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.

A bumper turnout for the President’s Cup and June matchday of the Fritz Follies Champion Trophy held at Elton Furze.

Andy Mc declared at the start that he’d put his driver in the loft to avoid any temptation to bring it with him! After a slow start, he got all his remaining clubs working and carded 19 on the back 9.
Graham Tooke, who seems to have retired to play less golf, birdied the 10th. Birdies are not as rare as they used to be with Alan managing it on the 13th for 5 points, Jim doing it twice on the 2nd and 14th and Dave Ballard and Richard Parker also weighing in. Six in total.

Scoring was high with 16 scores over 30.

The 15th saw Andrew Bramwell’s tee shot hit the ladies tee marker and send it into the hedge. Whether he retrieved it himself or left it to the groundsman is not recorded.

Last time out, the Oundle bar was closed when we finished but Les had ensured no such thing would occur at his home course. And so to the 19th hole or as it turned out the Prince William School Prom. 22 bedraggled golfers walked into a room full of boys and girls dressed in their finest ready to party the night away. We jostled at the bar for our teas, coffees and the occasional pint with the young things of the future ordering sambucas, tequila and shots. As the photo shows, no-one left early

Winner of the 2023 President’s Cup is Martin Zebedee with a Net 66.5 (and this includes a 12 at the 9th).

Follies Champion matchday 3:
3rd place – Jim Daley with 38 points
2nd place – Sean Melia with 39 points (on count-back)
1st place – Les Wells also with 39 points. Martin scored 43 but you can only win one prize per outing.
Nearest the Pin – David West

Onto the next outing – Friday 14th July at Ramsey.

Entry for Shirtie 2023. This is Donald Trump International Golf Club, Doonbeg, Ireland.

The 2023 season for the Follies continued on 19th May with fifteen “golfers” assembling at Oundle Golf Club for this year’s second outing. Having driven through very wet roads following an earlier downpour, the expectation of needing wet-weather gear was high – but it seems the gods were smiling. We were treated to an afternoon of perfect golfing weather.

On arrival, the bacon rolls and tea/coffee were well received. Advice for the day given from the clubhouse, was to stay out of the rough (like we have a choice in the matter). They explained that due to staff shortages, strangely coupled with a lawn mower shortage, it was a little longer than usual in places.

It would appear the cleaning/maintenance team might have been shorthanded too. When Geoff asked if he could use the showers afterwards, the response from a member of staff was “I wouldn’t, they probably haven’t been used in the last three months”.

These staff shortages became more apparent after the round, when we discovered the clubhouse was locked up and everyone had gone home. As a result, we were unable to hold the usual post-round discussions and prize-giving rituals, and therefore notable events from the day are rather limited.

On the first tee, a warm welcome was extended to Richard Cheng on his first post-Covid outing with us, with someone commenting that Richard usually played wearing a sombrero??

As the afternoon progressed, the third group arrived at the 6th tee and somehow found themselves directly behind the first group (Dave W, Geoff and Trevor), – with no sign of the second group. It transpired that the second group hadn’t vanished into thin air as was first suspected, but Dave W, Geoff and Trevor had earlier played the 8th instead of the 6th, and had doubled back to hopefully put things right.

Trevor was particularly concerned to hear that there could potentially be some sort of penalty for playing holes out of sequence, as he had chipped in on the 8th with his third shot, giving him a magnificent 5 points! This would undoubtedly have been a topic for discussion afterwards, had the clubhouse been open.

Nearest the pin was on the 13th, and a loud cheer was heard coming from the final group. Looking back from the next tee, the previous group could see no ball visible on the green. Could there have been a hole-in-one? Not quite. Sean had hit the flag-stick from the tee (hence the cheer), but alas the ball then scampered off the green, leaving Dave W to claim the nearest the pin victory.

Where possible, prizes were given out in the car park, to those that remained:

1st place went to Paul Flanders with a very impressive 42 points

In 2nd place was Colin Humphries with 37 points (prize to be given at next meeting)

In 3rd place was Darren Pears with 35 points (beating Dave Ballard on count-back)

Nearest the pin was Dave West (prize to be given at next meeting)

Onto the next outing – Friday 30th June at Elton Furze where the President’s Cup is also at stake.

Davids West & Ballard won the Elton Furze Winter League.

A belated start to our new season following the postponement of the Spalding event due to poor weather. With heavy rain and strong winds, things were looking a little tricky in the days before Thorney but the weather gods smiled and 18 of us were greeted by a bright warmish day.

Les welcomed two new players, Steve Walker and soon to be infamous Alan Wensak.

Unfortunately, our new season didn’t start too well. Thorney has a little par 3 course. So as part of our pre-round warm up a few of us practised chipping onto the final green of the mini course. Belatedly, Paul B also decided he would give it a go. Unfortunately, Paul failed to notice two locals teeing off 75yards to his blind left hidden in the trees. Thus balls were flying into the green from all angles. One the two locals, a heavily muscled, heavily tattooed cage fighting lookalike was not impressed and duly gave Paul a “death stare”. Wisely, Paul rushed to grab his balls from the green and scampered off to the first tee before the “hulk” could get too near. Strike 1 in upsetting the locals!

New season, first tee, par 5, out of bounds to the right … What could go wrong?

Well, observing the initial groups driving off…. Let’s start with Martin Z. Tee shot didn’t get too far. Approaching the lake before the adjacent 18th green to the left a group of 4 locals were strolling to the end of their round. So Martin launches his second off at a 45 degree angle quickly followed a very loud “fore”. 50 yards away the locals dived for cover. Sheepishly walking to his ball Martin gave his usual beaming smile. Strike 2!

Now Les is Mr Reliable off the tee. Sporting his new Bucket hat, his first shot approached the out of bounds so Les took a provisional for which there was no doubt it went well out of bounds. I was concerned that the new hat was destined for the lake on the left but to his credit Les kept his usual cool and poise.

So for my group which included Darren P and Jim D ended the first hole in tatters and probably having broken the course record for a 3 ball having scored a combined 27. We did however make the same contribution with 9 each!

Unbeknown to us, Les’s group also scored 27 for the first hole but it was an uneven contribution. At the post match presentation Les made sure Alan was made well known to the group by announcing he had scored 13 on the first hole! For his effort Alan was awarded with the wooden table (upgrade on spoon) by Les presenting to him the table stand number for table 13. Welcome Alan.

After our dismal start, Darren in my group hit a great shot onto the 2nd green on the short par 3 lake hole. Achieving a great par 3 and flushed with success he somehow thought this entitled him to try to tee off from the ladies red tee on the following hole 3. Having explained it doesn’t work like that he duly moved back to the yellows.

Wonder putt – so hole 12, index 2: Jim tees off into the trees, great 2nd to the front fringe of the green narrowly missing the lake to the right. The flag being at the other end of the long narrow green. Flag still in he hits his putt. Running over all the undulations and without hesitation goes straight into the hole. The longest live putt I have ever seen. Darren and I watched in amazement as it seemed to take at least 10 seconds to go in. We estimated it was about 60 foot but having discussed it further over the next hole it went to 70 and then 80 feet. The fisherman syndrome prevailed!

Jon K also had an eventful 12th hole. Searching for his ball in the rough he found 4 others before his own and still went onto to score 2 points. A lesson in perseverance and great outcome.

Our winner of nearest the pin was Sean Melia. 17th hole, 160 yards, index 18. On paper not too tough to get on the green? Not so, faced with a strong headwind and most having to use woods to get anywhere near the hole. Sean hit a great shot to get within 10 feet of the pin. The only other person to hit the green was Graham T from the same group.
Geoff made the rather dubious claim of getting nearest the pin in 2! So congratulations Sean – great effort.

To the points competition:

3rd was Trevor Chapman on 31 on countback

2nd Sean Melia with 31 points

1st and aided by a few fortunate 1 putts on the home stretch me, Paul Flanders, with 33 points.

Not a high scoring round points wise compared with last year when 6 players scored more than 33 points. This year probably reflected the fairly tough conditions of heavy rough, a strong wind and very fast greens (credit to the course for the greens being in such good condition). All a bit much for our first outing maybe. Although enjoyable, I think most of us felt it had been a long and tiring round.

This is all except Geoff D (and Dave W who cadged a lift), who due to a dodgy knee had to take a golf cart round. Geoff being in the last group had the cart way past his allotted time! Upon returning the cart Geoff was met by a rather grumpy club employee who was concerned the cart had gone missing but more importantly was now late for his tea!! Strike 3.

Let’s hope it’s not 3 strikes and out for next year.

Next outing is Oundle on Friday 19th May

Regards Paul Flanders.