Throughout the winter, early starters amongst us, such as Joe Priestner and George Clark, have occasionally enjoyed garrulous skeins of pink-footed geese (anser brachyrhynchus) flying over us in ‘V’ formations as we’ve been chatting in the carpark. The experts at Brian Ankers’ conservation group at Woolston Eyes tell me they have been roosting on the Wirral, and have visited Lymm from time to time to feed on the stubble of the large maize field that we overlook. In the coming weeks they will migrate back to their true homes and breeding grounds in Iceland and Greenland.

At the same time, the first of the spring visitors have started to appear from the southern hemisphere. Last week I spotted in the distance a silver-topped Taylor (Taylor argentum summo), recently flown in from New Zealand. Of course, there are many silver-topped seniors around, but the Taylor is easily identifiable in the car park by brightly-coloured attire, and a brown-leather satchel that habitually hangs off the left shoulder.

There were also reported sightings this week of the rosy-cheeked-bespectacled Clarke, now returned to England from his wintering ground in Malaysia. And Mike Bennett, in dapper plumage as always, and a healthy-looking suntan, has just flown in from the States to hook up with his mate, the equally dapper Richard Yates. In the next few weeks, we can expect to see more seniors returning to Lymm from their wintering grounds, particularly Spain. And we will truly know that Spring has arrived when our growling bear, Phil Lomas, wakes from his winter hibernation.

Match Report for Winter League: 7 of 10 – Friday 17th February

Staying on the avian theme, Friday’s match witnessed a rare winter bird indeed:

Eagle 2 for Peter White on the 4th hole.
Paul Foster got the only other recorded 2 of the day (on the 5th).

The wind was very strong on Friday, but dry at least. Greens now running faster. We started on the 10th hole.

Les Fecitt with 35 points, was Division 1 winner for the second week in a row!

I was asked last Friday if there are weekly prizes for Div 1 and Div 2 winners, or just a prize for the highest score. My apologies on behalf of the Committee for not making things clear earlier in the season. Yes, there is small prize money for winners of each division, which will be credited to your account in the Pro’s shop.

Results:

Division 1:
1st Les Fecitt (35 points)
2nd Barry Smith  (33 points)
3rd= Bob Mycock, Paddy Moran, Paul Collins, and John Higgins (32 points)

Division 2:
1st Alan Ranscombe (35 points)
2nd Alan Thomas (32 points)
3rd Gordon Ballantyne (31 points)

Once again, several players used a wrong handicap, six in fact, which Peter Willson needs to spend his time correcting and recalculating the Stableford score. Please make a small and considerate effort to use your correct senior handicap. Put yourself in Peter’s position, as he checks through a whole box of scorecards on a Friday afternoon.

‘This is your captain speaking’

Saturday’s competition featured no less than five members of the Senior Section in the top two 4-man teams. There was a howling westerly, more than enough to energise any windsock to its fully horizontal indication.

Format: 4-man teams: 15 holes: two-to-score on the par 4s and par 5s, and three-to-score on the par 3s.

I was down to play with our own Steve Barlow (always a pleasure), who introduced me as ‘Captain Pickles’ to the others, namely Paul Fuller, and Steve Perrone, a young man and relative beginner, whose main participatory sport until recently was Speedway!

It turns out that Paul Fuller is a genuine captain, a passenger pilot who mainly flew the British Aerospace Jetstream airliner (30 Series), and worked almost into his seventies as a flight instructor. We found we have much in common, because shortly after I left the RAF in the late 80s I was a Technical Author (avionics) on the team that wrote the manuals, including the pilot’s manual, for the BAe Jetstream 30 Series.

Michael John captained a team comprising Bob Ellison, Peter White, and the good-honest lawyer, Adrian McGurk. They had a superb round. Peter was outstanding, with six consecutive pars on the last 6 holes: i.e. 6 x 3-pointers off his competition handicap of 18. All-in-all, an impressive 80 points.

‘Unfortunately’, John, Ellison, White & Co. were defeated on the day by the team of Pickles, Barlow & Co., who came in with 81 points, to take first prize 🙂

Final of the Andy Ward Pairs Trophy

Despite Les Fecitt’s recent good form, Les and his partner Jim Wilson were knocked out in their semi-final this week, by Barry Smith and Mark Pickles.

The final is to take place on 22nd March: Smith and Pickles versus Charlie Hill and Alister Cook.

Happy Monday?

No report submitted this week from the Monday regulars.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

A sensational 38 points over 15 holes by Les Fecitt took the honours in Round 6 of the winter league last Friday.

The top of the Division 1 leaderboard is unchanged, with Charlie Heath and Michael John in first and second place respectively. However, the handicap committee (Bob, Paddy and me) meets tomorrow. I have had a cursory look at our spreadsheet, and I suspect that Charlie will be ‘knocked’, as will Michael – our mathematician-in-residence and former member of the Handicap sub-committee – who will doubtless be analysing (to no avail) the arithmetic mean, and median and modal averages for the last 8 matches!

In Division 2, Phil Perry, has been overtaken by Colin Hughes. See the Leaderboards page for more details.

A reminder of the handicap rules established last year: single-figure handicap players can choose to use their WHS handicap. Although we had hoped that everyone would be committed to WHS, this has not transpired, and so we need to maintain a separate system for the senior section.

I don’t doubt that the Div 1 and Div 2 league leaders will uncomplainingly accept any redress to handicap, and, in good sporting spirit, maintain their good form going into the closing matches of the season. In other words, it’s still all to play for!

Staying on the subject of handicaps, Peter Willson reports that 4 people used a wrong handicap last week. In the Senior Section, you won’t be disqualified for marking against the wrong handicap, but please do check your handicap on the Senior’s noticeboard before marking your card on Friday morning, to make Peter’s task a little bit easier in his weekly scrutiny of every scorecard before he populates the spreadsheet.

Match Report for Winter League: 6 of 10 – Friday 10th February

Started from the 10^th hole. Mainly dry, still cold weather but the course continues to dry out, allowing the bottom fairways to be cut.

Results:

Division 1:
1st Les Fecitt (38 points)
2nd Graham Brickell (36 points, on countback)
3rd Dave Meir (36 points)

Division 2:
1st Alan Thomas (35 points)
2nd Jeff Chapman (34 points)
3rd Colin Hughes (34 points)

2s: Michael John; Charlie Hill; Bob Mycock; Colin Chisnall

Happy Mondays

Monday 13th Feb. Team stableford: all players to score and divide the result by the number of players in the team.

Four teams competed in the event. It was a fine day which improved continously from the early starters at the ungodly hour of 07:32, when saw Chissie and Alan T set the ball rolling as a 2 ball due to no-shows.

3 balls followed, Charlie Heath, Steve Barlow, & Les Fecitt. Next: Ron Thornton, Tony Lambert and Charlie Hill, and finally the 4 ball of Bob Mycock, Paddy Moran, Peter 2LLs and Steve Rowley.
Struggling to cope with their reduced team, Colin & Alan scored 26pts (div by 2 =13pts),
then Bob, Paddy, Pete & Steve R scored 108pts (div by 4 = 27pts),
followed by Ron, Tony & Charlie Hill with 85pts (div by 3 =28.3 pts),

and the winners were:
Charlie Heath, Steve B & Les with a score of 99 pts (div by 3 =33pts).

As the weather improves let’s hope to see more teams turning out for our ‘Happy Mondays’.

Match Reporter: Les Fecitt

Message from the Committee on Friday and Monday Availability

David Craggs asks us all to let him know, a few weeks in advance (if possible), of any Fridays for which we know we are going to be unavailable, be it for holidays, dental appointments, looking after grandchildren, etc,. Please help David to produce a more realistic booking schedule by informing him of your known Friday absences.

Peter Willson looks after the Monday competitions. He asks members to let him know if they no longer want to be regularly included in the ‘Happy Mondays’ bookings. If you only play on Mondays very occasionally (as I do) you can usually find a spare slot without needing to be included in the regular bookings.

Wednesday Greens Volunteers (‘Dad’s Army’)

Those of us who play golf regularly on Wednesday mornings often see familiar faces of the Senior Section working on the golf course. They look after everything from the smallest details (such as repainting the engraved letters on the stone markers), to refilling and re-seeding divots, to more arduous tasks, involving chainsaws and heavy lifting, all in support of our remunerated staff and their guidance and expertise. The volunteers are a fit bunch of men, by any standard! And with some former civil engineers on the team, they know a thing or two about drainage, construction and groundworks.

Last week, Andy Timms, John Tomlinson, Grahame Brickell and Phil Young, ably led by Andrew “Captain Chainsaw” Cox, cleared away some of the saplings that had seeded on the bank to the right of the 11th and then (see picture above) cleared away the damaged branches from the willow to the left of the 3rd after it suffered storm damage a few weeks ago. It looks a bit tidier round there now, and it should make it easier to spot your ball if you tug your drive over there!

Andy Timms, former civil engineer, has agreed to update us regularly about ongoing projects.

I spotted Andy Timms this morning. They let him out in the little red buggy. Here is his report today, in which he introduces the team:

How far is it?

The greens volunteers numbered just two this week, namely Cox and Timms. However we covered quite a lot of ground. We picked up and jet washed all the 150 and 100 yard markers on the course, and then neatly replaced them. No excuses now for not knowing how far it is to the green!

Just the two of us is an unusually low number to turn out. I must acknowledge the efforts of the much larger army of “regulars” who turn out on a Wednesday morning. The team currently includes (in no particular order), Andrew Cox; Phil Young; Duncan Clarke; Paul Lennie; John Tomlinson; Tim Langley; Richard Cooper; Barry McGuigan; Grahame Brickell; Bob Ellison; Dave Jones; Ken Everett; Mike Pigott; Ted Broady; Nigel Boucher; Koos Alders; Richard Catchpole; Andy Timms.

If anyone else is interested in joining us on a Wednesday morning for a couple of hours, get in touch with Andrew Cox or Phil Young and they’ll get you added to the WhatsApp group.

Greens Volunteers Report: Andy Timms

And finally

Congratulations to Tony Lambert, who, with his son Steven Lambert, came 3rd in the Saturday competition (Canadian foursomes), scoring 41 points over 15 holes.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

“Awright, Love!”

Charlie Heath is the man to beat going into the second half of the Winter League.

The endearing Yorkshireman has consolidated his place at the top of Division 1 by scoring 35 points in Round 5, the best score of the day. The nearest contender, Michael John, is 8 points behind, but with Charlie missing a Friday soon to go on holiday, he’s definitely catchable!

Phil Perry is dominating the lead in Division 2, despite having a handicap reduction before the league began: an up-and-coming golfer!

Match Report for Winter League: 5 of 10 – Friday 3rd February

Mainly dry, cool weather with some occasional drizzle. Course fairly dry with run in most places, but still slightly muddy on the lower fairways. 43 cards submitted.

Results:

Division 1:
1st Charlie Heath (35 points on countback)
2nd Arthur Nuttall (35 points)
3rd= Graham Utton and Peter Willson (33 points)

Division 2:
1st Sammy Lee (35 points)
2nd Ken Narraway (34 points)
3rd Colin Hughes (33 points)

2s recorded: David Meir

Message from the Committee

If any member does not want to be included in the weekly draw for a slot for the Monday morning matches, please contact Peter Willson. Peter would like to update the email list and the draw. There are regularly a few members who are booked to play, but cross their names off, or seem never to play at all on Monday mornings.

Overnight Seniors Trip to Portal, Tarporley, 6th/7th September

Coming in at £190 for half board in a single room for 2 rounds of golf (different courses). This is the best deal I [Graham] have found for this year’s away trip .

If we get 20 takers, we are awarded one free space, which I’ll work into the budget by buying either beers or wine with dinner. And at 20 takers, we receive a free sleeve of balls each: ‘Unsung Heroes Limited Edition Balls’

Macdonald Portal Hotel Golf and Spa – 1 Night, 2 Rounds, Half Board.

Wednesday 6th: Championship Course – 18 Holes, Tee off from 12:20

“The Championship Course opened in 1990 & was named ‘Golf Course of the Year’ in 1995. Designer Donald Steel has created a challenge that is characterised by unique and distinctive holes; expansive water hazards and cascading waterfalls are among the tests. The signature is typical of Steel’s magnificent 7,000-yard plus layout – the long third tips the scales at 607 yards, with a green guarded by a beautiful lake”.

Thursday 7th September: Premier Course, tee off from 11.20.

Please advise, me, Graham Brickell, if interested via a message through the IG messaging system.

Trip Organiser: Graham Brickell

Happy Mondays – 6th February

And so it was; another 15 hardened Seniors turned up to play a Texas Scramble. Temperature -1 deg-brass-monkey, but it was crisp, sunny and dry and the course was fully open with temporary Greens apart from 2 holes.

After a hard fought contest the Winners with an astonishing score of 47.65, were a trio (inclusive of the ebullient duo Allan Thomas and his on-course cohort Colin Chisnall)  in the company of Lymm’s very own High Roller Mike Pigott. Mike who is known for his fast pace of play, raced Allan and Colin round the course faster than Usain Bolt. If you can do it once boys…………..keep it going.

Second Team in Charlie Heath, Pete 2lls, Steve B and Big Ken 47.9

Third Team in Alan, Les and Charlie Hill with 53.3

Fourth Team in Bob, Paddy and Phil Perry (turned up in his new Noddy Car) with 53.35

Bringing up the rear the Team of Steve the Treasurer, Graham the Banker and Pete the Taylor 57.75

See you all next Monday …  

Match Reporter: Bob Mycock

Navy Blue Team Shirt

Colin Crail purchased a team shirt, but has returned it to Steve and Fizz because it did not fit. Size is Medium. If you would like to purchase it (without waiting for the next batch of shirts to come in) see Steve or Fizz in the Pro’s shop.

Great Crested Grebes Dancing on the Manchester Ship Canal

As winter recedes, and the days lengthen, the birdlife is becoming noticeably more active and voluble. This morning, Bob, Paddy, Charlie and I were fortunate to witness a pair of great crested grebes, in full breeding plumage, gliding past us on the 6th tee, and then swim towards each other to begin their long and elaborate courtship dance. It’s a wonderful spectacle of nature, and worth looking out for in the next few weeks, while walking up the 6th fairway.

“Awright, Love”

February has arrived. Snowdrops are flowering optimistically in the garden, and this morning I heard a song thrush trying out a few repetitive phrases, giving a hint of his repertoire for spring. We’ll start to hear blackbird song later this month, and woodpeckers drumming, and perhaps a skylark dropping unbroken melodies from the heavens onto the golfers at Lymm, noticed at least by “he who has ears to hear…”.

Back to earth, and some mundane but important outcomes of the LGC Seniors committee meeting last Friday:

Committee Meeting – Friday 27 January

Slow Play:
The pace of play is becoming almost intolerable for many members. Perhaps, for future seasons, as the size of the senior section continues to grow, playing singles in groups of fours is no longer realistic. For now, we are trying to limit the first groups out to three players. Therefore, if you are not on the original booking, and opportunistically add your name to play on a Friday, please do not book into any of the first three slots. Select a place in a later group. We want at the very least to prevent queues developing on the 1st tee (as they did last week) in the first half hour of play.

Lost ball in area of general play:
In autumn we introduced a temporary rule that allowed us to drop a ball if the original was lost in an area of general play, such as a fairway dense with fallen leaves. We have now removed this temporary rule, as leaves on the fairway are no longer a problem. If you lose a ball, the normal rules of golf now apply, including a maximum of 3 minutes to search for the ball.

Inter-Club Matches for 2023
We put a list on Seniors’ noticeboard at the end of last year, asking members to append their name if they would like to be included in the draws for the inter-club friendly matches. John Armstrong, who is responsible for organising these matches, is surprised at the low number of people on the list (only 38 so far). John expected more names, especially because we have two extra venues this year, Sale and Bramhall (I think).

Please add your name to the list before the season begins in April, in order that John can include you in his team plans for both home and away matches. Please note that you will need a navy blue team shirt in order to be considered. Enquire with Steve in the Pro’s shop if you have not already purchased one.

Match Report for Winter League: 4 of 10 – Friday 27th January

Weather dry and cool; ground still muddy in places, with no run on the ball. This was round 4 of 10 (round 3 was abandoned last week due to the ice).

Results:

Division 1:
1st: Paddy Moran (34 points on countback)
2nd: Martin Franks (34 points)
3rd: Steve Gosling (32 points on countback over Charlie Heath)

Division 2
1st: Phil Perry (36 points)
2nd: Tony Lambert (34 points, on countback)
3rd: George Clark (34 points)

See the ‘leader boards’ tab for current leaders of those who have played all three rounds.

Happy Mondays – 30th January

Eleven intrepid golfers set out on a slightly overcast and chilly morning 6 deg. C with a gentle breeze which slowly increased during the morning but it stayed dry.

2 x groups of 4 and, a 3 ball bringing up the rear.

Game: best 2 from or 3 from 4

Winners: Steve Gosling, Bob Mycock, Graham Utton and Peter Willson – 108 points or +18 over the average of 6 points per hole for 3 from 4

2^nd – Paul Foster, Sammy Lee and Steve Rowley – 70 points or +10 over 4 points per hole  

3^rd – Steve Barlow, Colin Chisnall, Charlie Heath and Paddy Moran – 99 points or +9 over 6 points per hole

Match Reporter: Peter Willson

Weekend competition: Best 2 from 4

Another great effort from members of the senior section on Saturday: the first-place team included Mark Lyons, Alan Burton and Martin Franks.

Martin is evidently on good form, and shares the top of the Senior Section leaderboard with Charlie Heath.

 

And Finally

Returning to heavenly song. John Hayes, our bass singer in residence, will be singing with the Altrincham Choral Society in a programme featuring John Rutter’s Requiem.

The Altrincham Choral Society is a choir of professional standard, which often performs with professional orchestras, and in which my wife used to sing alto soprano! We saw John perform with them last year in Hale, in a programme featuring Haydn’s The Creation.

For tickets, or more information, visit altrinchamchoral.co.uk or ask John Hayes.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles