1st Net 63 – Les Wells, David West & Alan Wensak

2nd Net 63.3 – Paul Flanders, Andy McHattie & Dave Harrison

3rd Net 66.7 – Yim Kong, Dave Ballard & Colin Humphries

4th Net 70 – Graham Tooke, Steve Walker, Trevor Chapman & Martin Zebedee

5th Net 71.2 – Andy Izod, Geoff Delany, Roy Fletcher & Jim Daley

Nearest the Pin

2nd Hole No Winner roll over to longest drive

5th Hole Paul Flanders

12th Hole Dave Ballard

15th Hole Dave Ballard (can’t win 2 prizes) so Martin Zebedee

17th Longest Drive: Andy McHattie (wrong ball orange first) 232 yds then Les 202 yds.

The Shirtie 2024 was won by Martin Zebedee and his photo from Holborn tube station, next to the birthplace of the Fritz Follies.

See you all in March for the first outing (fixtures coming shortly) but we already have a date for your diary:

Friday 7th November 2025 – Fritz Follies Golf Society Annual Supper and Prize Giving 2025.

Happy New Year!!

Our Chairman and Secretary Les Wells hands the Fritz Follies Champion Golfer trophy and the Fritz Follies President’s Cup to Geoff Delany. A splendid total of 112 saw Geoff a point clear of Paul Flanders with Les himself a further two points behind.

Texas Scramble and other results will follow in due course.

Kevin at Uluru and after completing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb.

On a cloudy warm October day
Nineteen golfers went out to play
All were keen with clubs at the ready
But who would falter, who would be steady?

Woolfox was the course today
The first a surprise – a new Par 3 to play
A lake in the front – that’s just mean!
Some balls made a splash, never to be seen

Other balls were hit both fast and slow
Some hit high, some hit low
Some would play well, some would have luck
Some would think ‘YES’, some would think ‘f***’

Geoff D’s trolley was left to run free
Straight into a bunker – oh deary me!
Alan thought he’d hit the drive of the day
But the ball hit a marker and came back to stay

Now down in the sand Richard Cheng found his way
‘Help, I’m stuck in a bunker’ he yelled in dismay
The more that he struggled, his frustration was clear
But gave up in the end and just said ‘Oh Dear’

Trevor’s drive went long, but where did it go?
His partners smiled – ‘that field, don’t you know’
But to his credit and just with a sigh
He sank a 40’ putt and raised two fingers high

Whoever chose the Nearest the Pin
Decided to make it difficult to win
Balls soared and sliced, one even spun
Yet none found the green, not a single one!

To celebrate his 90 years
Roy gave a prize amid loud cheers
With two great shots Graham declared
‘The bottles mine and not to be shared!’

Our man from Waitrose came to deliver
And gave every appearance of being a winner
With 43 points Martin headed the field
His joy at the prize was barely concealed

Thanks to Les for another great day
We’re ever grateful for the chance to play
Now it’s off to the Supper to reveal this year’s winner
Good company, good fun and hopefully a good dinner.

Report by David West.

From the Woolfox website “Thank you to @diverutland for retrieving our lake balls and to everyone who has entered our competition.

We are pleased to announce the winner of 100 lake balls is: Dougie Morton! We’ll be in touch to arrange your prize soon!

Dougie guessed 4350 and the total amount of balls collected was 4096!”

“This week Dive Rutland visited us to retrieve golf balls from the lake on the 1st. Two divers spent the day exploring the bottom of the lake, discovering more than just weeds and frogspawn…. Has anyone lost a club? We are running a competition to guess the total amount of balls collected from the first dive.” 

Winner receives 100 golf balls! To enter – see the Woolfox website.

Chris in Registan Square in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Every day is a learning day for some of us. Sean found out that paying green fees in Singapore Dollars doesn’t work and I learned that a handicap of 17.50 is rounded up to 18 not down to 17. The fact this was pointed out by John D and Sean to whom it applied is especially worthy of praise.

Sixteen Follies showed up at Rutland Water for what is, unquestionably, the most scenic course in the world. There, I’ve said it.

No Les but instructions had been issued and we followed them to the letter so all went well. Including the weather – which we’ve come to expect from Les. Before we started, we toasted Roy for his 90th birthday last weekend and enjoyed bacon or egg baps. We also welcomed back the Fritz Follies’ first England International, Kevin Hingle after his exploits down under.

Geoff Delany has had a bumper crop of apples at home and kindly brought a bag onto the first tee for all to share.

Sean sent his first 2 balls oob to leave himself playing 5 before he even left the 1st tee. Glad to say things improved considerably from then on.

David West had an eventful 5th. His second shot landed in the greenside bunker where a member of staff was shovelling sand around. David claimed GUR and got a free drop outside the bunker. He put his third back in the bunker, claimed GUR and got a free drop outside the bunker. And chipped in for par!

On the subject of Bunker Flunker, Richard Cheng had 4 attempts on the 7th before picking up and moving on. I say “moving on” but he didn’t really and pointed out every bunker in the vicinity for the rest of the round.

Trevor used his sand wedge on the 8th and left it there. He was on the 9th green before he realised.

Martin went bunker to pond on the 12th. Similarly, John D (fresh from a winning 44 points earlier in the week) managed to go from bunker to bunker on the 18th.

Results:
Nearest the Pin – Richard Parker
3rd – Geoff Delany 37 points on countback from
2nd – Jon Kelly also 37 points
1st – Richard Cheng 38 points.

Tight at the top – one round to go – Friday 18th October at the Woolfox.
Thereafter it will be Friday 8th November for Texas Scamble at Elton Furze with the Fritz Follies Golf Society Annual Supper and Prize Giving 2024 at the Black Horse, Elton in the evening.

Report by Jon Kelly

Martin in a disused tunnel at Holborn tube station 135ft deep

15 enthusiastic golfers arrived for the annual visit to Tydd St Giles. Unlike last year where the journey involved a very interesting route driving through multiple small lanes and across the drains, Martin and Les had provided an alternative route and so all golfers arrived in a much more relaxed manner!

The other topic of conversation as the golfers tucked into their welcome bacon rolls and coffee was the weather. Last year’s attendees reminisced about the terrible rain last year but not so today. As the first tee time approached the weather was hot and sunny and we were treated to a lovely summer afternoon with much anticipation of a day of low scores.

Tydd is a good complex with plenty of facilities including lodges for those looking for a golfing break. The course provided a fair challenge with plenty of opportunities to score but also opportunities to lose plenty of balls out of bounds and in the trees. The greens were in good condition, always a good sign.

A specific challenge on the day was locating your ball if it landed in the trees particularly when you happened to be playing the same ball as a group coming in the opposite direction. Cries of ‘mine is the ball with the 3 stripes’ were heard from Jon and Trevor! Apparently the situation was amicably resolved.

Some other notable highlights from the day include Roy Fletcher chipping in for birdie on 18 for 5 points. Dave Harrison definitely had a round of 2 halves. 6 points on the front 9 and a remarkable 24 on the back nine, what a comeback! The bucket and spade award went to Sean who went into numerous bunkers on the day, typified by the first hole which consisted of a drive, 4 bunker shots from 3 different bunkers and 1 putt! Apparently Les took on the role of tree surgeon for the day, the best example when his drive hit a tree on one side of the fairway only to ricochet to the rough on the other side.

After the golfers had tucked into the traditional ham egg and chips followed by cheesecake, as master of ceremonies, Les started by announcing the winner of the nearest the pin prize on the 16th hole. The first group (Martin) had left a note on the green that they had all missed the green so as not to deprive Dave West of his customary prize! The second group also complied!

However, the winner of nearest the pin on the day in the 3rd group was Paul Flanders who deservedly won 2 bottles of wine with the winning shot to a tricky green. The ‘nearly but not quite award’ went to Graham Tooke who was apparently very close to the pin but unfortunately just off the green.

The results on the day were:

1st – Geoff Delaney -38 points
2nd – Graham Tooke – 37 points
3rd – Richard Parker – 35 points – this was his first podium finish since returning to Follies , well done.

Well played to all the winners on the day.

In closing, Les noted that he and Geoff were still chasing Paul at the top of the leaderboard with it all still to play for over the next few outings with only 5 points separating the top 3.

The next event is at Rutland Water on 20th September.

Thanks to Les for organising a great day out as usual.

Report by Sean.