Pairs Knockout Competition – ‘The Andy Ward Trophy’

After many rounds and close-run tussles the Winter Pairs Knockout final was played on Monday.

Congratulations to the winners Dave Craggs and Paul Foster.

And well done to the runners up Bob Ellison and Dave Meir.

Interclub Competition Fee Increase

Due to increasing costs at all golf clubs, including our own, we need to increase the competition fees for interclub matches.

To keep things simple, we have decided to increase the away-match fee from £20 to £25, and to leave the home-match fee at £15.

Mike Smith Plate – Individual Matchplay Knockout Competition 

URGENT: Please add your name to the entry list on Senior’s notice board if you want to take part in this year’s competition.

Peter Willson hopes to do the draw for the preliminary and first rounds as soon as possible. Therefore, please put your name on the list by this Friday, 28th March. Peter intends to do the draw over the weekend, and enter it on the main LGC club website next week.

Happy Mondays Match Report, 24 March

Reporter: Peter Willson

A dry and sunny day with light winds. Spring has truly sprung.

Game – Team Stableford 

19 players – 7 teams 

Winners – Mike Bennett, Colin Crail and Richard Yates – 92 points or 30.7 points per player 

Second – Pete Broady, Eric Cox, John Hayes and Peter Willson – 120 points or 30 ppp

Highest individual score – Mike Bennett – 34 points.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 27 March)

Happy Mondays Tee-Booking Schedule for Sunday 30 March

Slow Play

Our chairman, John Armstrong, has asked me to remind all members to avoid slow play. Apparently, in the Texas Scramble last Friday one of the slower groups caused four other groups to back up on a single hole!

Please use some common sense and have some courtesy for the players following you. If you see you are causing play to back up, and you have lost well over a hole from the fourball in front of you, take some remedial action, such as skipping a hole.

Texas Scramble

I have yet to receive a report of last Friday’s Texas Scramble. I’m not sure who collected the cards. I’ll add the report of the results next week if we can track them down.

Summer League Starts this Friday (28th March)

Our Summer League starts on Friday. The Summer League is a 15-hole competition. We will start the league on the seniors’ handicaps (see the Handicaps page), and switch over to WHS handicaps as soon as LGC announces that we can enter WHS qualifying cards. We expect this announcement in the coming days, as we come off winter-protection measures and revert to playing the full measured course.

Padeswood and Buckley G C Senior Open on Tuesday 1st July 2025

Reporter: John Hayes

Many of you will be aware of our annual visit to Padeswood to enjoy the excellent facilities of the club and grounds. This coming season is no exception and tee reservations are in place for Tuesday 1st July starting at 10:40.The quality of the day out is confirmed partly the fact that the majority of the places have been taken by those who played last year. However, there are still a few places left and I invite you to contact me to say that you would like to play this year.

The cost of the day is a meagre £18 each, which includes the course fee of £15 and a contribution of £3 to the prize fund for our group only, there being a cash prize for 1st, 2nd and 3rd within our group scores. The format is four-ball-better-ball and the overall prizes for the competition are provided by P and B G C.

The course is situated about 45/50 minute’s drive from Lymm G C, via M56/A55 and minor roads for the last couple of miles. Refreshments are available at the clubhouse (at your own expense!) before and after the golf.

If you would like to join the group please contact John Hayes on 07771464028 or 01925758244 or john@jchayes.net   

We welcome Ian Smith to the Senior Section

Ian Smith – who tells me that he is ‘a proud Brummie’ – has recently joined the senior section. I asked him to write a paragraph or two to introduce himself:

I have lived in Lymm for 26 years with my wife Deborah. We have two grown up children, a daughter and a son, both with baby boys born in the last 12 months, making us ‘new’ grandparents.

I retired in 2022 from a career in the volume house building industry working as a Regional Managing Director for some of the country’s largest house builders. I studied Town Planning at university in Cardiff in the early/mid 1980’s and found my way into house building with a job as a land buyer and planner.

I have been a member of Lymm Golf Club three times on and off since 2001, re-joining most recently when I retired. My lowest handicap since taking up golf in my 20’s was 17.8, so a return to at least that level has been my target since re-joining the club. Outside of golf I am a member of Lymm Runners, and also do Pilates to try to keep in shape. My wife and I are Sale Sharks rugby season ticket holders.

I’m looking forward to playing more of my golf in the company of the LGC Seniors group and have already enjoyed healthy ‘banter’ with some of you so I know what to expect!

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Winter League round 10 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

So that brings down the curtain on the Winter league, a super final day where over half of the field played to their handicap or better.

A field of 50 competed, a league high, 25 players from Division 1 and 25 players from Division 2. With the splendid weather, little wind and again no rain, the scores were spectacular.

Three 2s recorded today, Martin Franks, Tommy Lawless & Barry McGuigan, balls to you three from the treasury!

Division 1 Results:
Winner – Richard Smyllie with 29pts
R/up – Charlie Hill with 28pts on a CPO
3rd – Grahame Brickell with 28pts on a CPO

Division 2 Results:
Winner – Rob Taylor with 28pts (great to see Rob’s name in lights)
R/up – Steve Bird with 27pts
3rd – Steve Bramall with 26pts on a CPO

Four 1st division players put the wrong hcap down, and two 2nd division player put the wrong hcap down. Please check your seniors hcap every week in the newsletter. Just 1 card marked incorrectly (pts entered under the ‘B’ column).

50 cards handed in, 47 entered into Ig. When the WHS hcap system awakens in April, only scores entered into the Ig system will count.

Two ‘keep a six off your card’, this week, Richard Smyllie and Mark Pickles. The following achieved this over the winter league; Paddy Moran x 3, Michael John, Ian Whitehead, Paul Foster, Tommy Lawless, Dave Meir, Steve Barlow, Russ Jones x 2, Koos Alders, Richard Smyllie and Mark Pickles x 1. Paddy wins this new league challenge. Congratulations Paddy.

For the upcoming Summer league, alongside the ‘keep a six off your card’ for the 1st division, we will be running a ‘keep a seven off your card’ for the 2nd division.

Final results of the years Winter League

Reporter: Paul Foster

Division 1:

Paddy Moran, with a top-notch 16 under par, finished as the top dog.

Grahame Brickell, with a late burst in the last couple of rounds, finishing 13 under is the r/up.

Michael John, Steve Barlow & Richard Smyllie all came equal 3rd.

Division 2:

Steve Bramall, with an amazing 20 under par is champion, despite lowering his hcap by 8 shots during the winter league!!

Dave Craggs, finishing 9 under par is the r/up.

Steve Bird, finishing 7 under par came 3rd.

The winter league had 35 division 1 competitors and 34 division 2 competitors, totalling 333 rounds of golf across 8 Friday’s, 8 different winners of the 1st division & 7 different winners of the 2nd division. Only Steve Bramall managed to win 2 rounds, Steve was also in the top 3 five times. Surely the player of the season!

Texas Scramble this Friday (21st March)

This coming Friday we have a ‘fun comp’ on the calendar. By popular demand, the format will be Texas Scramble.

Calculating the Team handicap:

The WHS system for calculating Texas Scramble team handicaps is:

• Four Players: 25% + 20% + 15% + 10% of the course handicap from the lowest to highest handicap.
  
• Three Players: 30% + 20% + 10% of the course handicap from the lowest to highest handicap

Do not round the decimal points up or down.

Rules:
15 holes, medal. When you subtract the team handicap from the gross score, do not round the decimal point.

For teams of four, at least 3 drives of each player must be used.

For teams of three, at least 4 drives of each player must be used.

Summer League – Best 5 out of 10 – starts on 28 March

The Summer League starts on Friday 28 March. If, on the 28th, we are still on winter conditions – the shortened winter course, and playing off mats – our senior handicap will apply.

When LGC switches to WHS qualifying, our WHS handicap will apply.

If you intend to play on the 28th, please remember to enter in the ‘Upcoming Competitions’, on the I.G. app of the LGC website. The competition is listed as Senior Section Summer League Round 1.

Congratulations to our Senior Section Chairman!

Congratulations to Young Mr Armstrong, who has become the latest of our octogenarians to grace the fairways! Steve Gosling presented John with his LGC Senior’s jumper on his 80th birthday.

Final Match of the Doubles Knockout (The Andy Ward Trophy)

The final of the Andy Ward Trophy is to be played next Monday, teeing off at 09:27. Spectators welcome. Admission free. Please follow the stewards’ advice at all times. Overflow carparking has been arranged.

The finalists are:

Paul Foster and Dave Craggs versus Dave Meir and Bob Ellison.

It should be a great match!

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 20 March)

Tee-booking schedules for Fridays – General Information

Mike Kendal, who joined the senior committee last autumn, was assigned the difficult task of producing the tee-booking schedules for the Friday competitions.

A few of our members have sent comments, moans, and questions to Mike. A few have asked why they seem to be drawn regularly with the same players, and would prefer it if the draw was more mixed up.

Mike creates the schedules based on the requests of the members. For instance, my request is to play ‘early’. Some members have requested half-hour time slots. If other members have requested the same half-hour time slots, they will inevitably be drawn together very often.

On the other hand, we have other members who prefer to play regularly with their close friends.

Mike tries to accommodate all requests, but as you can imagine, it’s not easy! Please send any updates to Mike if you want to be less restrictive about your tee times, which will allow him to create a more diverse mixing of groups.

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 23 March

Spot the Ball !

I think we’ve all hit balls into dense conifer trees, only for them never to come down. Last Friday Steve Gosling managed to keep his ball high up in some skinny bare twigs of the tree overhanging the 11th fairway! The gravity-defying ball was still there this morning (Wednesday). It’s becoming somewhat of a tourist attraction!

I believe that Steve is taking bets for the day his ball drops!

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Please note that there will be no newsletter next week because I will be abroad on holiday. I suggest that everyone uses the same the signing on schedules next week for the Friday and Monday competitions as this week.

When I return next Thursday evening, I will update the leader boards and handicaps that Paul Foster will send to me, in order that the folks at the top of the leader boards can see how they stand before they head out for final round of the Winter League!

If anyone would like to become a reserve newsletter editor, please do let me know. I did train two fellow members of LGC Seniors two years ago on how to use the Microsoft ‘WordPress’ platform, but Microsoft have made significant changes to WordPress Administrator since then.

Winter League Round 8 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

A pulchritudinous winter’s day, brilliant sunshine, with no wind and no rain, a little foggy for the early starters, but all in all a fine day for golf. Gentlemen, we are indeed a fortunate group, of shall we say ‘golfers of a certain age’ to enjoy life on the fairways.

[ Editor’s Note:
Dear Paul. I will allow your ‘pulchritudinous’ this time. But in future, please stick to the kind of vocabulary you would use if you were hosting the Wheel Tappers and Shunters Club, or doing your shopping in Oldfield Brow. Please avoid the kind of ostentatious sesquipedalian ramblings one might expect to hear from the compere of an Edwardian music hall. 😉 ]

With such benign conditions, three players achieved the ‘keep a 6 off your card’, Paddy Moran, Steve Barlow and Russ Jones. Well done you boys, Steve is the highest handicapper to achieve this feat. Paddy Moran now leads this elite group of players, Paddy has achieved three ‘keep a 6 off your card’.

A field of 41 runners for the last day in February, 20 players from Division 1 and 21 players from Division 2.

Zero 2s recorded today for the second week running, I’ve never seen such a large Cheshire Cat grin on Steve Gosling’s face..!

Division 1 Results:
Winner – Paddy Moran with 29pts
R/up – Steve Barlow with 28pts
3rd – Richard Smyllie with 27pts on a CPO

Division 2 Results:
Winner – Dave Craggs with 27pts on a CPO
R/up – Richard Yates with 27pts
3rd – Ron Thornton with 26pts

Paddy Moran still enjoys a lead in the 1st division of 8 pts, but now from from Russell Jones. Steve Bramall now tops the 2nd division, with a 4pt lead over Dave Craggs.

Sadly five 1st division players (a quarter) put their wrong hcap down, just one 2nd division player put their wrong hcap down. Please check your seniors hcap every week in the newsletter. Your seniors hcap may well be different to your WHS hcap.

I can’t speak… all cards were marked correctly, first class… a few players put their names under the ‘B’ column, go to the back of the class you six.

41 cards handed in, 40 entered into Ig.

Summer Knock-Out competition

Reporter: Peter Willson

It is time this summer’s individual match play competition. I will put a sheet on the Seniors’ noticeboard.

Format: 18 holes Match play using WHS (95%) handicap. 

* Full rules are contained in the Rules and Guidelines section of the Seniors website

* Please enter your name on the entry form posted on the Senior’s notice board in the changing room. 

* The draw will be made at the end of March – the sheet will be removed on Friday 28th March and the draw made shortly afterwards. 

 * The draw details and play by dates dates for each round will be posted on the club website.

Just to note, I do enjoy reading the ‘Nutty’s Notables’, are we allowed to ask for requests Arthur?

Happy Mondays – 3 March 2025

A chilly start, but thankfully it remained dry and the sun tried to break through towards the end of the round. First signs of spring with the large willow tree by the 1st tee with leaf buds just breaking out, and the course continues to dry out.

Game: Team Stableford

5 teams – 13 players 

Winners: Pete Broady, Tony Lambert and Phil Perry – 88 points or 29.3 points per player

Second: Steve Bramall and Alan Thomas – 29 ppp

Highest individual score – Phil Perry – 33 points.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 6 March)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 9 March

This week’s Nutty’s Notable: Paul Collins

Reporter: Arthur Nuttall

Paul was born and bred in Altrincham. He was fascinated by the mechanics of cars from an early age.

Editors Note: From memory, Paul told me that the first car he purchased as soon as he was old enough to drive was a wreck of a Mini Cooper. He borrowed money off his Dad to renovate it. Several months later, Paul was the proud owner of a gleaming red Mini Cooper. However, taking it on its first outing, and racing one of his mates from Oldfield Brow up to the posh part of Altrincham, the engine that Paul had reconstructed blew up. He immediately realised that he’d forgotten to torque the cylinder head bolts. That was the end of the Mini Cooper!

Paul moved to Warrington in 1985 to pursue a career in motor technology with a prestigious dealership. After a 10-year period, during which he gained a Senior Technician qualification, Paul set up his own company, which he ran for 30 years. He tells us that he has recently changed career. He is now a full-time golfer!

Paul’s first taste of golf was at the age of 12, when he used to caddy at Dunham Golf Club for some additional pocket money. He took up the sport seriously in the mid 1980s, progressing well and attaining a handicap of 10.

In the mid 90s, Paul took a break from playing golf to concentrate on building his business, with some considerable success. However, there was still some time for leisure, including motorcycle road riding and racing for Aintree Motorcycle racing club and Wirral 200. Paul returned to golf about 15 years ago, playing at Walton Hall and Birchwood before coming to Lymm GC.

Paul tells us that by far his biggest achievement in life is his marriage to Janet for over 40 years, and the priceless relationship he now enjoys with two children and four grandchildren!

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles