Another shorter newsletter this week, largely because there is no report for the match against Huyton and Prescot last Friday. The H & P team failed to turn up, somehow thinking the match was to be played on the following Monday!

Friday Bottle of Wine Competition

Reporter: Paul Foster

A marvellous late Spring day, light cloud, an intermittent coolish breeze, and a relatively empty course. What’s not to like…?

Winner of the wine of the day was Steve ‘the actor’ Barlow, with a tremendous 36 points over the 15 holes, and the only one to beat his hcap. Say goodbye to playing off 16 Steve!

Runners up were Colin Royle, Arthur Nuttall & Bob Ellison, all with 29 pts.

Notables:
23 entered the BOW competition
22 entered their scores into Ig
2 incorrect hcaps entered on the card
2 incorrectly marked cards

All the rest were blob on..!!

Happy Mondays Report

Reporter: Peter Willson

A lovely late Spring day – blue skies, no wind, ground firm – so why did the majority of us score so poorly? Not many excuses can be found.

Game : Team Stableford

6 teams – 19 players.

Winners: Mike Bennett, Pete Broady, Ken Pearce and Ken Rigby – 116 points or 29 ppp
2nd: Phil Perry and John White  – 47 points or 23.5 PPP

High Score of the day – it’s that man again – Pete Broady with 33 individual Stableford points.

Tatton League

Reporter: Mike Pigott (Team Captain)

The first round of the Tatton League took place on Monday 28 April at Birchwood, in glorious sunshine.

Lymm Seniors, the holders, picked from their tried and tested squad from the last few years, plus four or five new additions who are available for selection.

Mike Pigott and Dave Meir finished with 38 points, after a sticky patch in the middle of the round, following by Ian Whitehead and Colin Royle, also with 38 points. Third home were the reliable pair of Andy Timms (Club Captain) and Mark Pickles, again with 38 points. The last pair, Richard Cooper and Steve Gosling excelled themselves with 44 points. A great debut for Steve, who said, “I enjoyed playing with Richard today”. Who wouldn’t, the way Richard plays!

Dave Meir and Richard Cooper won nearest the pin prizes, and Richard and Steve missed out on the best score on a back-nine card playoff.

Scores after Round 1 of 6:

High Legh: 163 points
Birchwood: 159 points
Lymm: 158 points
Heyrose: 157 points
Antrobus: 151 points
Styal: 145 points.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 1 May)

Happy Mondays Tee-Booking Schedule for Sunday 4 May

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Apart from the tee-booking schedules, there is not much to report this week, due to the lack of senior-section golfing events over the Easter holiday period.

However, congratulations are due to Pete Broady, who came second in the Saturday competition (Stableford), in a field of about 150 players.

For anyone interested in nature, I heard a Cetti’s warbler today by the 6th tee, the same place I frequently heard one last year. It’s a rare bird that I will report to Brian Ankers, who monitors the birdlife on Lymm Golf Club, and puts up the nest boxes, and is connected with a network of ornithologists throughout the region. Brian writes the ‘Wildlife Report’ on the main LGC website. Here is the song of the Cetti’s warbler on YouTube. It is very distinctive, and very loud. Other summer visitors I have heard (but not yet seen) are whitethroats and chiffchaffs. I have yet to see a swallow at Lymm this year, but I’m sure we’ll start to see them any day soon, as they arrive back from South Africa to the place where they were born.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 24 April)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 27 April

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Summer League – Round 3 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

The playing conditions are vastly improving, and at last we are thankfully off the mats, but still playing off some winter tees. Fifty nine entries for the third round of the Summer league, 28 players from Division 1 and 31 players from Division 2.

Four 2s recorded, Alan Copeland, Howard Jones, Russ Jones & Alan Thomas.

Division 1 Results:
Winner – Steve Gosling with 36pts
R/up – Arthur Nuttall with 34pts
3rd – Martin Franks with 33pts

Division 2 Results:
Winner – Phil Lomas with 32pts on a CPO
R/up – Joe Priestner with 32pts
3rd – Les William with 31pts

Seven Div 1 and four Div 2 players put their wrong hcap down. Please check handicaps before signing your card. This is especially important now we are switching to WHS qualifying. It is also important to make sure you sign in to the competition in I.G. at least one day before play, otherwise your card will not be included in the competition.

I am still getting marked incorrectly (usually entering the gross and nett score under column ‘A’ or by entering the stableford points scored in column ‘A’ or ‘B’, instead of the ‘Points’ column). We are getting better at this, but it seems it’s the same players every week that incorrectly mark the cards. All we need is gross score in column ‘A’ and stableford points in the ‘Points’ column.

Three ‘keep a six off your card’, Martin Franks, Ian Whitehead & Mike Pigott in the 1st division.

One ‘keep a seven off your card’, Colin Hughes in the 2nd division.

59 cards handed in, 53 entered into Ig, remember playmates, when we are back on the WHS system, players not entering their scores into Ig will NOT be in the competition.

Funny notes;

One player registered in IG a ‘hole in 1’ on the 2nd hole for 5 points! It should have been a 5 scored for 1 point.

John Higgins lost his ball on the 11th green! It took nearly a minute to locate his marker!

My fourball would like to apologise to Mike Pigott, Alan Ranscombe, John Armstrong and Dave Waggitt, as we teed off from the 13th when they were still on 15th green. There’s a sign by the 13th tee telling us to wait till the 15th green is clear before teeing off… all please note.

Interclub friendly away at Leigh

Reporter and CoD: Grahame Brickell

The day started so well … bright and dry, the prospect of rain having dissipated.

With only the 1st tee as the starting whole, the later starters didn’t arrive early enough for coffee and hence missed the CoD’s rousing rally for a better performance than our team had at Warrington!

As the results show, only the first 5 players clearly got the message!

Results:
Brickell & Roberts W 1up
Broady & Ashurst W 2&1
Jones & Parry W 1up
And then it went downhill!
Armstrong & Smith L 4&3
Barlow & Willson L 1D
Mr Captain & Bennett L 5&7 😬
Gosling & Burton L 3&2
Williamson & Lee, halved on 18

Overall a loss 3 1/2 to 4 1/2, which is not bad for an away match. We expect to beat them at the return match at Lymm in September.

The steak, mash and veg, following by apple crumble and custard, was very enjoyable.

There was no repeat of a golfer falling into a pond this year!

Next match, our first home fixture Friday 25 April against newbies Huyton & Prescot.

Watch out for three ‘availability’ posts coming soon on WhatsApp for ..
Helsby home monday 12th May
Ringway away weds 14th May &
Bramhall home frid 16th May
A busy week!!

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 17 May)

Happy Mondays – 14 April

Reporter: Peter Willson

A dry yet quite breezy and chilly day, which didn’t deter 19 Happy golfers trying to emulate Rory McIlroy’s exploits the day before in the exciting finish at The Masters.

Game: Team Stableford
6 teams / 19 players

Winners: John Booth, Colin Chisnall and Alan Thomas – 86 points or 28.7 ppp
2nd: Pete Broady, Tony Dixon and Tony Lambert – 80 points or 26.7 ppp

Highest individual score – John Booth 33 points, second – Alan Thomas 31 points.

There is no tee-booking schedule for Happy Mondays this week because Monday 5th May is a bank holiday.

Slow Play

Once again, our Senior Section pace of play was far too slow last Friday, with reports of three groups backing up on one hole due to a slow group ahead. Lymm Golf Club has put out some general instructions on avoiding slow play. And we have been instructed to write our start times and finish times on all scorecards.

Always play ready golf.

The problem we have in the senior section is that we have have groups of diverse ability and diverse hitting distance. In order to get around this, please be prepared to play out of turn if it is safe to do so. For instance, if you have hit your ball 270 yards down the right-hand side of the fairway, and your playing partner has hit a shot half that distance into the semi-rough on the left, walk quickly to your ball and play it.

Whilst we encourage you to play out of turn to speed up play, only do so if you have assessed it is safe for everyone, including yourself.

This week’s ‘Nutty’s Notable’: Rob Taylor

Reporter: Arthur Nutall

Rob was born in 1947 in Simonstown, South Africa. His earliest idyllic years were on the family Chicken Farm, but when “big school” loomed, the family moved to the campus of the University of Cape Town. (Sadly, this wasn’t because Rob was a child prodigy – it was because his Dad worked there!) 

1955 – the winds of Afrikaner Nationalism were blowing hard, so his very British family piled into their very British car (a Standard Vanguard) and headed into the British territory of Rhodesia (now Zambia).

Rob recalls tumbling through his school years at Churchill Boys School, where he played Rugby, Cricket and Athletics and some nominal desk learning. He slid from there into a job with Rhodesian Customs & Excise, starting at the bottom and ending 11 years later as the department’s Director of Training Schools. Postings included spells at Victoria Falls, Biet Beit Bridge (on the Limpopo River), Chirundu (on the Zambezi River) and even 2 years abroad – in Beira, Mozambique (evading the sanctions imposed by the Wilson Government).  

Threaded through all this was his National Service. He was called up in 1966. The Bush War had started, so it was Infantry, Logistics, Signals and finally (believe it or not!) Military Intelligence. Through the magical system of rolling camps – on average, he spent 4 months of every year in the Bush – living the dream.

In 1977 – the winds were blowing a different tune but the writing was on the wall, so it was time to pack up the family again. By this time, it consisted of his wife, Joyce, 4-year-old Tamara and tiny baby Neil. The destination of the next chapter was “Mud Island” (as England was affectionately known), Plymouth to be exact – the ancestral home.

Rob says that moving to England was possibly the best decision they ever made. It turned out to be a land of golden opportunity for all the family. Rob spent 33 years in business management: general management (4 companies), start-up ventures (3 companies) and some rescue consulting and contracting.

When asked about his career highlight, he believes that this was definitely his first job, where he spent 10 great years with Pioneer Concrete. He progressed from Plant Manager to Regional Director North West (hence his move to his current home in Knutsford).

In the early 90’s, Rob joined two American entrepreneurs for an exhilarating 5 years in a start-up company that was to become Virgin Media no less, experience that, in the early 2000’s, Rob took with him as he devised and instigated a project to digitise the Scottish Highway Agency fibre optic network (signalling and CCTV) – a concept design in partnership with Tyco Technology.

By 2010, it was time to close the workbook and start another new chapter. He took up golf! And coerced by myself and Phil Blake, Rob help to set up and administer our Senior Section for a number of years.

Rob and Joyce have never got used to our British winters, and annually chase the sun to places such as Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India and Tenerife.

Arthur Nuttall

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Straight Down the Middle!

A large and ebullient crowd gathered around the first tee for the Captain’s Drive-In on Sunday 6 April. To the sounds of clapping, cheering, and not a little heckling, our very own Andy Timms walked up to the tee markers.

As Andy teed up the ball, all became suddenly hushed. Thankfully he held his nerve and launched the perfect drive, long and straight, earning himself a few “wows” from the spectators and a huge round of applause.

I’m sure that I speak for all members of the Senior Section in wishing Andy a good and happy tenure as Mens’ Captain of Lymm Golf Club. I’m pleased to report that Andy will remain on our Senior Section committee. He will continue to liaise between the seniors and the main committee, and he has volunteered to do the organisation of the Mitre Cup (Seniors v Ladies) in August.

Our roving investigator, Arthur Nuttall, recently caught up with Andy, who features in this week’s ‘Nutty’s Notables’.

Summer League – Round 2 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

A splendid early summer’s day, with fifty five entry’s for the next round of the Summer league, 23 players from Division 1 and 32 players from Division 2. Just 3 players under par from the 1st division, but an exceptional 13 players under par from the 2nd division.

Two 2s recorded, John Higgins and Colin Hughes

Division 1 Results:
Winner – Paul Collins with 33pts
R/up – Steve Barlow with 32pts on a CPO
3rd – Colin Royle with 32pts

Division 2 Results:
Winner – George Clarke with 36pts
R/up – Phil Ormesher with 35pts on a CPO
3rd – Graham Sweeney with 35pts on a CPO

Another candidate for Nutty’s Notables: Division 2 winner of the week George Clarke. Well done George!

Four players put their wrong hcap down. Please check your seniors hcap in the newsletter for next week, just in case we are not back on the WHS system. Five cards marked incorrectly (usually entering the Stableford points scored in column ‘A’ or ‘B’, instead of the ‘Pts Scored’ column). But all the rest were beautifully presented, well done boys.

One ‘keep a six off your card’, Paul Collins in the 1st division.

Three ‘keep a seven off your card’, Mervyn Roberts, Mike Bennett & Alan Copeland, in the 2nd division.

55 cards handed in, 52 entered into Ig.

Happy Mondays – 7 April

Reporter: Peter Willson

Another glorious sunny, blue sky day without a cloud in the sky, and after a cool start it turned into a very pleasant spring day

Game – Team Stableford 

7 teams / 24 players 

Winners– It’s those 3 again out last and coming home when others were anticipating winnings ! Mike Bennett, Colin Crail and Richard Yates – 93 points or 31 ppp

Joint Second – Steve Bird, Tony Dixon and Les Fecitt – 84 points / 28 ppp and Pete Broady, Alan Copeland, Ron Thornton and Peter Willson – 112 points / 28 ppp

Highest Individual Score – Mike Bennett 36 points 

Tee-booking Schedule for Tomorrow (Thursday 10 April)

This is the schedule for 25 April. It will be a fun comp (bottle of wine to the winner) because we are hosting an interclub friendly match against Huyton and Prescot Golf Club.

Happy Mondays Tee-Booking Schedule for Sunday 13 April

Do you have some business-promotion experience?

John Tomlinson, a director of Lymm Golf Club, is seeking volunteers to help attract business-sponsorship partnerships. The Ladies’ Section has been doing an excellent job in this regard, and John is wondering if there are any members of the Senior Section with sales and promotion experience who are willing to help.

John writes:

“As part of our drive for new income streams we need 1 or 2 volunteers to call potential local sponsorship partners. We are in the middle of sending a small promotional message by post to local businesses and then following up with a phone call to the addressee. So far the ladies section have made almost 300 calls and it would be good to have some gentlemen to make the calls as well.

“We have a master list of names and phone numbers and a standard script for each call. The aim of the call is simply to identify any interested local businesses that Keith Melia can then call with details of our sponsorship packages. The ideal volunteer would have experience in sales, marketing or regularly making telephone calls.

“If you are able to help or would like more information, please contact me (John Tomlinson) or Keith Melia.”

This week’s ‘Nutty’s Notable’: Andy Timms (Mr Captain)

Reporter: Arthur Nuttall

Andy was born in Potters Bar, just outside the M25 and spent the first 8 years of his life there, before his parents moved to Bramhall in the 70’s. He was down south just long enough for him to become a Spurs fan (no regrets there he claims!?). His dad was a single figure golfer for most of his life, (He was Artisan Captain at Potters Bar Golf Club the year that his mate Tony Jacklin, the professional there, won the Open). Andy started his golfing journey as a junior at Bramall Park Golf Club, where he stayed as a member for nearly 30 years.

He studied Civil & Structural Engineering at Sheffield University, and it was there that he met his future wife Liz. They have been married for 35 years now and have two children, Michael and Mary.

Professionally, he was a Civil Engineer, working in the water industry initially at Trafford Council before moving on to several engineering consultancies, finishing up at United Utilities, where he was a Project Manager in the glamorous world of sewerage and wastewater treatment. Along the way he became a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, finally retiring in 2021.

Despite being a Spurs fan, he retains a strong interest in football. He is a FA qualified junior football coach and was secretary of Urmston Meadowside for several years, during which time the club won several national grass roots football awards. Given that he also had a full time job, golf didn’t get much of a look in for about 10 years, and only when his children stopped playing football did he take the game up again, joining Lymm back in 2012.

His other passion is food, and more specifically cooking. He has a collection of over 90 cookbooks and takes real pleasure in preparing meals from scratch, his specialties being a slow cooker pork chilli con carne and barbecue baked side of salmon.

Andy is not a chap who likes to sit idle for too long, and since retiring, he’s immersed himself in golf club life. To that end, in addition to accepting the role of Captain, he also sits on 4 committees at the club (Greens, Seniors, Men’s and Social) and is regularly one of the Wednesday green volunteers.

Also, his nerdy engineering background has left him with a love of data, which is why he started keeping a log of every game of golf he plays. Highlights from that list include the fact that he has so far played 1,031 rounds of golf at Lymm (correct as of 25th March) and has played 184 different courses (in 6 different countries) in his lifetime so far.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

A fairly long newsletter this week, including reports for the Texas Scramble and the Andy Ward Pairs-Knockout Final of two weeks ago that did not reach me in time for last week’s newsletter.

Summer League – Round 1 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

A somewhat chilly day greeted a record high of 61 entry’s to the first round of the Summer league, 27 players from Division 1 and 34 players from Division 2. Now we are playing the maximum 15 holes, the number of under par rounds has expectedly dropped, just 6 were under par for the day.

Four 2s recorded, Bob Ellison, Art Laird, Phil Perry and Mark Pickles

Division 1 Results:
Winner – Ian Whitehead with 35pts, (an awesome card, even with a blob)
R/up – Mark Pickles with 32pts
3rd – Pete Broady with 30pts on a CPO

Division 2 Results:
Winner – Art Laird with 35pts
R/up – Mike Bennett with 34pts
3rd – Phil Ormesher with 33pts

Fulgurous to see the instigator of the FAWC (Friday Afternoon Wine Club) Art Laird on top of the early 2nd division leader board (surely a candidate for Nutty’s Notables).

Seven players put their wrong hcap down. Please check your seniors hcap in the newsletter for next week, round 2 seems likely to be the last week using the seniors winter hcap system. Four cards marked incorrectly. But all the rest were beautifully presented, well done boys.

One ‘keep a six off your card’, Martin Franks in the 1st division.

Four ‘keep a seven off your card’, Art Laird, Mike Bennett, Joe Priestner & Alan Copeland in the 2nd division. Both of these achievements are much more of a challenge now we are playing three par 5s.

Interesting notes; Koos mixed four blobs with five 3s, Martin Franks had eight 4s and seven 5s, Grahame Brickell scored 4 shots or blobs on all the front nine holes.

Texas Scramble 21 March

Reporter: Paul Foster

Thirteen teams of 3 and 4 players competed for the first Fun Friday competition of the year. Some excellent scores gentlemen using the Texas Scramble rules, and excellent mathematics to boot.

Winners with a remarkable of 7 under par gross, and 20 under par nett were:
Team Bennett, Crail, Ellison and Willson. A fine score by anybody’s standards.

In second place a distant 4 shots behind were :
Team, Gosling, Copeland, Waggit and Broady.

Andy Ward Winter Pairs Final

Reporter: Paul Foster

Played on Monday 24th March, Dave Meir & Bob Ellison against Paul Foster & Dave Craggs. In perfect golfing weather, the golf proved at times spectacular.

Winners Paul Foster and Dave Craggs managed a fine 5 under par nett by the time of the winning hole, the 15th. The turning point probably came on the 11th and 12th, Dave knocking in a 15ft putt for a half on the 11th when seemingly about to lose the hole, and on the 12th, Paul, after searching for his ball in the trees on the left off the tee, could only chip out 30 yards, then pushed his 3 wood right of the green and hit a very thin tree to keep it in bounds, Paul then chipped in from 30 yards to win the hole 4 nett 3. Dave Craggs also had a 2 nett 1 on the 9th. Dave Meir had a run of 10 pars from the 4th to the 13th and incredibly didn’t win 1 hole!

Happy Mondays – Monday 31 March

Reporter: Paul Foster

Perfect for golf again, a fine Spring day enticed the seniors to play for the gold coins.

Game – Team Stableford. 16 players – 5 teams.

Winners – Team Broady, Booth & Cox, with an average of 29.66pts per player

R/up – Team Bennett & Crail, with an average of 29.5pts per player on a CPO

Best individual score – Mike Bennett with 36pts followed by Tony Lambert with 34 pts

Mike scored 3pts on each of his last 6 holes!

No ‘Happy Mondays’ tee booking is required this coming Sunday, because it will be Easter weekend in two weeks time. If you would like to play as usual on Easter Monday, make your own booking after 8pm on Sunday.

No Tee-Booking Schedule this week

Two weeks on Friday is Good Friday, for which there is no Summer League game and no other planned event in the Senior Section Calendar.

Mike Smith Plate – Seniors’ Individual Knockout 

Reporter: Peter Willson

The draw has been made for this Summer’s Knockout competition – The Mike Smith Plate. 

15 lucky souls have a bye, the rest need to play the first round 1st May.

Don’t blame me if you don’t like your opponent – it is IG software’s “fault”, which has done the draw at random.

The draw can be found on the main Lymm Golf Club website, at:

Competitions : Knockouts : Mike Smith Plate. And it should appear in the section, “My Upcoming Competitions”.  

Interclub Friendly Match – Away at Warrington

Reporter: Mark Pickles

Those of us who played today (2 April) at the away match at Warrington all seemed to have had an enjoyable day. Very sunny, but very breezy, especially on the high-altitude tees! The visibility was excellent, especially the panoramic view from the 16th tee. One of the Warrington players pointed out Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, just visible on the horizon.

The greens were very sandy and slow due to Warrington GC’s recent maintenance week, and this caught many of us out in the earlier holes, having just got used to the recently-pressed fast greens at Lymm. Unfortunately we were well beaten, losing 7 matches to 1, but congratulations are due to the winning pair Paul Collins and Barrie Simpson.

The hospitality at Warrington was very good, as always, and the fish-and-chips meal afterwards was superb.

Our Captain of the Day was Mike Pigott. Mike recycled his joke about an Irishman called ‘Paddy’ who bets his lifesavings on a horse called, ‘It’s alright now’. Mike did tell it very well – it’s a difficult joke to tell, with simulated high-speed racetrack commentary – and the response of the room was certainly at the top of the laugh-o-meter scale, despite the fact that some of us Lymm players had heard Mike tell it before. A good captain’s effort to start the 2025 friendly season, and one to beat for future CoD’s who are willing to attempt a joke!

[ Any similarity to actual Irishmen called ‘Paddy’, or actual events, is purely coincidental. 😉 ]

Welcome Koos Alders to the Senior Section

It is great to have Koos on board. I have played with Koos in LGC Saturday competitions, and I know that he answers to diverse Anglicised pronunciations of his name, such as “Koose” and “Kooze”. However, I asked him for the correct pronunciation, and he tells me it is “Koas” (like “coast” without the “t”).

I asked Koos to write a couple of paragraphs to introduce himself.

“I have been a member at Lymm golf club for over 10 years. I am Dutch, my accent gives that away quite quickly I guess. I have been in the UK for more than 25 years, having married an English woman, Helen, who actually grew up around here. We have one son, Ben, who is also a member of this golf club.

“I have worked in the financial sector for most of my career, after studying economics in Amsterdam. I have worked for the Dutch and UK central bank and also 10 years for Nationwide Building Society, in their Treasury department. I retired quite some time ago and have since then been involved in volunteering work, apart from playing a lot of golf of course. I was on the Board of the (former) Warrington Credit Union and am now doing one day at Citizens Advice in Warrington town centre. I regularly join the volunteers here at our golf club on Wednesday mornings. And since April last year, I am the chair of our Board of Directors.

“I will soon turn 65. I have just given up playing tennis due to injuries, so a good time to join the Senior section at Lymm golf club!”

Nutty’s Notables

Reporter: Arthur Nuttall

As you may have read in the last few Seniors Newsletters, I am submitting (with their permission and approval) brief Personal Profiles of some of our members. The reason being that I believe that there are quite a number of interesting untold/unknown facts within our membership.

I can only do this of course, if I get the necessary input from volunteers. This ‘opportunity’ is open to any Seniors member who is prepared to have 5 minutes with me, while I ‘grill’ you and tease out those little gems of interest that modesty may otherwise have prevented you from sharing!

My in-depth profile next week will be on Andy Timms, no less, just a few days after his Captain’s Drive-In on Sunday!

So please give me, Arthur Nuttall, a call (07774 972875), or send me an e-mail, or have a brief chat down at the club if you are prepared to give it a go.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles