Autumn League

Reporter: Paul Foster

With autumn setting in, and the Autumn League approaching, we will see some necessary changes to our Friday competitions following the recent email from Keith Melia regarding holes being out of action.

For the Autumn League we will be operating the Senior Section’s manual handicap system from round 1. Amended handicaps using the manual system over the Autumn League will be available each week on the LGC seniors web site.

Pre-registering rounds will not be required for the Turkey Trot or for the duration of the Autumn League. The winner will be the best 5 rounds out of a possible 10 rounds.

A minimum of 7 Rounds should be played in the Autumn League. If 6 rounds or less are played, the League will be cancelled.

All Autumn league competitions are scored over 15 holes only. The designated course is the first 15 holes open on that day. (i.e. if hole 1&2 are closed but all others are open, the competition is played over 3-17 for that day).

If fewer than 15 holes are open. The scores achieved on these holes will be pro-rated up to 15 holes for the consistency of recording the players’ league positions in the League.

A sleeve of balls will be awarded to players who score a two on the designated course during the Autumn League. Apart from the overall league prizes and trophies, there will be a small weekly monetary prize (that goes onto your account in the Pro’s shop) for the winner of each division on the day.

We will continue to have 2 divisions. As last year, Division 1 players have a maximum playing handicap of 18. Although Division 2 has more players in it, experience over the past few years since we introduced divisions indicates that far fewer Division 2 players compete in the Autumn and Winter periods. For example, last year, although Division 2 had about 10 more players, only 21 played the necessary 5 rounds or more, compared to 26 in Division 1.

Interclub friendly, home to Warrington, Friday 19 September

Reporter: Andy Timms (Mr Captain and CoD)

And so the series of summer friendly matches drew to a close with our traditional climax of entertaining our friends from “the” Warrington golf club. A slight change to the way the day ran saw us meeting up early for bacon butties and coffee before a slightly later than usual start. This seemed to go down well with the majority of those there, so we’ll be adopting this new arrangement going forwards into next year’s matches.

The match itself was played in largely dry conditions, thankfully, and saw a convincing win for the home team by a score of 6-2. The individual scores were as follows :

Mr Captain & Art Laird – Won 1 up
Andrew Cox & Stuart Baird – Won 2 up
David Donnell-Jones & Ron Thornton – Halved
Steve Gosling & Colin Hughes – Lost 6&5 !!
Pete Broady & Les Williams – Halved
Mike Pigott & Grahame Brickell – Won 4&2
Paddy Moran & Mervyn Roberts – Won 4&2
Mike Bennett & Ian Smith – Won 1 up

The day was then rounded off by a fine fish and chip meal and a presentation including a joke which (even if we all had heard it before) did raise a decent laugh.

A final comment – on behalf of everyone who played in the matches this year, I’d like to propose a vote of thanks for Grahame Brickell and Steve Bird who have both been brilliant this year in their organisation of the matches. Bring on next season…..

Bottle of Wine Competition, Friday 19 September

Reporter: Paul Foster

A mixed bag for the final episode of the Châteaux de Willson challenge. A day for low handicappers it seems, as the top 6 positions were all 12 hcap or less.

Nobody beat par today again out of an improved 29 entry’s, with just one 2 scored, that man PC…!

Please note there were 29 pre-registered for the comp, with only 25 entering their score into Ig, and 24 cards handed in. I repeat, If you enter a comp you must either remove your name if you do not intend to play, or, you must enter your score into Ig.

Results

Winner – Colin Royle with 30pts on a CPO
R/up – Paul Collins with 30pts
3rd – Koos Alders with 29pts

Peter, has by all accounts an exceptional bottle of wine for Colin this week, from the dusty dark corners of his stately residence underground wine cellar, I feel an 1869 Château Lafite Rothschild on offer…!

That’s it for the BoW Fridays this year, bring on the Autumn League…

Full comp results on the LGC website here.

Turkey Trot, this Friday

This coming Friday – 26 September – sees the climax of the Senior Section’s golfing year: the Turkey Trot.

The Turkey Trot is earlier in the calendar this year, the plan being that we would be playing the full WHS qualifying course off the proper tees. Unfortunately, we have had the short-notice plans from LGC that maintenance of all tees is to be carried out over the next few weeks, and drainage work on holes 1 and 12. Therefore, there is no need to enter the competition on IG. Paul Foster will manually go through the cards. There will be no more WHS qualifying rounds in the Senior Section competitions this year, because even if the course fully re-opens in mid October, our senior handicaps will have been manually adjusted after the first two Autumn-league rounds.

Entry to the competition is free to all paid-up members of the Senior Section, who will compete for the massive purse of £60: two £30 cash prizes, one each for the winner of Division 1 and Division 2 respectively. See Paul Foster’s piece above, regarding the divisions for Autumn and Winter.

Although £30 will be unlikely to get you a turkey for human consumption, it will more than cover the top-of-the-range turkey pet food, if you want to give your loyal companion a treat at Christmas.

Subs are due 1 October

It is now time to pay your £25 annual subs, which are due by 1 October.

You can pay the £10 fee for the ABM lunch at the same time. Do not pay into the inter-club match account, use the main Senior’s account, as shown here:

Lymm Golf Over 60s
60-20-29
50244779

Happy Mondays report for 22 September

Reporter: Peter Willson

A beautiful crisp, and yet little chilly, start to the day with clear blue skies. Little to no wind. The course is looking good following the recent rain which has softened it up and the greens are receptive and running true. However the pin positions were still the very challenging ones that had been set up for the LGS Finals Weekend, hence the lowish average scores.

5 teams – 19 players – for the Team Stableford game 

Winners: Paul Foster, Ken Pearce, Mark Pickles and Steve Rowley – 102 points or 22.5 ppp

Second: Mike Bennett, Pete Broady, Colin Crail and Rich Yates – 93 / 23.3 ppp

Highest individual score – Mark Pickles 30 points, which included a ‘2’ on the difficult (today) 13th, with the pin on the very back of the green.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 25 September)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 28th

Galloping Grandads!

Paul Foster went to watch his son and his daughter finishing the Warrington half marathon last Sunday, and much to his surprise, our own Alan Copeland was amongst the good, the bad and the ugly crossing the finishing line.

Alan, it seems, is no slouch in the running the shoes, and posted an impressive time of 1:43:38, which was very similar to the time posted by Paul’s son.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Interclub friendly Lymm versus Leigh, Friday 12 September

Reporter: Grahame Brickell (CoD)

Oh I do enjoy golfing days like last Friday… sun was shining, still warm for the time of year, some dampness on the ground, and as you get to the lounge/bar before the game, the room was fairly full, the coffee & biscuits were going down well and there was good buzz about the place.

Mr Captain, after a gentle nudge from myself, welcomed our guests and we endeavoured to ensure everyone knew who the they were playing with and then we headed out to do friendly battle.

I played with Les W. We found ourselves 1 down after the first due to a lengthy putt from one ‘‘of them”, but following a long edge-of-the green burdie putt at hole 6 from me, we got to the turn 1 up. From there played some solid golf through to 15… where we were sitting pretty, at +2, but up steps their Mr Long putter nailing one from off the green for a 4, needing me to hole my 20ft for a half ..good job I did, they were devastated!

They took 16, with 5 nett 4’s, 17 was halved, down to the last which again was halved. We won 1 up.

Our 1 up win was the lowest winning margin!!
Messrs Craggs & Alders 5&4
2 x 4&3 wins
Only 1 match was halved
Lymm win 7.5  – 0.5

Great games all round with plenty of good spirit being in evidence on both sides.

Roll on this Friday and our last match of the season, Warrington ! Another good win is required to round off the year.

Grahame.

Friday BoW Competition, Friday 12 September

Full results here on the main LGC website. Stuart Baird takes the bottle.

Presentation Lunch and Annual Business Meeting, Friday 17 October

Reporter: Dave Craggs

The presentation lunch this year will be held on Friday 17 October.

The format will be the same as our previous presentation lunches. The business of the ABM will precede the presentation of our 2025 Trophies to those that triumphed during this year.

No long lists to plough through nor boring monologues, just the usual barrel of laughs and a fitting end to another fabulous year.

The ABM and trophy presentation will commence at 1.30pm and we aim to sit down to lunch at 2pm – so please plan to be there before to allow time to enjoy a pre-lunch drink with your friends if you so wish.

A list is now up on the Seniors Section notice board adjacent to the locker room.

Please put your names down as soon as possible so we can have a clear shot at reckoning the numbers for Karen and her team.

The lunch will consist of steak pie and chips followed by apple crumble & custard. The meal will be subsidised to the tune of £8.00 leaving you to pay only £10.00.

If you wish to pay your annual subs of £25.00 at the same time, please pay £35.00 which should be paid to:

Lymm Golf Over 60s
60-20-29
50244779

Ref: ABM-surname

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 18 September)

Happy Mondays tee-booking this Sunday, 21 September

Andy Ward Pairs Trophy

Reporter: Peter Willson

The draw has been made, with guidance and assistance from Russ Jones. Your partners (don’t blame me – it’s the pooter which selects the names and pairings), the draw and dates for completion of rounds can be found on the main LGC website under ‘Upcoming Competitions’.

Five 1st round matches to be played by 14th November; 2nd round by 12th December.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Seniors’ Championship 2025 – Friday 5 September

Reporter: Paul Foster

Another pleasant late summer’s day, with little wind, no rain, and the sun intermittently peeping out from the clouds for the biggest annual prize on offer for the seniors, in a field of 25 players.

Another Rommel to add to the list, John Higgins!

With the ever increasing numbers of buggies, we now have our own version of the ‘Wacky Races’, where the Army Surplus Special and the Arkansas Chuggabug (Alister Cook & Steve Barlow) criss-cross the fairways vying for position.

Five players beat par today out of twenty six entry’s, with two 2s scored, Colin Crail & Barry Smith. Lowest gross score was Mark Pickles.

Seniors Champion for 2025 and winner of the coveted Green Jersey was Tony Dixon.

Results:
Winner – Tony Dixon with 34pts
R/up – Art Laird with 33pts
3rd – Alan Copeland with 32pts on a CPO

Friday BoW Competition Friday 5 September

Ten entries for this weeks 9-hole ‘Willson wine of the week’ competition for those who had not qualified for the Seniors Championship. Alister Cook had the only 2.

Results:
Winner – Les Williams with 21pts
R/up – Ian Goodman with 20
3rd – Martin Lowe with 19p

Interclub friendly, away at Northenden Golf Club, Monday 8 September

Match Reporter: Bob Mycock

The Lymm Team selected by Grahame (the eternal optimist) for the match at Northenden duly turned up for duty, in good spirits and in possession of our swimming trunks and snorkels just in case the River Mersey had burst its banks again after the torrential rain over the weekend.

Luckily, this time the Mersey behaved itself, and and Ron Thornton was able to put away his mankini for another Day (phew). The course however was still showing signs of the New Year’s Day Floods on the front 9 holes, with most of the bunkers GUR and still awaiting repairs. But generally the course was in good condition with mainly lush grass on the fairways.

On to the match, which was played in the a friendly and good spirit, but ultimately resulted in a resounding hiding in Lymm’s favour of 5 1/2 to 2 1/2, or an honourable draw (if you are from Northenden).

Lunch provided the biggest slice of cheese and onion pie (seen this side of Cheshire) with a couple of hidden chips…

Many thanks to the team on the day for a great performance and their support on an impressive away win.

Tatton League 2025

Reporter: Mike Pigott (Tatton team captain)

After the triumph of winning the league last year, this season was a bit of a disappointment. However, after playing the final round at Heyrose yesterday, we managed to finish a creditable 3rd place behind the eventual winners Antrobus and silver medalists Heyrose. Both the leading teams have a bit of a reputation of having a number of spurious high handicappers in their fold so finishing close to them was a fair achievement. And I am told by Andy Timms (Club Captain and deep-thinking statistician) that 905 points was 14 points more this year than we made last year when we won the title.

As Lymm captain of the Tatton side I would like to congratulate Antrobus on their great comeback to win the title and remind them we are only loaning them the trophy for twelve months!

On a personal note I would like to thank the players in the squad for making themselves available and for bearing with me when they weren’t selected, a task I found quite difficult for most games. The following players represented Lymm Seniors during the year: Paddy Moran, Ian Whitehead, Colin Royle, Mike Pigott, Richard Cooper, Steve Gosling, Grahame Brickell, Rick Shaw, Russ Sollitt, Mark Pickles, Andy Timms, Russ Jones, Dave Meir, Martin Franks and Martin France.

The league table finished Antrobus 927, Heyrose 919, Lymm 905, Birchwood 903, High Legh 900, and Styal 850.

All who made themselves available for selection are meeting up for a golfing and socialising day at Lymm on Monday 6th October. Hopefully we can all have a bit of fun, and formulate a way of winning back the title next year!

Abergele Seniors’ Open – 4-Man Team

By all accounts, Peter Broady did an excellent job, as he does every year, organising a Lymm possy of happy and smiling Seniors to compete in the Abergele GC Seniors’ Open last Thursday.

Peter reports: “Sunshine and heavy showers were the order of the day on the golf course. The greens flooded on one occasion but soon recovered when the sun came out again. Despite the weather we enjoyed ourselves”.

Results of Lymm’s in-house competition:

Winners: Trevor Williamson. Ron Thornton. John Booth. Les Williams.    70 points.
Runners up:  
Mike Bennett. Richard Yates. John White. John Armstrong.    63 points.

I spoke to Peter today, who tells me that there were four prizes for the main Abergele competition, with 4th prize on 76 points and 1st prize on 80 points.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 11 September)

Happy Mondays tee-booking this Sunday, 14 September

Andy Ward Pairs Trophy

Do you want to play in the autumn/winter pairs knockout, but have not yet put your name on the list? Please enter your name before this coming Friday (12 September). On Friday, Peter Willson will remove the list from the Seniors’ noticeboard, and create the draw for the competition on I.G.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Urgent: Time to Enter the Doubles Knockout!

As noted in last week’s newsletter, the entry sheet for the Andy Ward Trophy – the Autumn/Winter doubles knockout – is now on the Seniors’ noticeboard.

Peter Willson is concerned that, as yet, there are very few names on the list. In view of the fact that Peter will be making the draw on 12 September, please enter your name as soon as possible if you wish to compete.

Seniors’ Championship this Friday

If you’re competing in the Seniors’ Championship this Friday, 5 October, make sure that you have booked into the competition on IG.

Similarly, if you are playing in the BoW comp on Friday, book beforehand in IG.

Notice of our Annual Business Meeting

Our ABM will be on October 17. This year, there are a few of us who are coming to the end of our three-year stint on the committee, and therefore we are looking for new volunteers to replace us.

If you would like to be on the committee, please put your name on the list on the Seniors’ noticeboard, or speak to a member of the committee. Dave Craggs, our secretary, would be a good person to speak to, because he has a grip on all the business of the committee, including which committee roles are likely to become vacant.

Bottle-of-Wine Competition, Friday 29 September

Well done George Clark, who won the bottle of wine last Friday, in a field of 39 players. It’s nice to see George win. George has watched his good friend and regular playing partner Joe Priestner enjoying much of the glory this year!

You can see the full results on the main LGC website here.

Friendly Away Match at Bramhall Golf Club

John Armstrong reports that score at Bramhall on Monday was 5 – 3 to Bramhall. It was a very close match with no few than four of the matches halved!

John says the golf course was in excellent condition and the greens superb. A few squally showers did not prevent another great day of inter-club golf!

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 4 September)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 7 September

A helping hand

Four of us had a very enjoyable away day at Mere Golf Club on Monday!

After a great day’s golf, after chucking my golf bag on the back seat of my car, I noticed that Steve was preparing to get his new golf buggy into his car. I offered to help, and was astonished at the weight. Steve is a strong man, but his golf buggy is without doubt a two-man lift. Steve is on a waiting list to store the buggy at Lymm Golf Club, but in the meantime will need to transport the buggy home-and-back in his car.

I know that some of the buggies that our members use split in half, and are therefore obviously easier to lift, but please do offer an extra pair of hands to anyone needs to bring his buggy by car.

Newsletter Editor – Mark Pickles

Mike Smith Plate – Singles Knockout

Congratulations to Paddy Moran, on winning the final of the knockout against Jeff Ashurst last Friday. Well done also to Jeff, for making it through to the final after a long spring-summer campaign.

Andy Ward Trophy – Pairs Knockout

Peter Willson will soon start to prepare the draw for the autumn/winter season pairs knockout.

Peter has put an entry sheet on the Seniors’ noticeboard, and so please enter you name by September 12 if you would like to compete.

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, will then appear on the LGC website.

Match at Home against Davyhulme Golf Club – Friday 22 August

Reporter: Trevor Williamson (CoD)

Lymm were victorious in the return match against Davyhulme Park Golf Club, coming out on top 5 – 3. Having lost  5 – 3 at Davyhulme means it was truly an honourable draw over the two matches.

Thankfuly it was a little cooler than of late, with only a few drops of rain threatening to spoil our day.

Some great winning scores were posted by:  
Willson & Goodman 7 & 5
Lomas & Simpson    6 & 5
Pigott & Thornton    5 & 3

Despite the score and in acknowledgment of the recent lack of rain, our visitors were complimentary about the general condition of the course and hospitality received. The delicious steak & ale pie and raspberry cheesecake went down well too!

Bottle of Wine Competition – Friday 22 August

Well done to the in-form Joe Priestner, who won the 15-hole BoW competition with 34 points.

Full results of the competition on the main website, here:
https://www.lymmgolfclub.co.uk/competition.php?compid=11590

Away match at Helsby Golf Club

Match Reporter: John Armstrong (CoD)

Glorious weather. There were a couple of brief squally showers, thankfully too brief to spoil the day. The golf course was in excellent condition, both the fairways and greens. 

The meal of sausages in a chilli sauce was very nice, and well served by polite staff.

The result was a reverse of the score at Lymm earlier in the season. This time the honourable draw was in favour of Helsby 5 matches to 3. The winning pairs were:

John Armstrong and Stuart Baird: Won 5 & 3
Mark Pickles and Mike Bennett: Won 1 up
Alan Burton and Phil Ormesher: Won 1 up

Happy Mondays Competition – 25 August

Reporter: Peter Willson

A sunny and warm Bank Holiday Monday morning with a welcome cooling breeze. 

14 players in 4 teams 

Winners: Steve Bird, Dave Craggs, Steve Rowley and Peter Willson – 128 points or 32 ppp

Second: Steve Barlow, Kevin Bocquet, Alan Copeland and Dave Waggitt – 118 points or 29.5 ppp

Highest Individual score – Steve Bird – 35 points.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 27 August)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 31 August

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

The Petter Herrity Memorial Trophy – Friday 15 August

Reporter: Paul Foster

A blistering summer’s day last Friday for this annual trophy competition.

Once again, a pause at the seniors memorial bench to remember Peter, a seniors member who has sadly passed. I never had the chance to meet Peter, but have heard many honourable reports about him.

Seven players beat par today, out of 42 entries. Once again, some of the fairways on the top 9 were bone hard, with the golf ball embarrassingly bouncing in all directions, and forty yard chip and runs ran out nearer 100 yards! I note Peter (Rommel) Barlow is now the proud owner of a shiny, spanking new Formula Ford buggy! A whole new world for Steve.

Some sensational scoring, with the ever popular Peter (2 LLs) Willson taking home the trophy with an incredible 46pts, losing 2.6 shots off his handicap.

Get this: Peter had a hot streak where he scored 38pts (14 under par) in 12 holes, and could even afford to blob the last and still win by 5 points.

Duncan Clarke shot a very impressive 78, and Ron Thornton burnt the course up scoring 41 with a blob.

Five 2s recorded, Franks, Hughes, Pickles, Pigott and Thomas.

Results:
Winner – Peter Willson with 46pts
R/up – Duncan Clarke with 41pts on a CPO
3rd – Ron Thornton with 41pts

Interclub friendly at Home against Ringway – Friday 8 August

Reporter: Russ Jones (CoD)

On a lovely summer morning Lymm GC were looking to avenge the 7-1 drubbing we took at Ringway earlier in the season.

CoD Russ Jones managed to get to the club early to inspire the team and ensure we were ready for revenge.

The course had recovered well after the Course Maintenance works the previous week and the greens were rolling well.

As CoD I played with their CoD with and Art Laird. We started well getting 3 up and never really looked back, winning 2-1.

This was matched by some really good wins by Lymm, and we came in winners 6 ½ to 1 1/2, overall a really satisfying win.

Into the clubhouse where we were treated to lovely Fish and Chips from the catering staff, that went down well with our visitors.

All-round good day. Great result, Good weather, Good Company. What more could you ask for?

Bottle of Wine Comp, Friday 8 August 2025

Reporter: Paul Foster

A pleasant late summer’s day for the latest episode of the Châteaux de Willson challenge.

Only three players beat par today out of twenty five entries, a rather poor show, considering some of the fairways on the top 9 resembled runways at Manchester Airport.

One 2 were recorded, Señor Waggitt on the 9th.

Results:
Winner – Paul Foster with 33pts on a CPO
R/up – Peter Broady with 33pts (the 14th did you Pete)
3rd – Michael John with 31pts

Spookily, the players on the podium were all off 14 handicap!

We have another Rommel ! Ken Pearce, visiting seven bunkers, one pond and umpteen trees!

I heard a rumour that the wine this week for the winner, is a bottle of 1945 Châteaux Pétrus!! Don’t mind if I do….

Interclub friendly away at Huyton and Prescot – Monday 18 August

Reporter: Steve Gosling (CoD))

An overcast day saw 16 intrepid adventurers take a trip down the M62 towards Liverpool.

A warm welcome and a bacon butty was on hand for our first trip to Huyton & Prescot Golf Club

A tricky course with plenty of blind tee shots and dog legs to catch the unknowing out!
Home advantage was definitely a thing.

Congratulations to Andrew Cox, John Armstrong , Peter Willson and Ron Thornton for getting the points in their matches and to Andy Timms and Colin Hughes for a draw.

A loss 5 1/2 to 2 1/2 but an enjoyable first outing to a new course and one we look forward to returning to next year with a bit more course knowledge banked!

[ Editors Note: Tommy Lawless, our Scouser-in-residence at LGC, tells me there is a tributary from the Mersey that runs past Huyton and Prescot. A dolphin made its way up there recently. Tommy says it was found on a pile of rocks with its fins and tail missing. 😂 ]

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 21 August)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 24 August

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

The Mitre Cup – Tuesday 12 August

Reporter: Andy Timms (Mr. Captain)

After a surprisingly damp start the sun came out and did its best to melt the gallant competitors in the annual Mitre Cup challenge between the seniors and the ladies. This year the hope was to stop the long run of defeats we had suffered at the hands of the ladies, and to that end some fine performances were recorded on our side, a notable 38 points on 15 holes from Peter Willson and Alan Ranscome, and 37 from Mark Pickles and Trev Williamson. (The Mitre Cup is a 15-hole comp.)

Sadly, the ladies greater consistency across the whole team proved to be the deciding factor, as they triumphed in the end by a score of 262 points to 257. Still, this represents a closer margin than in recent years, and so the prospects are looking good for next year!

When it came to the presentation, despite much searching, the trophy couldn’t be found! We had to make do with presenting the scoresheet to the winning captain, Catherine Catchpole.

A One-in-a-Million 80th Birthday!

What are the chances of getting a hole-in-one within a few days of your 80th birthday? Quite remote I would have thought, but Barry McGuigan’s recent achievement on the cusp of becoming an octogenarian was part of an even more unlikely round of golf.

Playing at Dunham Forest Golf Club, Barry partnered Mike Pigott in a 4BBB match against Andy Timms and Dave Roberts (now at Dunham, but a former committee member at Lymm).

Mike got a two on the first of the par 3s, and another two on the second of the par3s, and then Barry got his hole-in-one on the third of the par 3s (hole 13). This means that the pair did the first three short holes in a mere 5 shots! Surely some kind of record?

Mike tells me that Barry’s ace was his seventh hole-in-one, which, again, is remarkable achievement.

Apparently the 4BBB match was fiercely contested, but Barry and Mike took it from Andy and Dave on the last hole.

Barrie was presented with his Senior Section ‘jumper’ yesterday for his 80th birthday by our chairman John Armstrong.

Happy Mondays Report

Reporter: Steve Gosling

Five groups set off on a hot morning to enter battle for the gold coins.

Top scorer with 36 was Les Fecitt, followed by Ron Thornton with 35

The top team of the day featured comprised Les Fecitt, Steve Barlow, Ken Pearce and Steve Gosling with a score of 31

Runners up with 29.7 were Ron, Phil Lomas and Ken Narraway.

BoW Competition on Friday 8 August

I do not seem to have received a report for the BoW comp last Friday, but you can see the results on the main LGC website here.

Paul Foster won with 33 points over 15 holes, beating Pete Broady on CPO.

I have not yet received a report on the home match against Ringway GC on 8 August. If one is forthcoming, I will publish it in next week’s newsletter. Did we win?

Seniors Championship Game on Friday 5th September

Seniors who have won one or more of the Friday games in the from winter 2024 to summer 2025, or won the leagues, or won any of the senior competitions or knockouts, qualify for the Senior Section Championship on 5th September.

Here is a list compiled by Dave Craggs. If you are not on the list but think you should be, contact Dave and explain why you think you qualify.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 14 August)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 17 August

Memorial Trophy

£113.50 was collected for charity at the Memorial Trophy competition. Thank you to all who contributed. See last week’s newsletter for the results of the competition.

Peter Herrity Trophy on Friday 15 August

The Peter Herrity Trophy is also a charity event. The funds will be donated to our nominated charity.

Please make sure that you book online or on the I.G. app before Friday. £5 will be deducted from your clubhouse account. The competition is 18 holes off yellow tees.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Seniors Memorial Trophy

Reporter: Paul Foster

A right ‘Carry On’, Up, down, up down, up down, on, off, on, off, on, off… Umbrellas and water proofs! Little time to play any golf, more time just trying to escape from the rain, and dressing and undressing, and just when all the confounded weatherproofs were donned for the 5th time, out came the sun, and off came the waterproofs…repeat…repeat…repeat.

However, once again some super scores, with eight players breaking par from the forty six entries who played for the Memorial Trophy, invoking treasured memories of seniors who have sadly passed away. I for one paused at the memorial bench, just to reflect on the lives of seniors whose names are shown on the plaques, and a cheery tot of whisky afterwards on the patio in their memory.

We had in our 4-ball, a version of a Barbershop Quartet, all bellowing ‘FORE’ in varying octaves on the 6th, featuring a “ringing” quality achieved through precise tuning and blending of voices. To follow that, Eddie Floyd’s ‘Knock on Wood’ came wafting down the 10th fairway as all four of us managed to hit the same cluster of trees, and Steve ‘the actor’ Barlow, now has a new name…..Steve ‘Rommel’ Barlow after his escapades of visiting possibly every bunker on the front nine…!

Four 2s were recorded, Paul Collins, David Donnell-Jones, Dave Meir (as usual) and Mervyn Roberts.

All cards were marked correctly, except one, which didn’t have a name on it…mine!!

Results:
Winner – Dave Meir with and excellent 34pts on a CPO
R/up – David Craggs with 34pts
3rd – Peter Willson with 33 pts.

The Mitre Cup, to be played on Tuesday 12 August

Reporter: Andy Timms (Mr Captain)

The Mitre Cup, our annual challenge match against the ladies takes place next Tuesday, 12^th August. The match format is 4-ball-better-ball Stableford over 15 holes with the winning team being the one with the highest aggregate score. There are 8 pairs going out from each side with the first tee reserved from 11:03 am. The final pairings will be sorted out in the next day or so, but in the meantime I can confirm that the team will be:

Dave Craggs 
Andrew Cox  
Steve Gosling     
Colin Hughes      
Rob Taylor  
Andy Timms  
Phil Ormesher     
Alan Ranscombe    
Arthur Laird      
Ron Thornton      
Pete Broady 
Mark Pickles      
Sammy Lee   
Arthur Nuttall    
Jeff Ashurst      
Richard Yates     

With reserves:
Trev Williamson
Peter Willson
Alan Copeland

If your name is down as part of what will hopefully be a winning team this year, but you aren’t now able to play, then please let me know as soon as possible so that I can get one of the supersubs off the bench.

Happy Mondays Report for – Monday 28th July

Reporter: Peter Willson

A brief shower at 1st but then a dry, breezy but overall a fine day for golf.

Game: Team Stableford – 15 players, 5 teams 

Winners: Les Fecitt and Paul Foster – 59 points or 29.5 ppp narrowly beating in 

Second place: Phil Lomas and Alan Thomas – 58 points or 29 ppp

Highest Individual Scores – 33 points – Mike Bennett and Phil Lomas.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 7 August)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 10 August

Friday 8 August – BoW Competition

Please note that the ‘fun comp’ scheduled for this Friday will be individual Stableford Bottle of Wine competition. Register on the IG app of the LGC website in where it is listed in ‘Upcoming Competitions’ for 8 August.

Friday 15 August – Peter Herrity Trophy

A week on Friday we play for the Peter Herrity Trophy. This is an 18-hole Stableford off yellow tees. Please enter beforehand in ‘Upcoming Competitions’. The entry fee is £5, which the Senior Section donate to charity.

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Bottle-of-wine Competition, Friday 25 July

Reporter: Paul Foster

A sticky hot day for the Châteaux de Willson challenge.

Some super scores on the day. The highlight in the 4-ball I played in was Richard Smyllie smashing his drive down the 14th, leaving a wedge to the green and then sinking the 5-footer for a birdie. A pleasure to watch, and then Richard nearly eagled the 15th with his third shot, a 10-yard chip-and-run.

Four players beat par out of the twenty three entries.

Five 2s were recorded, Paul Foster somehow managed three 2s, others by Dave Meir and Tony Dixon (pity there’s no balls to be won for 2s on the BOW weeks)

Results:

Winner: Alister Cook with 36pts
R/up: Paul Foster with 33pts on a CPO
Third: Ken Pierce with 33pts

Friday may have just been a BoW comp, but we all must treat the round as if it were a competition day. There were 23 cards handed in, 2 members handed cards in but didn’t pre-register the competition, and 1 member pre-registered the comp but didn’t hand his card in or enter his score into Ig.

Rules state: If a golfer pre-registers for a competition but does not submit their scores afterward, they may face a penalty score being applied to their handicap record. This is a common practice to ensure players are accountable for their rounds and to prevent manipulation of handicaps. 

Interclub friendly at home versus Sale GC, Friday 25 July

Reporter: Mark Pickles

Paddy Moran was Captain of the Day, by popular demand, not only for his sportsmanship and captaincy record but for his talent for telling jokes!

Lymm won 5 to 3.

Our winning pairs were:
Trevor Williamson and Art Laird
John Armstrong and Colin Hughes
Mike Bennett and Phil Lomas
Phil Ormisher and Andrew Cox
David Donnell-Jones and Jeff Chapman.

Speeches followed after an enjoyable lunch of chicken curry, and apple crumble with ice cream. Paddy immediately got laughs for his comments on David Donnell-Jones’ recent flop of a joke, and so Paddy put himself under pressure to make sure his own joke didn’t flop! I’m pleased to say that Paddy touched 8/10 on the laughometer, which is a good effort for a clean joke, with none of the smut of Bobby Mycock’s jokes!😉

Hawkstone Trophy 2025

Reporter: Les Williams

Our fourth year of playing for the coveted Hawkstone trophy at our two day jolly at Hawkstone park didn’t disappoint.

Sixteen players turned up for an early lunch with a glint in their eyes and thoughts of winning this year!

First tee at 12:30. Clear sky, and everyone chomping at the bit. The Old Course is an amazing course to play with all holes completely different and challenging.

Result for the day was, in second place, Bob Mycock and Dave Craggs with 44 points, just beaten by the winners Paul Collins and Mike Kendal also with 44 points and with a better back nine on the CPO.

A good crack was enjoyed by all prior to dinner, which as usual was delicious food and good quality wine, followed by watching England ladies progress to the final of the Euro Cup.

Next morning some bleary eyed players discussed how they would dismantle the Championship Course, and so they did with amazing scores from Paul Collins, Jeff Ashurst, John Hayes and Alan Thomas returning a score of 122. The format was best three scores from each four-man team.

A bottle of good red wine for the deserving winners.

A light lunch was enjoyed by all before returning home while looking forward to the challenge again next year.

Memorial Trophy Competition on Friday

We play for the Memorial Trophy on Friday. Please make sure that you enter for the competition on I.G. or on the LGC website the day before.

I got this photo in an email from a ‘Ronald Craggs’, telling us that the Memorial bench has been spruced up ready for the competition.

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 31 July)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 3rd August

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles

Summer League Round 10 of 10

Reporter: Paul Foster

A bumper edition this week. Settle down on your favourite settee, grab a large glass of Pinot Noir and enjoy…

A fine warm day with cloudy intervals, and when the sun did shine it got jolly hot, out came the silly hats, and red went the milk bottle legs emanating from an assortment of Gunner ‘Lofty’ Sugden shorts. A great day for golf, judging by the results, and the smiling faces all around the course, also on the patio where Les Williams remained after his round for most of the day.

Fifteen players beat par on Friday, lots of hcaps to be docked by England Golf..!

Forty seven entry’s for the final round of the long Summer league, punters have been jockeying for position since last March, now it’s all over.

Twenty three players from division 1, and twenty four from division 2.

Just to irk our esteemed treasurer, four 2s were recorded. Martin Franks managed two 2s, on the 2nd and the 9th. Others by Paul Collins and a marvellous 2 for Rob Taylor, both on the 13th.

Top of the pile and the highest stableford score for the 1st division, and the lowest gross by anybody in the summer league was that man Martin Franks. With a quite an astonishing 38pts, finishing 1 under par gross after 15 holes. Congratulations for sure. Martin’s round consisted of 2 birdies, 12 pars and 1 bogey.

Just Martin Franks managed ‘keep a six off your card’, (not surprisingly) in the 1st division, but no one managed a ‘keep a seven off your card’ in the 2nd division.

Division 1 Results:

Winner – Martin Franks with 38pts
R/up – Barry McGuigan with 33pts on a CPO
3rd – Steve Gosling with 33pts

Division 2 Results
Winner – John ‘the singer’ Hayes with 33pts
R/up – Alan Copeland with 32pts on a CPO
3rd – Mike Kendall with 32pts

With Martin’s fantastic last round, the 1st division Summer League Trophy is shared between Paul Collins and Martin Franks.

No change from round 9 in division two, so Joe Priestner and Stuart Baird share the 2nd division Summer League Trophy. Hearty congratulations to all four players.

Interesting snippets of information from the Summer League:

In the 1st division the following players managed a ‘keep a six off your card’; Martin Franks (4 times!), Paul Collins, Ian Whitehead, Mike Pigott and Duncan Clarke,

In the 2nd division the following players managed a ‘keep a seven off your card’; Art Laird, Mike Bennett twice, Joe Priestner, Alan Copeland three times, Mervyn Roberts and Colin Hughes.

Just seven players competed in all 10 rounds, top score in the 1st division was Martin Franks with 38pts and top score in the 2nd division and summer league high was Barry Smith with a phenomenal 39pts.

There were 109 birdies, including twenty five 2s and 1 eagle scored over the ten rounds, with 479 rounds of golf played by 80 players.

All looking forward to the Autumn league???

[ Editor’s Note: See the Leader Boards page for the full list of results. ]

Happy Mondays Competition – 21 July

Match Reporter: Peter Willson

A dry yet warm and humid day with virtually zero wind.
Game: Team Stableford
13 players, 4 teams
Winners: again for 2nd week in a row – the guys out last came in to collect the spondoolics – Mike Bennett and Colin Crail – 58 points or 29 ppp
Second: 2 teams on 28.8 points per player.

Highest Individual scores: Alan Copeland and John Mather – 33 points each

Tee-booking schedule for tomorrow (Thursday 24 July)

Happy Mondays tee-booking schedule for Sunday 27 July

Newsletter Editor: Mark Pickles