Lots of news to get through this week! Our 2022 Championship took place, as did the first round of the Tatton League, hosted at Lymm. We have played two inter-club friendlies since the last newsletter. The promise of better weather is attracting players back to ‘Happy Mondays’. And we have good news to report on Mike Pigott’s progress in the Cheshire Super Seniors (over 65s) scratch team.

Thank you to Rob Taylor for his help in reporting, and to the inter-club friendly captains for their reports. Also, thanks to Tatton League captain Bob Mycock, with support from Les Williams and Rob Taylor, for superb organisation in hosting the Tatton League and welcoming all the visitors from our neighbouring clubs.

Championship 2022 – Played Friday 14th April 2023

Reporter: Rob Taylor

No, not a misprint – it is the 2022 competition.

Cast your minds back. This final was scheduled to be played in the September of last year but had to be postponed because of the drought and the fall out from the failed storage tank in the irrigation system .

So, on a Friday in April ( some 8 months later) ,  22 of our finest players were invited to compete for the coveted “Green Jersey” . The winner to be  be named the  Senior Champion of 2022.

Now April . . . weather wise?

Well,  ever so perversely, it actually rained.

A light drizzle when the first group tee’d off at 08.00 but it got steadily harder  – you know, the right-through- to- your- underwear harder. And it kept on raining until well after the last group staggered in from the 15^th hole some 3 ½ hours later.

17 players made it to the start line ( the missing 5 had produced notes from their mothers along the lines of “Johnny gets a chest if he plays out in the damp”) but only  13 made it to the finish. One of the later groups decided to call it quits at hole 12 – cards were soaked and mostly illegible anyway so probably a wise decision.

And the results?

Only 2 players managed par or better. The runner up was Mark Pickles with a creditable 30 points, just pipped at the post by the new 2022 Senior’s Champion, with 31 points . . . . .

Paul Lennie, presented with the ‘Green Jersey’ by our chairman Mike Bennett. And a photo of the scoreboard for those who may be interested.

Many thanks to all that stayed for the presentation.

Tee Booking Schedule tomorrow (Thursday 20th April)

This is the tee booking schedule for play on Friday 5th May. Due to a match against Hale GC, there will be no league match, and therefore a prize of a bottle of wine. If your name is in the left column, please book for your group. Please note that if your name is not included below, you are most likely on the provisional list for the team match against Hale GC.

Match report for 14th April

Individual Stableford, for those who did not play in the championship. The difficult weather conditions were as the reported in the championship of course.

13 cards submitted.

Winner: Steve Gosling: 30 points.
Runners up: Peter Willson and Eric Cox: 29 points.

A nice bottle of Rioja went to the winner Steve.

Inter-club Match away at High Legh – 13th April

Captain’s report: John Hayes

Lymm Senior’s Team headed towards the match at High Legh full of optimism and intending to come back with the bacon. Unfortunately something didn’t quite work and the result was an honourable draw heavily in favour of the opposition. However the captain took full responsibility and has suggested that he be rested from captaincy for the remainder of the season!

J Hayes (C) / A Timms: Lost 3 and 1
M Pickles / M Lowe: Won 1 up
R Taylor / P Ormesher: Lost 2 and 1
B Mycock / P Moran: Lost 2 and 1
K Narraway / J White: Lost 3 and 2
S Lee / T Williamson: Lost 3 and 2
S Barlow / A Laird: Won 3 and 2
P Perry / P Lennie: Lost 1 up

The overall result was therefore a win for High Legh by 6 to 2.

The course had suffered heavy overnight rain [as had Lymm GC, where the bottom half of the course had to be closed] and there were several areas of standing water. The saving grace was that it didn’t rain whilst we were playing despite being forecast by the media, which meant that we were able to enjoy the game. The greens were fast and true which took some getting used to for some of us. Given that the games were all quite closely fought the overall result could have gone the other way. We were provided with an excellent meal to end the day and we look forward to entertaining High Legh at Lymm later in the year.

Inter-club Match away at Leigh – 18th April

Captain’s Report: Duncan Clarke

Duncan Clarke/Grahame Brickell: Halved
Mike Bennett/Steve Gosling: Won 6&4
John Armstrong/Steve Barlow: Lost 4&3
Richard Yates/Peter Willson: Lost – 2&1
Peter Broady/Paul Collins: Lost 4&2
Colin Crail/Stuart Baird: Lost 4&3
John Higgins/Alan Ranscombe: Lost 3&2
Sammy Lee/Mervyn Roberts: Won think 2&1

Wonderfully sunny day  and a real hint of spring – very enjoyable. All left with a smile on our faces although in some cases it might have been wind!

Tatton League, Round 1 of 6 – 18th April

Reporter: Rob Taylor

Today saw the opening round of the 2023 Tatton League competition being played here at our Lymm home course.

And the course looked its spring-time best in the brilliant, but oh, so deceiving, sunshine. The benign green fairways with a backdrop of fluffy white clouds belied the voracious shot-devouring beast that it became.

A gentle breeze soon turned into a “beast from the East”. Playing off the white tees, most of which were right back on the plates (perhaps Captain Bob had arranged it?), and with little run on the ball on the lower fairways, it was tough! Paddy Moran reported that his playing partners from High Legh described the course-difficulty level as ‘brutal’. At LGC, we prefer to call it ‘character building’. 😉

Alas – here are the all-important scores:

Styal: 124
High Legh: 131
Antrobus: 133
Birchwood: 135
Heyrose: 142 ( defending champions – 2 years running)
Lymm: 145

A great start to our campaign for this season. The good news doesn’t stop there though:

Best pair score of the day – 39 Points. Mark Pickles and Andy Timms. A bottle of wine apiece for their fine efforts. And you want more?

Longest drive – 15^th hole. The band wagon rolled on – Mark Pickles collecting his second bottle of the day.

The only accolade not scooped by our team was the nearest the pin on the 9^th which went to Ray Hodgkinson from Antrobus.

So  – after round 1. We have our nose in front. We have a pool of talented players. We have an immensely experienced manager guiding the team – Bob Mycock!

What could possibly go wrong!

Heyrose on 16^th May – the next challenge is already on the tee.

The Tatton League page will keep us abreast of the 2023 campaign.

‘Happy Mondays’ 17th April

Reporter: Peter Willson

Eleven happy-ish golfers set out from the 1st happy mainly because it wasn’t raining – bit of drizzle around the 6th.

Game: Team Stableford
Winners – Phil Lomas, Dave Waggitt and Steve Barlow – 83 points or +7 / 27.7 per player

2nd – Colin Chisnall, Alan Thomas, Charlie Heath and Jim Russell – 103 points or -17 or 25.8 per player

3rd – Ken Narraway, Les Fecitt (how many trees did he hit and bounce out of today?), Charlie Hill and Pete Willson – 97 points or -23 points or 24.3 points per player.

Mike Pigott at Cheshire ‘Super Seniors’ (over-65s)

Mike was selected to play in the Cheshire over-65 squad get-together at Stockport GC. Five evenly-handicapped fourballs were picked. A scratch best three from fours counted for the teams.

Mike’s team had the best score. And Mike had the best individual scratch score!

Mike tells me he now has a fair chance of being selected for matches against Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Shropshire and Hereford later in the season.

Well done, Mike! All-in-all a good week for Lymm GC Seniors: some wins and two ‘honourable draws’ in our away inter-club friendlies! 😉

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles