Individual Stableford. Played over the 8 holes open. Breezy, chilly but dry day whilst the game was played.
Players = 19 – but 8 handicaps incorrectly entered.
Winner: John White – 20 points 2nd: Peter Willson – 17 points – CPO over last 6 holes 3rd: Jeff Chapman – 17 points
Bottle of wine to John.
Tee-booking schedule for Thursday 26 December
Happy Mondays tee-booking for Sunday 29 December
Pub Crawl – 29 December
Paul Foster has organised a short pub crawl (maybe 2 or 3 pubs) in Lymm Village, to take place on Sunday 29th December. Meeting in the Sadlers Arms at 8pm. All invited.
Happy Christmas!
See the Calendar for 2025, recently completed by Dave Craggs, for a heads-up on our busy and diverse schedule of activities for 2025. Dave has also updated the Rules and Guidelines, to account for various recent changes.
Best Christmas wishes to all from the Senior Section Committee.
A still winter’s day for the final round, and once again some excellent scores from the 45 runners. All to play for.
Two ‘keep a 6 off your cards’ were handed in from Ian Whitehead & Paul Collins (that’s two for PC now).
2s from Mike Bennett, Duncan Clarke, Paul Collins, Michael John and Peter Willson. See George Osbourne aka Steve Gosling for your Christmas balls.
Division 1 Results Winner – Paul Collins with 36pts on a CPO 2nd – Colin Hughes with 34pts 3rd – Mike Kendal and John White 33pts
Division 2 Results Winner – Stuart Baird with 36pts on a CPO 2nd – Mike Bennett with 36 points 3nd – Dave Craggs with 35pts
Autumn League Summary
Reporter: Paul Foster
‘They think it’s all over… it is now’.
So we come to the end of the Autumn League. 71 competitors, 402 rounds, ten different winners in Division 1, but only five different winners in Division 2.
Mr Stewart Baird won 3 rounds and Mr Alan Copeland won 4 rounds. Thirty-one 2s scored, Best score was 41 points by, yes, Mr Copeland. Lowest winning score was 30 points in Division and 28 points in Division 2
Mark Pickles is Division 1 champion of the Autumn League, and richly deserved I must say. Mark lost 7 shots from his handicap over the Autumn League getting down to an all time senior’s low handicap of 1. Michael Johntakes second place, a solitary single point behind Mark in the league table. Martin Frankstakes third place, having been a leader throughout most of the Autumn League period. Congratulations to all three of you.
Alan Copeland is Division 2 champion. With a Christmas-cracker of a finish to his campaign, he has lost 8 shots in his final few rounds. Stuart Baird takes second place. Dave Craggstakes third place. Once again many congratulations to you three.
The seniors’ handicap system, and divisions will be amended for the Winters League starting on Friday 10th January. All will be revealed in due course.
Handicaps until Friday 10 January
The senior section competitions, including ‘Happy Mondays’, will be using senior handicaps for both Div 1 and Div 2. See the ‘Handicaps’ tab for the latest adjustments.
A new handicapping regime will apply from the first round of the Winter League, on 10 January.
Happy Mondays – 16th December
Peter Willson
Well …. Another Monday morning – chilly, damp with glowering clouds and a stiff breeze and because we’re the Senior Section plenty of clouds of confusion to see us on our way and to provide discussions in the Clubhouse afterwards.
The rules were changed in the car park by the earlier starters to play off WHS handicaps rather than the customary Lymm Seniors handicaps. Why this was suggested before we recalibrate the handicaps for the Winter League before WHS returns in the Spring – I’d prefer not to speculate. Some players played off WHS – some of the later starters were told to play off Lymm Seniors handicaps. I’ve checked the scorecards and adjusted the many incorrect handicaps when Seniors handicaps are applied – however amazingly the change to use the most recent SWHS handicap still brought out they same wining team
Game: Team Stableford
6 teams a total of 20 players
Winners: Grahame Brickell, Steve Gosling and Ken Pearce – a creditable 85 points or 28.3 points per player.
It was a close run thing though as 2 other teams came in with 28 ppp
No game for the next two weeks, but the draw for the 1st game of 2025 – 6th January will need to be done on Sunday (see below).
The new scoring system and which handicaps are to be used for next year’s Happy Mondays will decided nearer the time.
Merry Christmas!
A good time was had by all at our Senior Section Christmas lunch last Friday. Here are a few snaps from the event. There was an impressive array of Christmas jumpers.
There were big cheers when the amazing duo of Joe Priestner and George Allen were each in turn drawn in the first raffle tickets! Lucky Joe, whose number was the first to be drawn for the second year running said, “Is this a fix?”
Thank you to Karen and all the catering and bar staff for the excellent meal and service and smooth running of the afternoon.
Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 19 December)
Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 22 Dec
We’re a day early for this week’s newsletter. I will be away tomorrow. The website technology does allow me to schedule publication for any date and time, however, it makes sense to publish today to remind members that there is still chance to join us in our Christmas lunch, so long as you sign by tomorrow afternoon.
I played golf with my mate last-minute-Bob (Mycock) today. He said he “might join” us for Christmas lunch. I said you “might not” unless you put your name on the list today. He said he might do it tomorrow!
Christmas Lunch starting time is 2pm for 2:30pm.
The list of names on the senior’s noticeboard will be removed by Karen on Wednesday evening. Therefore, if you are hoping to attend Christmas lunch this Friday (13 Dec) and haven’t yet added your name, please do so as soon as possible.
Karen will be taking £18 from the bar account of everyone on the list on Wednesday evening. Therefore, if you have changed your mind, remove your name from the list by Wednesday afternoon, or alternatively phone Karen to say that you will be unable to attend. Once the food orders have been made, Karen will not be able to refund those who are listed who do not turn up, and the rest of us will be preying on the extra turkey, roasties and Christmas pud that you have kindly donated.
Please remember to make sure there is enough money on your card, otherwise, on the day, we’ll send ‘the Princess’ round to your table to give you a gentle hug.
The Princess of Oldfield Brow
There is no formal seating plan, but could all Manchester United supporters, former accountants, and former insurance-loss adjusters please sit on Bob Mycock’s table (if he turns up), to avoid boring the rest of us 😉
Autumn League round 9 of 10
Match Reporter: Paul Foster
Another winter’s day, but fortunately in a lull between Storm Darragh’s first and second nuclear attack on the UK, and so we enjoyed rather tranquil conditions on a shortened course (holes 10 and 3-to-9) with winter greens on 7 and 8. Once again some excellent scores, a record 24 players (more than half the field) played better than their handicap. Lots to get my teeth into chopping handicaps.
With only one par 5 in play, numerous ‘keep a 6 off your card’ were handed in this week, from Paddy Moran, Dave Meir, Michael John, Andy Timms, Russ Jones, Ian Whitehead and Paul Collins.
However, a precedent has been set for a new challenge: ‘keep a 5 off your card’! I don’t think this has ever been achieved before in our senior league. Mark Pickles posted a two-under gross card with 4 x 4s and 4 x 3s. As a consequence, Mark’s handicap has plummeted from 5 to 1, effectively scratch (because we do not play the 16th hole).
A large field of 40 runners participated, 21 players from Division 1 and 19 players from Division 2.
Three 2s recorded on the two par 3s played today, Martin Franks, Dave Meir and Ian Whitehead, all on the 9th. See the Second Lord of the Treasury Steve Gosling for your balls.
Division 1 Results: Winner – Mark Pickles with 38pts R/up – Dave Meir with 36pts on a CPO 3rd – Paddy Moran with 36pts on a CPO
Division 2 Results: Winner – Alan Copeland with a league high of 41pts R/up – Mike Bennet with 39pts 3rd – Richard Yates with 38pts
New leader in the 1st division is Mark Pickles with 160 points. Long-time leader Martin Franks is now in 2nd place with 156 points, and Michael John in 3rd place also with 156 points
Extending his lead in the 2nd division is Alan Copeland with 168 points in 2nd position with 157 pts is Dave Craggs, followed by Stuart Baird with 151 points in 3rd place. Alan has now been docked 8 shots just in the Autumn League!
***
Comical moment of the week for me was Dave Meir performing the conga with 35 under-10 year olds at the club’s children’s Christmas party! Had to be seen to be believed!
Heads-up on the Winter League
Reporter: Paul Foster
The Winter League, starting in January, will be played over 12 holes.
Handicaps are always contentious of course, and it is impossible to have a perfect over-winter system.
Suggestions for sticking with WHS handicaps throughout winter sounds reasonable on the face of it, but, especially in Division 2, this would not work. There has to be some ongoing adjustment if we are playing an individual format in our autumn league and winter league. This difficult problem is the reason that Lymm Golf Club has only pairs formats and team formats for almost all the Saturday games outside of WHS qualifying season.
Following discussions with other members of the committee, and after doing several scenario experiments on my spreadsheet, and reporting back to the committee, we have agreed that for the Winter League:
Division 1 players will to revert back to their WHS handicap for Round 1
Division 2 players handicaps are to remain as they finished the Senior Section Autumn league for Round 1.
After every game, I will adjust the handicaps for Div 1 and Div 2, but not as severely for those who play better than their handicap. Full details to follow before the Winter League begins.
Tee-booking schedule for Thursday 12th Dec
Happy Mondays – 9th December
Reporter: Peter Willson
A dry and partly sunny morning with light winds but it became chillier as the round progressed. The course appeared to have avoided too much damage to trees following Storm Darragh – 93 mph winds on the North Wales coast – last weekend.
Game: Team Stableford
15 players in 5 teams
Winners: Steve Gosling, Ron Thornton and Peter Willson – 57 points / 19 ppp
Second: Les Fecitt, Paul Foster and Mark Pickles – 18.7 ppp
Christmas Season Real-Ale Appreciation
Reporter: Paul Foster
A short pub crawl (maybe 2 or 3 pubs is enough for our senior knee-and-hip joints) in Lymm Village will take place on Sunday 29th December. Meeting in the Sadlers pub at 8pm. All invited.
This could develop in the New Year into a regular event, at various locations. Real ale will be the theme.
Our secretary, ‘Craggzy’, is preparing for Christmas. Having an impressive head of white hair, the good folk of Stockton Heath have asked him to grow a long beard in readiness for the forthcoming community events.
Back at Lymm Golf Club, Dave has proposed a raffle for our Christmas lunch on Friday 13th. We had some good fun with the raffle last year, and raised some money for a worthy cause. Thank you to those who donated prizes for the raffle.
The largesse of Santa has limits. Therefore, any donation of a prize for the raffle will be much appreciated. Please contact Dave Craggs, or simply turn up on the day with your offering. I’ll publish more details in next week’s newsletter.
If you are coming to the Christmas, lunch, please make sure that there is at least £18 on your card. The catering and bar staff will be very busy, and we don’t want to burden them on the day with having to ask us to come to the bar to top up our account.
Turkey Trot
As promised last week, the full results were published on the main LGC website, taken from our inputs to the I.G. app. See here.
As luck would have it, following a couple of days of dryer weather, 15 holes were open. Here are the leading scores by division:
1st Division Winner – Richard Smyllie 35pts R/up – Ian Whitehead 35pts 3rd – Paddy Moran 33pts
2nd Division Winner Alan Copeland 35pts R/up Jeff Chapman 34pts 3rd Ken Narraway 34pts
Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow – Thursday 5th December
Happy Mondays – 2nd December
Reporter: Peter Willson
It wasn’t a particularly Happy Monday morning – the light rain was pretty continuous and it was cold. Three intrepid player were seen venturing up the muddy path to the 10th tee early doors, but the remaining 3 participants in the car park looked at the weather and decided to make a retreat home.
Please note – I’m not issuing a draw for the next 2 weeks – 23rd and 30th December – as most players will have other tasks to perform and entertain themselves.
Next draw for the 6th January 2025 will be issued in due course.
Lymm Golf Club Senior Section 