Desert Springs away trip, November 16-18th, 2007

Sponsored by Joe 'new liver' Schulein

Sponsored by Joe (New Liver) Schulein

They came, They saw, They conquered, well most of them! Not the hoards from
across the border but the WC Golfers trip to Desert Springs Golf Course. Twenty
determined players, backed up by their intrepid spouses headed down the A7 to the
Marina Playa Hotel, in Mojacar, for the start of a great weekend.

The course was in the best of condition, full marks to Desert Springs, and the
greens very testing. They were heard described during the weekend like putting on
a sheet of glass. Our representative from Ireland, Mike O'Reilly, had heard there
was a scout there from the Irish Football Squad and tried to head a ball on the
practice pitching green hit by Ray Garbutt. Unfortunately the only prize he got was
a bump on the head the size of an egg, thank goodness for cold coke cans! It brings
to mind the saying, 'I'm all in favour of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands
of fools, let's start with golf clubs', only kidding Ray. A word of advice for Steve, who
seemed to bear a grudge against certain obstacles, i.e. Houses. Just remember the
words of Henry Ford; 'Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take
your eyes off your goal'.

The prizes sponsored by Joe were excellent, many thanks to him for his generosity,
and congratulations to all the winners over the weekend.

The hotel was a great venue to start and finish our days, with its usual high standard
of food choice and quality. El President Dos, John Williams, (pictured) provided an
excellent quiz for Saturday evening, and even the loss of power in the room near
the end did not dampen the spirits and the quiz was finished on the balcony outside
the room. The only casualty in all this was our player & sponsor, Joe, who had fallen
asleep on a couch and no one woke him up, perhaps he was dreaming of Samuel
Johnson’s quote, 'I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad day
then the nap takes me'. On a serious note the generosity of our players at this event
added another 155 Euro to our charity pot, which with the monies already raised is
going to buy some winter coats for a local orphanage.

To finish it was a great weekend, weather, golf and company and a big thank you to
Gary for putting it all together. I think we can sum this all up with a saying from a
famous scientist, 'There are only two ways to play your golf. One is as though
nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle'

Chris Almond was triumphant and now trails in the pro series by on 3 points 14 – 11.
He managed not to three putt the entire weekend … a feat in itself.

Picture shows John 'Gollum' Williams and his new motorised trolley kindly donated by
overall winner Chris Almond.

Saturday winners 1st Joe (New Liver) Schulein, 2nd Ceda Sevenyearich, 3rd Neil
(when I was Rear Admiral of the Fleet) Robertson.

Sunday winners 1st John Forbes, 2nd Steve Jones, 3rd Gary Stone

Overall winner of the away trip trophy was Chris Almond on countback from Ceda nearlywonthewholethingavich

Ceda’s team won the quiz by two points.