincs not MAS) don’t be silly.  It eventually made its way back, bounced on the edge of the green and rolled up to within about a foot of the pin (don’t forget the eyesight problems). Roy and I didn’t know what to do “don’t look at him”; I said “you may be blinded”.  However curiosity got the better of us and we turned – “it was as though the sun had come from behind the clouds” – a beaming face shining out in the dim light that said “beat that”.

Well done GD, nearest the pin again.

Roy and I were so uplifted by the experience we both mishit our drives.

……….

We had a few amusing incidents with Trevor last Friday, he definitely earned the bunker flunker title. He made visits to a lot of bunkers, 4 attempts to play out of one before he picked up his ball and threw it and his club away in frustration. On the 7th green he played out of one bunker into the bunker on the opposite side, he then played out of that bunker and the ball was only saved from returning to the first bunker when it hit the fabric of the flag.

……….

Any last minute Shirtie entries?

See you on the 4th.

Writing the report three weeks after the day is not recommended as a hitherto razor sharp recall of the day becomes a little blunted. Suffice to say that a smaller than usual group of 8 had a lovely day around one of the most beautiful courses we have the pleasure to play.

Picking our way through various wildlife:

and hidden hazards:

(how do you hide a pond that big so that 3 of us ended up in it without realising it was even there until we walked up?)

Fast forwarding to the results:

Colin H won on countback from Trevor C – both on 35 points. Graeme grabbed 3rd with  31.

With one round remaining (Fri 14th Oct), the Leaderboard has Geoff D top with 111 from Graeme P 109, Les 107, Trevor 106 and John W 105.  For everyone else, next year may be your year.

Don’t forget, November 4th Friday – Elton – Texas Scramble followed by Supper and Prize Giving at the Cuckoo, Alwalton.

Presumably today’s low turnout at Belton is because everyone is away posing with their shirt!  I look forward to a deluge of photos soon.

 Les on Mykanos- having a break from organizing golf

Les 3 amis