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

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

Winter League – Round 7 of 8

Strong winds with high-speed gusts, although only little of the anticipated rainy conditions. Thankfully, temperatures, in comparison to previous weeks, were almost tropical!

No one achieved the ‘keep a 6 off your card’ this week, but Tommy Lawless and Mark Pickles managed to limit the damage to just one 6 (and nothing worse). Well done guys, considering the conditions.

A field of 36 runners, 18 players from Division 1 and 18 players from Division 2.

Zero 2s recorded today, Steve Gosling is once again a happy chappie.

Last week I mentioned the return of the Friday Wine Club. When I collected the cards this week, four-and-a-half-hours after the last group teed off, they were still seen to be consuming copious amounts of red wine in the clubhouse, and their cards were no where to be seen!

Division 1 Results
Winner – John White with 27pts on a CPO
R/up – Trevor Williamson with 27pts
3rd – Arthur Nuttall with 26pts on a CPO

Division 2 Results
Winner – John Booth with 26pts on a CPO
R/up – Dave Craggs with 26pts on a CPO
3rd – Steve Bramall with 26pts

Paddy Moran enjoys a lead in the 1st division of 8 pts from Michael John, and Jeff Chapman tops the 2nd division also with has an 8pt lead over; Bob Ellison, Dave Craggs and Steve Bramall.

As last week, nine cards were marked incorrectly. Put down the gross score on each hole, of the persons card you are marking, under the ‘A’ column, add the stableford points scored under the ‘Points’ column, nothing more, nothing less, add your own score under the ‘Marker’s Score’ column, sign the card, and that’s it. Nothing else. No net scores, no scores in the ‘B’, ‘C’ or ‘D’ columns and no Stableford points anywhere else except the ‘Points’ column. Thank you.

Happy Mondays – 24 Feb

Reporter: Peter Willson

A fine day, slightly chilly at first but only light winds, however muddy underfoot after some fairly heavy rain overnight Sunday. It stayed dry and we even had a glimpse of the sun!

Game: Team Stableford

6 teams of 3 – 18 players  – played over 15 holes 

Winners:
Grahame Brickell, Peter Willson and Steve Chalcraft (a new recruit to the Seniors) – 32.7 points per player.

Second:
Steve Barlow, Paul Collins and John White – 31 ppp

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 27 Feb)

Course closed for maintenance from Monday March 17th until Wednesday 19th

No need for Happy Mondays tee-booking this coming Sunday, due to the course being closed on Monday 17th.

Nutty’s Notables

Thank you again to Arthur for his continuing contributions to the newsletter, as he works his way around the senior section to unveil the personal histories of our notable members, i.e. every one of us who is happy to reveal some personal history previous to joining the remarkable fraternity of LGC Seniors!

This week:

“It’s a Kind of Bandit…” 

Reporter: Arthur Nuttall

Born in Solihull, Warwickshire, Steve Barlow moved to Bowdon at the age of 8, when his Dad moved jobs. Steve started playing golf at age of 10, mainly because one of his neighbours was the tour pro Dave Thomas (Wikipedia), who encouraged Steve to give it a go. 

Steve joined Mere GC, but when it burned down in 1970, he joined Ringway. He played there until his mid 30s, but then gave it a rest until into his mid 60s. He was more committed to tennis, playing for over 50 continuous years. He was a member of Hale Lawn Tennis Club, playing on their teams for several years and winning many club trophies.

Always passionate about music, Steve used to go to the Free Trade Hall and other Manchester venues at least three times a week in the 1970s, seeing such bands as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Faces, and The Rolling Stones etc. Believe it or not, they were £1.25 for the front row in those days. He has kept the tickets as proof! He saw the opening night of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust Tour” at the Hard Rock in November 1972, and Mott The Hoople in 1973, where the support band were an unknown group called Queen. His mates at the time said he looked like the lead singer, a guy called Freddie Mercury.

Steve played in bands in his teens and even got signed to a major record label, but, alas, never quite made it through to the big time. However, he worked for record and management companies throughout his career and met a lot of interesting characters, from Elton John to Jedward (remember them?) and numerous celebs in between.

In 1996, Steve was asked to start up a new Music College in Manchester, called Access to Music. They are a national music college and the largest provider of music education in England. They started with 36 students at The Bee Hive Mill in Ancoats and when he retired, they had 450 students, studying not only music, but also media and gaming. Steve passed his knowledge onto individuals who would become famous, including Ed Sheeran, Jess Glynne and Rita Ora. He says that it was a privilege to teach, and to see students go on to make a success of their life.

When Steve eventually retired, he decided to take up golf again, joining Lymm GC in 2022. He joined our Senior Section, where he was given the nickname “Bandit Barlow” during his first year. He claims he still doesn’t know why! 

[ Editor’s Note: He knows why! 😉 ]

Nowadays, during time away from golf, Steve is a TV/Film extra, which he loves doing. He has worked on productions such as Coronation Street, big Netflix costume dramas, crime dramas such as Ridley, and Sexy Beast and comedies such as Brassic and The Power of Parker.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Winter League – Round 6 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

A bitterly raw winter’s day, with a light-to-medium arctic breeze off the ship canal to shiver me timbers. An assortment of silly hats on view across the course, not quite as silly as Les ‘silly hat’ Fecitt or MAGA Barlow, but still silly. Nobody told me I played 12 holes with my hat inside out ! I blame you, Eric Cox, but you did have your wrong glasses on.

Twelve holes in play again, although one group tried to sneak in scores for the 13th on their cards. I’ve spotted it you, three rascals. Please enter your scores on I.G. for 12 holes only.

Two players achieved the ‘keep a 6 off your card’. That was Paul Foster and Paddy Moran.

A field of 40 runners, 22 players from Division 1 and 18 players from Division 2.

Four 2s recorded today, all on different holes, Michael John on the 2nd, Art Laird on the 5th with a simply gorgeous chip in from off the green, and Russ Jones on the 9th.

And get this:
Bob Ellison engineered a quite incredible 2 on the 7th. How on earth??? Bob got 5 points for the hole.

Dandy to see the return of the Friday Wine Club (I must try and join you in the Sadlers), as Art Laird has rejoined the nest. Also good to see Joe Priestner and George Clarke both playing under par, and both having their handicap docked.

Division 1 Results
Winner – Paul Foster with 29pts
R/up – Paddy Moran with 28pts (Paddy, you are becoming boring now)
3rd – Richard Smyllie with 26pts on a CPO

Division 2 Results
Winner – Jeff Chapman with 31pts (a winter league high score)
R/up – Colin Hughes with 26pts on a CPO
3rd – Alan Thomas with 26pts on a CPO

Paddy Moran extends his lead in the 1st division from Grahame Brickell. Jeff Chapman who has a 10pt lead over Richard Yates, tops the 2nd division.

Two 1st division players put their wrong hcap down, and two 2nd division players put their wrong hcap down. Spooky…

Nine out of forty cards marked incorrectly…the players score should be entered under the ‘A’ column, and the stableford points entered under the ‘Points’ column, nothing else, besides your own score under the ‘Marker’s Score’ column, seems fairly simple to me!

Nice to see all scores were on Lymm Golf Club cards. 40 cards handed in, 36 entered into Ig.

Happy Mondays – 17 Feb

Reporter: Peter Willson

Another very cold day with a biting South Easterly but it was dry and the sun made a fleeting appearance 

Game: Team Stableford. 5 teams – 16 players.

Well it was that man again – Dave Craggs – with another stellar scoring round – albeit with slightly dodgy mathematics which were resolved in the clubhouse and the team still came out on top

Winners: Paul Collins, Eric Cox, Dave Craggs and Paul Foster – 25.3 points per player
Second: Kevin Bocquet, Pete Broady and Steve Rowley – 25 ppp

Kevin Bocquet – came out on top with an individual round score of 32 points. 

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 20 Feb)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 23 Feb

Nutty’s Notables

Arthur Nuttall suggests we have ‘player profiles’ as a regular feature in the newsletter. I think it’s an excellent idea. Last week Arthur provided a profile of Colin Lees. This week it’s John Hayes.

I don’t doubt that everyone in the senior section has a notable personal history that would be of interest to fellow members. I hope that Arthur continues to investigate! I would be particularly interested in Paul Collins, the reason being, I was playing in a senior interclub friendly home match against Sale GC last year, and one of the Sale pair was a retired prison officer. We were on the 14th tee, and he pointed to the 15th green, asking, “Is that Paul Collins?” I replied in the affirmative. He said, “I’ve not seen him for a while, but I’ve known him for years”. I thought I’d better not ask how!

Focus on John Hayes

Reporter: Arthur Nuttall

As some of you will already be aware, John is originally from Yorkshire, and as we know, Tykes can be pretty good at “blowing their own trumpet”. Well, John is a bit different – he actually plays the euphonium and is a member of the Lymm Concert Band.

Having started playing a flugelhorn at the age of 9, John had a 50-year gap before he eventually took up his musical hobby once again, switching to the euphonium. Lymm’s next concert will be at the Arley Hall Garden Festival at the end of June. The repertoire of their music is quite wide and includes film music, selections from current and traditional musicals, big band, military band and light classical.

Not content with his blowing activities, John is also a member of a Choral Society. In the mid-1980’s, he was “volunteered” to join a choir, on the grounds that the choir was desperate for male voices. Given that he could already read music, he was considered good enough to join without further ado. Much later, in 2011 when he moved to Lymm, he was invited to join Altrincham Choral Society, which, having upwards of 100 members, was a much larger choir than he had been used to singing with. The choir produces three major concerts each year, performing mainly classical music in the form of oratorios and requiems by the major composers. These are held in a variety of venues, including the Royal Northern College of Music Theatre in Manchester.

But that’s not all. After retiring in 1993, John took part in voluntary projects, including leading a team to carry out construction work in rural Tanzania for a small UK based charity. Prior to leaving for Tanzania there was a series of introductory weekends where the volunteers were given training in all aspects of the proposed trip. The purpose of the project was to help villagers to construct a Health Centre within the confines of the village. Very rudimentary in terms of construction, but of vital importance for the village. At the end of our tour of duty they had got the building up to roof level; the next group to follow were able to complete the building ready for use. 

As you can see from the photos below, John hasn’t changed much!

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Winter League – Round 5 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

Twelve holes at last! Not much to report as I wasn’t able to play.

Only one player who achieved the ‘keep a 6 off your card’: Ian Whitehead. Well done Ian.

A field of 39 runners, 15 players from Division 1 and 24 players from Division 2.

No 2s recorded today, Steve Gosling is most impressed with you all..

Division 1 Results
Winner – Russ Jones with 29pts
R/up – Ian Whitehead with 27pts
3rd – Paddy Moran with 25pts on a CPO

Division 2 Results
Winner – Steve Bramall with 28pts
R/up – Steve Bird with 26pts on a CPO
3rd – Richard Yates with 26pts

Paddy Moran & Trevor Williamson now leads the 1st division, and Jeff Chapman from Richard Yates leads the 2nd division.

Russ Jones had 3 birdies, and finished one over par gross.

Same 1st division player continues to put the wrong WHS club hcap down, and four 2nd division players who played off their wrong seniors hcap.

One card handed in marked on a Padeswood & Buckley Golf Card! How does that work???

39 cards handed in, only 35 entered into Ig.

Happy Mondays – 10 Feb

Reporter: Peter Willson

Happy Mondays – 10th February ‘25

A very, very cold day mainly dry but with a biting North Easterly wind. Decided to restrict to 13 holes as it was cold (did I say that?) and limited access for buggy’s 

Game: Team Stableford (still)

6 teams – 19 players . A close run affair with 2 teams vying for the prize until a check on current handicaps was made 

Winners: Dave Craggs (the birthday boy), Charlie Hill and Peter Willson – 27 points per player 
2nd: Steve Barlow, Mike Bennett, Colin Crail and Richard Yates – 26.8 ppp

Mr Craggs went to celebrate his Birthday with his winnings. It may stretch to a McD’s 

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 13 Feb)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 16th Feb

Andy Timms to host Quiz night – Thursday 6 March

One for your calendar:
Our very own Andy Timms, soon to be LGC Captain, will be quizmaster for the event on Thursday 6 March.

£2 per entry, to go to the clubhouse development fund.

Colin Lees – Tennis Supremo!

Reporter: Arthur Nuttall

Colin Lees must have reached a pretty high standard in competitive tennis circles in his younger days, as these photographs (discovered by chance by me in America) feature him in a Pro-Am in 2000, partnering none other than Roscoe Tanner (second left), Wimbledon finalist in 1979.

While Colin and Roscoe won the Pro-Am and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, Roscoe lost to Bjorn Borg in the final, then spent some time in jail for unrelated matters!

In my recent chat with Colin, he tells me he was also mens 1st Team captain at Lymm Tennis Club for several years, playing in Division 1 in two Leagues – until sciatica struck!

More recently, he’s had to park Friday golf for a bit to let 3 months antibiotics do their job on an infected bone. He’ll be back, I’m sure.

We wish him well and hope that he is able to get fully back on the golf course soon.

In the meantime, if you have a couple hours to spare when he pops into the club for a coffee, ask him about his Hi-Fi System and record collection! Fascinating!

Arthur Nuttall

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Winter League Round 4 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

A chilly winter’s day, no wind, with only the top 8 holes on offer, with 1 winter green on the 7th, that seems impossible to hole a putt of more than 12 inches!

With just 8 holes there were were 4 players who achieved the ‘keep a 6 off your card’. They were Dave Meir, Michael John, Tommy Lawless and Paddy Moran.

A field of 37 runners, 17 players from Division 1 and 20 players from Division 2.

Two 2s recorded today, Andy Timms and Trevor Williamson. As I stepped onto the 10th to play my first shot I watched with astonishment when Trevor sank his monster, across the slope left to right, and up hill, right into the middle of the cup on the 9th, a beauty!

See the Second Lord of the Treasury Steve Gosling for your balls when he’s finished with his merriment on the snow slopes…

Division 1 Results
Winner – Dave Meir with 30pts
R/up – Michael John with 27pts on a CPO
3rd – Steve Barlow with 27pts

Division 2 Results
Winner – Barrie Simpson with 29pts
R/up – Jeff Ashurst with 27pts
3rd – David Craggs with 26pts on a CPO

Steve ‘MAGA’ Barlow, proudly sporting his new hat on Friday, leads the 1st division, and Jeff Ashurst leads the 2nd division.

A few comments about our second round of the new year.
Just the one 1st division player who continues to put the wrong WHS club hcap down, (I’ll start naming names soon), and two 2nd division players couldn’t remember their hcap from last week.

One card not handed in, but scores entered in the Ig app… and one player, played the 18th according to his Ig input!

Happy Mondays – 3rd February

Reporter: Peter Willson

A slightly cloudy start but with sun breaking through at the end. Chilly 6 deg. C but a light breeze only. Played over the 13 holes open 

7 teams – 21 players 

Game: (good old) Team Stableford 

Winners:
Eric Cox, Steve Gosling and Charlie Hill – 25.7 points per player 

2nd: Kevin Bocquet, Dave Craggs and Ken Pearce – 24.3 ppp

The winter skiing break must have suited Steve G has he had the joint highest individual score on 29 points shared with Steve Rowley.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 6 Feb)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 9 Feb

Inter-club friendly matches for 2025

Grahame Brickell and Stephen Bird are busy organising this year’s inter-club matches, the first of which is on 2nd April.

Grahame and Steve will use the WhatsApp groups called ‘Senior Matches’ through the main golfing season to keep us all up-to-date on match details. If you want to be added to the group, or if you want to be removed from the group, message Grahame.

In selecting for the teams, Grahame and Steve will try to share the matches between everyone on the group. All members can expect to play an equal number of home games and away games.

All members must wear the navy blue LGC team shirt for the matches. If you have not got one, or would like have a fresh one, see Steve or Fizz in the Pro’s shop.

If you would like play in some of the friendly matches, but you are not yet on the WhatsApp group: Give Brickell a Tickle.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Due to the closure of the golf course caused by last Friday’s stormy winds, the only golfing activity to report this week is the Happy Mondays competition.

The maximum number of rounds possible in our Winter League is now reduced to eight. The forecast looks good for the next few days though. There is some light rain forecast for early Friday morning, but I think we can expect to be playing our 12-hole comp on all holes and on proper greens.

I played an enjoyable 13 holes today in the company of Paddy Moran and Kevin Bocquet. Neither Paddy or I had played with Kevin before. I persuaded Kevin to write a paragraph or two to introduce himself to everyone in the senior section. If you don’t yet know Kevin, but think he looks vaguely familiar, it is highly probable that you used to watch him on the telly!

Happy Mondays – Monday 27 January

Match Reporter: Peter Willson

A bitterly cold day feeling much colder than the 4 deg. C indicated on the thermometer. Dry but mainly cloudy with some watery sunshine and a brisk breeze.

Game: Team Stableford 

14 players – 4 teams – 2 x 4 and 2 x 3. 

Played over 8 holes only (although that was enough in the low temps). On temporary greens with odd puddles in the fairways 

Winners: Kevin Bocquet, Eric Cox, Steve Rowley and Peter Willson – 15.8 points per player 

2nd: Pete Broady, Les Fecitt, Charlie Hill and Ken Pearce – 14.8 ppp

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 30 January)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 2nd Feb

A ‘Hello’ from Kevin Bocquet, our journalist-in-residence!

Hello everyone, my name is Kevin Bocquet and I joined Lymm GC in April last year. I was a member at Styal for several years, but after moving to High Legh, decided it made more sense to switch clubs. I’ve enjoyed my first year at Lymm, particularly playing on a course which stays much drier than I’m used to (the top holes at least). And I’ve found everyone very welcoming.

Early in my adult life, it became clear I was not suited for proper work, so I became a journalist. I spent most of my career reporting for the BBC both on radio and on TV, which on slow news days could be boring, on good days quite frenetic and occasionally very exciting.

I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting many Lymm seniors and look forward to meeting the rest of you.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Winter League round 2 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

A little late, but straight from the heart – To all members of the Lymm Golf Club Seniors Section I wish you a New Year filled with laughter, love, and success, I may be late, but my wishes for your happiness are always on time. Here’s to a year full of joy on the fairways, friendship amongst all our members, and health to each and every one of us. I personally have made many friends in my short time with the seniors, and looking forward to making many more.

At last, the weather has abated, and we can get back to our favourite sport of whacking that pesky pill of peril around a big field…!

A beautiful winter’s day, no wind, 12 holes on offer, and a record 49 players for the first round available in 2025. However, I collected 64 completed cards from the box!!

Alas there was no ‘keep a 6 off your card’ handed in.

A large field of 49 runners completed the 12 holes on offer, 25 players from Division 1 and 24 players from Division 2.

Just the one 2 recorded today, Martin Franks. See the Second Lord of the Treasury Steve Gosling for your balls.

Division 1 Results
Winner – Steve Barlow with 27pts
R/up – Andy Timms with 26pts
3rd – Paul Collins with 25pts on a CPO

Division 2 Results
Winner – Jeff Ashurst with 27pts on a CPO
R/up – Steve Bramall with 27pts
3rd – Keith Melia with 26pts on a CPO

A few comments for you all to digest, following our first round of the new year, and a few headaches for me after collecting the scorecards!

Three Div 1 players put the wrong WHS club hcap down, and two Div 2 players couldn’t remember their hcap from the Autumn league…

Eight players completed 13 holes and recorded all in their total on their card, trying to confuse me. Took me a while to work that one out.

Eight members did not register their rounds before last Friday. I think the booze laden Xmas pud got to scramble too many brain! Don’t forget to register your round prior to playing on Fridays. You can register for them all in advance. You can register for all rounds up to the round 10 now if you like. If, nearer the time, you decided cannot play on the day, just remove yourself.

Finally there were fourteen cards in the box from the 27th December 2024. Now that really confused me!!!

Happy Mondays – 20th January                           

Reporter: Richard Yates

A very cold morning, with drizzle most of the time. 

There were 18 of us, playing in 5 groups.

Winners:
Dave Craggs, Steve Bramhall, Tony Lambert and Charlie Hill with an impressive average of 32 points per person over 15 holes.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 23 January)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 26 January

2025: Editor’s notes

Would you like to be Newsletter editor for the Senior Section?

My obligatory three years will be up in autumn. If you’re interested, please let me or the committee know.

I would be happy to continue into next year if no-one comes forward between now and autumn, but I do think it would be good to get some fresh impetus for our ‘comms’.

The Newsletter is published on the ‘WordPress’ platform. It is easy to use.

I would like to echo Paul Foster’s ‘New Year’ positive sentiments on our Senior Section. I joined LGC four years ago, on my retirement, age 60, having not played golf for a decade. Back in 2020 it was a shock to me to discover that a radically new rule book had been published. Even ‘water hazards’ no longer existed. And what was all this ‘WHS’ stuff?

When I started looking for a golf club, England was just gradually coming out of ‘Covid’ lockdown, and I had just moved from Sandbach to Altrincham (not easy in lockdown). I phoned a few golf clubs within reasonable distance (all of which were still closed) inquiring about membership. I phoned Tim, the former business manager of LGC, who was friendly enough, and he started talking about Lymm’s relatively high ‘slope rating’. I told Tim that I’m not keen on hilly courses… And so you can imagine how the conversation went!

On joining LGC, I was encouraged by Steve in the Pro’s shop to join the Senior Section, and I’m glad I did. However, the first person I was introduced to was a guy with outrageously colourful clothes and what sounded like a South African accent (but is apparently Rhodesian): Rob Taylor, Senior Section secretary/communications officer. I complimented Rob on his attire. He said, “the strange thing about you Englishmen is that you live in a dull climate and yet insist on wearing dull clothing!”

No-one is more frank than Rob, which is fine: I’m a Yorkshireman!

Rob asked, “What did you do for a living?”
“Scientific Technical Writer”, I replied.
“Good, he said”, just what we need. “I’ve been doing the comms for the Senior Section since its foundation, and am looking for for someone to take it over…”

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles