A dozen lucky Follies had the pleasure of a beautiful mid-October afternoon’s round of the rarely visited Milton Golf Course.   With this being the last event counting towards this year’s awards and to keep the suspense going till the end, results will not be published until after the Annual Supper and Prize Giving.

However, we were allowed to see Brian and Colin H’s holiday home but we were not invited in.

So, on to our Final Events of the year on Friday 7th November – teeing off with breakfast at the Stibbington Diner, continuing with golf at Elton Furze and ending with the Fritz Follies Golf Society Annual Supper and Prize Giving 2014 in the Cuckoo, Alwalton.

Hope to see you there!

No-one has ever said that playing at The Bedfordshire was easy. Indeed many have said it is one of the most difficult courses we play. Regardless, Colin Humphries absolutely smashed it recording a highest ever Fritz Follies total of 51 points!  The biggest threat came from Colin Savage’s attempt to steer Colin H’s and his own trolley at the same time which nearly resulted in both going into the water.  It appears that sharing the same christian name was a good thing that day as Mr Keal won the nearest the pin when his ball came to rest about 2 feet 3 inches from the pin and Mr Savage scored a normally good enough to win 40 points. Honourable mentions in despatches for Roy and Phil who finished way back on 39 points each!

Colin H attributed much of his success to recent lessons with Gary Casey at Thorpe Wood…..maybe we should all head that way.

Sadly for those concerned, if not for everybody else, the Handicap secretary has cut all those that had net scores under 70 i.e. Colin/Colin/Phil 🙂

Following an excellent bacon sandwich and resplendent in our new shirts, thanks for organising those Les, 14 hardy Follies posed for a team photo and then set off on a very windy Old Nene course. For some, this was their first experience of a nine hole course, but, with a little orienteering skill, we found our way round ok.

We were accompanied throughout the round by the Boom Boom Boom of what could have been a ghostly Roman Galley drummer from years gone by. Whatever it was, it was loud, consistent and went on all day.

Signage was lacking in a number of places and after the 5^th, Omar’s group went left, then right and finally left again searching for the 6^th. The 6^th tee was different in that we’d never seen a ‘Boats have priority’ sign on a tee before. And sure enough a boat did pass between tee and fairway as Jon shaped to tee-up.

From the elevated 6^th tee, the flag looked a long way off – Colin S estimated it as about 3 miles and then went on to par it!

A very disappointing incident was reported on the 11^th when the group following Les’ group arrived at the green to find the flag horizontal/laying by the hole/not upright/not stuck in the hole.

On the 14^th, Martin drove off, his ball hit a tree and rebounded about 20 feet behind the tee.

In the second group, halfway down a fairway, Geoff Delaney discovered his putter cover was missing. He ran to the tee, couldn’t find it, ran back to find it lying the other side of his bag.

John Wakefield had a decent front nine but then the wheels came off. He lost 6 balls, played Robin’s ball instead of his own and when Robin said after John’s putt, “Take it away” John thought he had given him the putt but Robin meant the flag!

On the 15^th Colin S decided he needed all his clubs to hand and duly dragged his trolley up a very steep bank:

Towards the end of the round, the weather closed in and as the thunder started, the last two groups reformed as some pushed on and some sheltered. However, we all finished safely if damp.

The results for the day were:

Nearest the hole on the 12^th, John Wakefield

3^rd on countback-Roy Fletcher

2^nd –Colin Humphries, both with 34 points

1^st Colin Savage with 39 points.

Geoff then, on behalf of us all, wished Les well for his forthcoming ops and we all look forward to seeing him back on the fairways next summer complete with bionic knees. The next Follies outing is Friday September 19^th at The Bedfordshire.

Size Description – Chest (to fit) S – 36″, M – 38/40″, L – 42″, XL – 44/46″, 2XL – 48″

Special Fritz Follies price of £17

All orders to les@akbook-keeping.co.uk

Another good turnout of 14 Follies gathered at Ramsey for the July Meet.

A couple of stories were reported:

At the 6th, Les found himself in a bunker. After his first attempt failed, he decided not to risk any Bunker Flunker activity and belted his second very hard out of the bunker, past the hole and out-of-bounds behind the green! I wouldn’t say that his sand wedge went as far but it certainly got air!

Brian was on the green but somehow 3 shots later was even further away from the hole. After he putted out, his playing colleague said “never mind, you get 2 shots on this hole, how many did you take? 10 was the reply 😦

Scores were high with 3 in 3rd on 34 points – Robin, Roy and Geoff D. Second was Colin H on 36 but today’s winner on 38 points was Colin Keal.

The top of the table under the STANDINGS 2014 tab shows the closest race in years!

14 Follies were hoping the dark sky would not bring rain and all prayers were answered as the competitors for the all-important 2014 President’s Cup gathered together at Elton Furze Golf Club on Monday 16 June. The scene was set for the day’s competition.

A couple of blasts from the past turned out, Martin Zebedee and Brian Cresswell, it was nice to see them after such a long time. Martin made his intensions clear when on the first his ball took a sharp left turn and settled safely on the gravel path 6 metres behind him.

Hole 5 was chosen for the ‘nearest the pin’ competition. Geoff Delany, who was in the first group, hit a magnificent golf shot, avoiding the trees and all the other hazards on this difficult par3 and landed on the green. Geoff must have been understandably quietly confident nobody would beat his magnificent shot as he marked his ball position using a piece of card about the size of a green shield stamp (remember those?) that no one could see until they were just a few feet away. So small was this piece of card that nobody else would have been able to write their name on the card had they landed inside his position. So nobody bothered!! He was thus declared the winner of the prize for nearest the pin. Well done Geoff.

John Wakefield had a wonderful round – with his driver! No one knows what happened to the rest of his game – it deserted him for the day.

Getting ready to take his drive on the 14th, Roy Fletcher turned to Omar and said, “Is that your trolley going on walkabout?” It wasn’t. Realising it was his own trolley; he gave chase and eventually brought it under control.

The first group, led by ‘Speedy’ Colin S raced around the course and finished their round in just over three hours – a full hour before the second group came wearily home. Geoff, quick to see an opportunity, managed to wangle a free lesson on chipping from the ‘master chipper’ himself Colin Savage.

Finally, the results of the day. There were two excellent rounds of golf played by the Colins – one by Colin Savage and the other by Colin Keal. Colin S is the winner of the President’s Cup with a net score of 66, followed closely by Colin K with a net score of 67. Well done to both of you. They also came first and second in the day’s competition with 40 and 39 points respectively. Brian Bates was third with 36 points

Jointly authored by Omar and Colin S.

The caravans, the tractors and the sun came out to greet us at Rutland Water and yes, so did Richard Cheng – probably his first outing since the Sleaford “fish and chips” days of five or so years ago. Good to see you again on the Follies. A good gathering of 12 considering we had several regulars turning out for the Elton Seniors today as well.

Trevor Chapman likes a good adventure and on the first half he hit nearly every fairway, unfortunately not in the correct order but who cares as he carded a respectable 17 points on the nine holes.

The wind was playing a part, sweeping balls into the difficult rough and causing a lot of ball searching amongst us all. The greens were quick, undulating and as challenging as ever.

Colin Savage’s group saw another TWAMOIO – trolley with a mind of its own – incident as Brian chased after his wayward motorised trolley which was heading for the green. However young Brian sped off and took control of the offending vehicle.

Peter Harris played the 14th stroke index 1 like a professional. He began with a good drive into the edge of the left hand rough left about 200 yards to the pin. After some discussion with Colin, (unpaid and under-appreciated advisor and coach), he hit an absolute cracker over the ditch that crosses the fairway, the ball took a bounce and landed in the greenside bunker. Mr Harris did use a naughty word but Colin’s coaching kept him calm as he said to Peter that is probably a good place to be as all obstacles were gone apart from getting out of the sand trap. Peter climbed fearlessly into the bunker, took a stance, played out in a cloud of sand and the group watched as Peter’s ball landed on the green and made its way nearer and nearer towards the hole and dropped into the cup – a birdie on stroke index one! It was a pleasure to witness such a feat, well done Peter.

Nearest the Pin hole was the tricky 12th, 130 yards into the wind with the green protected by a pond at the front. Trevor Chapman hit a fine shot to around 20 feet and was followed by Geoff Liscoe with approximately the same distance. It took a couple of pacings and finally the use of the flag pole as a measure to separate the two – Trevor the victor by a few inches.

Final placings were in reverse order: Peter Harris (29), Roy Fletcher (32) and Trevor the winner (36)

See you all next time for the President’s Cup at Elton Furze on Monday June 16th.

Friday 25th April was the second outing of the year and 10 members took part despite rain which was forecast but thankfully arrived with only a few holes to play.
When the first group teed off. Colin Humphries proved that a golf club can remove a metre of turf.
On the 5th hole Brian sank a 5 metre putt then on the next hole the same thing but this time a 6 metre putt, this was longer than his drive.
Geoff Delaney failed to play out of a bunker on the 14th 4, yes 4 times. I bet Brian could have putted out of it.
Colin Savage hit the same tree 3 times when playing the last hole but carried on to the end, what a hero.
We sat in a group in the bar and someone asked about the ownership of a jacket on the floor, no response from anyone.
Ham, egg and chips was consumed in record time and we left only for Brian the master putter to realise that the jacket was in fact his over trousers.
The event was won by John Wakefield and Colin H, who re-turfed the first tee, took the nearest the pin prize on the 3rd hole. A lovely course was enjoyed by all.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Mischief Afoot!