Inter-club friendly v Northenden at Home, Friday 22 September
Match Reporter: Bob Mycock, CoD
Once again our Seniors Team assembled for our penultimate Match of the season to take on Northenden.
Following a few days of torrential rain, it was a relief all 18 Holes were open and playable, huge credit to the greenstaff.
Captained for second time this season by the inimitable Bobby Mycock the instruction was to avoid defeat at all costs, no prisoners taken.
However, with all the Teams bar one in the Clubhouse we were 4-3 down, only Paddy Moran and Phil Ormesher to come in and save the day. They did not let us down, with Paddy sinking a 20 foot putt to Win their game and an honourable 4-4 draw.
The Match was played in a great spirit and followed by a lovely meal and a few friendly drinks, and of course some light entertainment in the form of another side splitting joke, courtesy of your CoD.
It was also my pleasure to Present, Alan Ranscombe with a Club Jumper and acknowledge this true gentleman’s 80th Birthday
And finally, we gather once again this Friday for our last match against our local rivals Warrington, it would be great to finish with a resounding Win and reward John Armstrong for all of his commitment, effort, and organising this Year, a big thank you from all of us
Audaces Fortuna Iuvat ………
Bottle of wine comp, 22 September
The recent bad weather, and the rain and wind on the day resulted in an unusually small number of cards submitted: only 9.
Winner was Sammy Lee with 28 points (CPO over Grahame Brickell who also had 28 points).
Handicaps
The “handicap subcommittee” seems to have become a neglected child. However, the good news is a Foster parent has put himself forward, brimming with ideas and enthusiasm, and past experience, not least ideas for better communication. Watch this space! Let us hope that we have general agreement across the committee and the senior section has we go into the Autumn league.
Tee booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 27th September)
This is the tee booking schedule for play on 13 October: Round 1 (of 10) of our Autumn League.
If your name is in the left column, please book for your group.
My apologies for forgetting to include the results of the Senior Championship in last week’s newsletter. (I did add them a couple of hours after I first published the newsletter, when it was pointed out to me that they were missing.)
Our Champion this year is Martin Franks. Congratulations, Martin!
Senior Championship – 8 September 2023
Winner: Martin Franks – 35 points (CPO over last 6 holes -16 points)
Second: Paul Foster – 35 points (CPO over last 6 holes -14 points)
Third: Steve Gosling – 35 points (CPO over last 6 holes -11 points)
Tatton League – 2023
Reporter: Tatton League Captain, Bob Mycock
Round 6 and Final Round at Antrobus
Our Team of 4 pairs assembled at Antrobus for the Final Round of the Tatton Trophy. On a Glorious Sunny Day all 4 of our Teams performed with a determination and vigour for Lymm GC to Win the Day, on Antrobus’ own patch. A remarkable effort, not least because Antrobus are the overall Tatton League winners for 2023.
Paddy Moran and Martin France had the Highest Pairs Score of the Day with 44 points and that Old Dog and Stalwart Mike Pigott picked Nearest The Pin (3 inches from the Hole).
Our other pairs’ scores were: Mike Pigott & Sam Leach – 40 pts Bob Mycock & Andy Timms – 36 pts Richard Cooper & Graham Brickell – 36 pts
In Summary, another really good effort from everyone who has taken part this year and we are certainly getting closer to hopefully getting our hands on the Trophy in the near future.
I would like to everyone who has been involved and especially the support from you all, it has been a pleasure to Captain the Team, especially the banter and fun, the most important element of golf for me.
We re-assemble next April for 2024 Tatton…
Friendly match at Home versus Leigh
Match Reporter: Mervyn Roberts(CoD)
Despite negative weather forecasts during the week leading up to the match we were eventually able to entertain our visitors Leigh GC under blue skies and with the sun on our backs. The course and greens were in excellent condition leading into our Finals weekend and a closely fought and enjoyable match ensued.
Of the 8 matches played 5 went to the 18th hole with 2 one hole defeats, a win for Sammy and Pete and 2 halved matches, including a fightback from 3 down with 5 to play by Mervyn and Phil O. Phil Lomas and Jeff Chapman were in inspired form and ran out 6 and 5 winners but unfortunately the other 2 matches ended in defeat such that the overall result was yet another defeat for Lymm Seniors by 5 games to 3.
A special mention must be made for the excellent lunch served up by Karen and her team. The chicken curry and chocolate dessert drew many words of praise including players from Leigh who rated the lunch as very much the best they have had over all the 28 matches they have played this season.
Results:
Steve Gosling / Mike Pigott: Halved John White / Paddy Moran: Lost 1 down Alan Ranscombe / Colin Crail: Lost 4 and 3 Phil Ormisher / Mervyn Roberts: Halved Graham Brickell / Ron Thornton: Lost 1 down Sammy Lee / Peter Broady: Won 1 up Jeff Chapman / Phil Lomas: Won 6 and 5 Arthur Laird / Peter Willson: Lost 3 and 2
Bottle of Wine Competition – 15 September
Competition running alongside the Leigh match:
Number of Entries – 19
Number of wrong handicaps = 4 (21%) – please check your handicaps !!
First – Ken Narraway – 34 points 2nd – Andrew Cox – 33 points – CPO over last 6 holes – 14 points 3rd – John Armstrong – 33 points -CPO last 6 – 11 points
Well done, Ken!
Tee booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 21st September)
This is the tee booking schedule for play on 6 October: our annual Turkey Trot.
If your name is in the left column, please book for your group.
Peter Broady organised his annual trip for 12 to Abergele last week, at the Abergele Senior Open (4-man teams). I was delighted to be included, having made it into the event as a reserve.
I like golfing in Wales. Did you know that the Welsh language was invented in 1928 by a dyslexic English sheep farmer in Wrexham? This is why Welsh is so easy to learn. It is simply the English words spelled backwards, but with a few spelling variations, such as the letter ‘K’ becomes ‘LL’, and where there are two adjoining vowels in a word, such as ‘ee’, ‘ea’, ‘ou’, etc. the spelling changes to ‘Y’.
Therefore “Leek soup for dinner” becomes ‘Llyl pys rof rennid’. Next time you go to Wales, try it on the natives. The only exception to the rules above is the word ‘jellyfish’, which translates into Welsh as Pysgodyn wibli wobli. (If you don’t believe me, look it up!)
Back in England, Lymm’s senior away team is still on wibbly wobbly form, but showing small signs of improvement, as Phil Ormersher will explain in his CoD piece for the match at Northenden Golf Club.
Well done to Martin Franks, who is this year’s Senior Champion!
Senior Championship – 8 September 2023
Winner: Martin Franks – 35 points (CPO over last 6 holes -16 points)
Second: Paul Foster – 35 points (CPO over last 6 holes -14 points)
Third: Steve Gosling – 35 points (CPO over last 6 holes -11 points)
Individual Stableford – 8 September 2023
Winner: Steve ‘Bandit’ Barlow – 32 points Second: Bob Ellison – 31 points Third: Dave Craggs – 30 points
Abergele’s Party
Event Reporter: Peter Broady
Three teams of four entered the Abergele Seniors Open competition. On a hot and very humid day with the occasional spots of rain, we all set off on the parkland course. Once again the course was in good condition.
Due to the recent weather conditions it paid to stay on the fairways as the first cut to rough was very thick with clover. It took some getting out of.
The Halfway house was welcomed by us all, supplying us with tea/coffee and cakes. And of course a rest from the heat.
We had our own little competition between our selves and the winning team taking the money with 98 points where. Grahame Brickell John Armstrong Andrew Cox Ken Narraway
Both runner-up teams had 97 points each, a close fought battle. All agreed a good day out.
I have booked four tee times for next year in their Seniors Open Competition 5th September 2024. (Thursday). If anybody is interested in playing in this competition please email/text me so I can put your name on the list. Thanks.
Pete Broady
Captain of the day’s report – Northenden v Lymm 11th September 2023
Match Reporter: Phil Ormesher
A bright start to the day combined with coffee, tea and biscuits in their super ‘newish’ club house.
So down to the first tee, but only three players until 1 minute before tee time the fourth player appeared. It turns out he was cooking sausage rolls which he brought with him and offered to share. How’s that for hospitality!
The match progressed well with just a little rain towards the end of the match but nothing significant. With various thumbs up and down shown from other Lymm players as we went round it did seem that we were in with a chance of a win. I was hopeful.
On the last few holes we had a helicopter circulating for about 15 minutes. Very annoying. Rumour had it that it was the paparazzi expecting to gain an exclusive on an unexpected win for Lymm, but it turns out it was the police attending an ‘event’ on the nearby River Mersey.
The lunch, fish and chips followed by ice cream, was excellent.
Thanks were given by Northenden Club Captain, Paul Johnson, in what was his last event as Captain. Paul took the opportunity to highlight the achievement of Steve ‘Chipper’ Barlow who holed a 50-foot (or was it yards?) chip to halve the match.
Sadly, Steve’s efforts were in vain as Lymm achieved two wins and 2 halves resulting in a 5 – 3 win for Northenden. Not a bad result but closer than the overall score would indicate
We pay Northenden again, at home, on the 22nd, so hopefully we can have our revenge.
Thanks to all who played and mustered applause for my joke and not forgetting John Armstrong who does all the organising and Steve Gosling who is the ‘money man’ – time consuming roles often overlooked.
Phil Ormesher, 12th September 2023
Happy Mondays
The results of this Monday’s competition were:
1st Les Williams, Richard Yates, 55 points 2nd Charlie Heath, Grahame Brickell , David Waggitt, 54 points 3rd Les Fecitt, Alan Thomas, Colin Chisnall, 50 points.
Tee booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 14th September)
This is the tee booking schedule for play on Friday 29nd September. We have a home match against Warrington. The rest of the field plays for a bottle of wine.
If your name is in the left column, please book for your group.
Let us headline this week with our victory against Davyhulme last Friday. It was of course Davyhulme’s first senior-team visit to Lymm. They are a friendly bunch and all the visitors that I spoke to enjoyed their visit. See Art Laird’s captain-of-the-day report below.
I was on the Lymm team versus Davyhulme, and therefore heard Art’s speech. I have to say that he got huge laughs by telling a non-joke about a man and his wife driving their ball into a pond. As we awaited the punchline, Art simply said, “that’s it; that’s the joke”. For a few seconds, everyone look at each other bemused, and inevitably everyone suddenly burst out laughing!
Unfortunately, on Monday, at the inter-club match at Bramhall, we suffered a whitewash, although some of the matches were very close.
Mark Pickles and John Armstrong were one-up after 8 holes, and looked certain to be two-up at the turn, as John had hit a great drive and then an equally impressive 5 wood onto the green of a long par 4 in which he had a shot to his handicap. On arriving at the green, John, who had been playing a ‘Wilson’ ball, then decided to putt his opponent’s ‘Callaway’ ball which was further away from the hole. We lost the hole we were set to win, making the score level.
A few holes later, John, who was by now playing a ‘Srixon’, decided to play an approach shot with his opponent’s ‘Callaway’ ball, assuring me he’d played a ‘Srixon’.
“Should have gone to Specsavers” 😉
Interclub Friendly Match – Home versus Davyhulme – Friday 1st September
Reporter: Arthur Laird (CoD)
It was just great to have very fine weather for a change considering the ‘summer washout’ Most of the Davyhulme team arrived early to avoid traffic and were keen to get on with the job! Plenty of coffee and banter before the match. In spite of a slow start on the first we made good headway. All enjoyed the course which was in great condition particularly the greens – no excuses for missing putts. Many thanks to the green staff and to Andrew Cox and his team of seniors volunteers – just great. All teams were in by 1 pm (4 hours) and the results were collated.
Never mind the ‘honourable draw’, it was a great win for LYMM: 5 – 3 Victory
Art Laird and Mike Bennett – Won 3+1 Dave Craggs and Sammy Lee – Lost 5+4 Andy Timms and Mark Pickles – Won 7+5 Phil Ormesher and Paul Lennie – Lost 4+3 John Higgins and Steve Gosling -Won 2+1 Jeff Ashurst and Phil Lomas – Won 1 up Mervin Roberts and Pete Broady – Lost 5+4 Mark Marsland and Alan Ranscombe – Won 2+1
The lunch swilled by copious quantities of beer and wine was excellent and well done to Karen and staff Nettie, Josh and India.
As always the speeches were well received and a great day was had by all
Art Laird
Interclub Friendly Match – Away versus Bramhall – Monday 4th September
Reporter: Andy Timms (CoD)
The sun was shining on a glorious day as our team assembled at Bramhall in an attempt to break our away duck for the first time this season.
However the signs didn’t look that auspicious when the usually super organised Steve Gosling arrived on time but on opening the boot of his car discovered he’d left his golf clubs behind !!
A frantic dash ensued and thankfully he made it back in time (just) with all his gear. Unfortunately the tone for the day was set, and although a few matches managed to get all the way to the 18th, none of us managed to come out with a victory, leaving the result a somewhat ignominious 8-0 thrashing.
On the plus side, Bramhall lived up to its fine reputation with the course in absolutely superb condition and I’m sure those that played will be looking forward to the potential opportunity to go back next year.
Match results : Peter Broady & Arthur Laird – Lost 5&3 Peter Wilson & Phil Lomas – Lost 1dn Andy Timms & Mike Pigott – Lost 2dn Grahame Brickell & Steve Gosling – Lost 4&3 Andrew Cox & Mike Bennett – Lost 2&1 John Armstrong & Mark Pickles – Lost 5&4 Phil Ormesher & Duncan Clarke – Lost 1dn Phil Perry & Ron Thornton – Lost 4&3
Andy
The Seniors’ Champion of Champions – 8th September
The Champions competition this Friday will be played off our senior handicaps, and over 15 holes, as stated in the Senior Section rules.
Following Round 10 of the Summer League, Bob Mycock has done a handicap review. Therefore, if you are in the Champion’s competition on Friday, please make sure you check your senior handicap before marking your card.
Anyone who does not want to compete with senior handicaps is welcome not to compete.
Tee booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 7th September)
This is the tee booking schedule for play on Friday 22nd September. We have a home match against Northenden. The rest of the field plays for a bottle of wine.
If your name is in the left column, please book for your group.
Lost and Found?
Pitch-mark Repairer Last Friday, Bob Ellison lost a pitch-mark repairer which he hopes that someone has picked up. Bob says: ” [it’s a] black pitch repairer, which l have had for a long time and it has great sentimental value”.
Pink Castle Tee Dave Waggitt lost a pink castle tee on the 6th hole on Friday 1st September.
Dave has informed Steve and Fizz in the pro’s shop, but as yet no-one has handed in the tee. The value of a pink castle tee is only a few pence, but as Dave, a Yorkshireman, pointed out to me, the one he lost was the last one in the packet, and if no-one hands it in he will need to buy a whole new pack.
Lymm Golf Club Senior Section 