Andy Ward Trophy – Pairs Knockout

Author: Ian Smith – LGC Seniors Competitions Secretary

We will soon start to prepare the draw for the autumn/winter season senior pairs knockout.

There is a sign-up sheet on the Seniors’ noticeboard – please enter your name by Friday 11th September if you would like to take part. Alternatively send a message to Ian Smith directly on IG (by the same date) and I’ll record your name.

Matches are played over 18 holes or whatever number of holes are available to play. Played between late September and March of the following year. Please see page 15 of the Strategy, Rules and Guidelines document for full details.

Each pairing will include a lower handicap player and a higher handicap player, determined at random using LGC’s IG software. The draw and the date for completion of each round of the competition will be notified in mid September. 

Interclub match – Lymm Seniors (Home) v Huyton and Prescot – Monday 17 August

Reporter: Richard Smyllie (Captain of the Day)

This was the return leg of the match held at their place earlier in the year. Over at H&P we had an excellent day’s golf where they looked after us very well. The downside was that we were soundly beaten 7.5 to 0.5. How could that possibly be? Was it the lack of a suitably motivational team talk before the match from your new CoD? Who knows, but for this return leg your nominated CoD started the day with a degree of trepidation. What if it happened again? That would certainly be the end of any invitation to be CoD in the future.

Thankfully the whole team responded to this dilemma in a glorious fashion and Lymm were victorious by 7 to 1. So, very well done lads and what a relief!!

Given this remarkable turnaround it is certainly worth giving the team a mention:

Andy Timms & Barry Smith	2 up
Mark Lyons & John Woodward	2 and 1 up
Richard Smyllie & Ron Thornton	1 up
Phil Perry & Sammy Lee	5 and 4 up
Peter Willson & Steve Gosling	2 and 1 up
Paddy Moran & Bob Mycock	4 and 3 down
John Armstrong & Ian Goodman	6 and 4 up
Tommy Lawless & Arthur Nuttall	2 and 1 up

In this terrific result there were some notable achievements. Ian shot his best ever score on the front 9 although his joy at this was not necessarily shared by his opponents. Nevertheless, they were great company and gracious in defeat as were all the opposition. After an up and down display by myself, I had to rely on my steady playing partner Ron to dig us out of the odd hole. This included a staggering putt on the 18^th which had it not been for the flag intercepting the ball, could well have sped off the putting surface. A wonderfully victorious putt and again some well disgruntled opposition. They were fine and accepted their defeat with good grace (albeit through gritted teeth)!

Steve kept the opposition under control but the turning point in their game was Peter’s 14ft putt from off the green for a birdie on the 13^th.

Many thanks to Karen and Josh for providing the food which was a very good pie and chips.

Thanks to all for your valiant efforts and for making the compilation of this report considerably more pleasurable than the first one.

Tatton League – Tuesday 18 August

Reporter: Mike Pigott

Tuesday saw the penultimate round of this year’s Tatton League played at Heyrose Golf Club. Heavy overnight rain made the course a bit more manageable than in the draught period, but the greens were still very challenging and two paced.

Four very good scores of 40, 39, 37 and 37 from the Lymm team saw us win the team event comfortably on the day and move into an eleven shot lead with the Birchwood round to come in September.

The overall team scores are as follows: Lymm 758 points, High Legh 747, Antrobus 723, Heyrose 720, Birchwood 718 and Styal 670.

So the last round looks like a shoot-out between Lymm and High Legh, so fingers crossed for a strong last round.

Well done to all the team members who played in tricky conditions on a course where the Slope Index is unusually low, meaning the Lymm players handicaps were significantly reduced from when playing at Lymm.

It is hoped to arrange an end of season get together where all the people who have made themselves available for the team will play an 18-hole competition. If there are any other seniors who wish to put their name forward for next year’s team, then they will also be welcome to play.

Interclub match – Lymm Seniors (Away) v Helsby – Tuesday 25 August

Reporter: Steve Gosling (Captain of the Day)

A great day out at Helsby even if the result did not go in our favour. The weather was good, the course was good, the meal of Spanish Chicken was good, the company was good, the result was the only disappointment…. Apart from the joke.

Special mention to Andy Timms who with help from Dave Craggs managed to keep his 100% match record in tact for the season, being the only match from which we gain a point.  So a 7-1 loss…Well there is always next year.

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Newsletter editor: Ian Goodman