- El Plantío
Viv is the Captain's favourite
Viv Bacon scores an incredible 41 points at El Plantío to pick up her first gold and silver stars, along with the Captain's Trophy.
Well, what a day. Our Captain pulled out all the stops to make sure we had a great day. Just look at the schedule of competitions he had lined up for us.
Best get on then with going through all our winners.
Individual Stableford:
1st place: Viv Bacon. 41 points
Only two blobs and a gross birdie on 16. Great round.
2nd place: Tony Bowers. 37 points.
Mr Consistently good:
3rd place: Roger Jennings. 37 points
Welcome back steady Eddie
Best Senior:
Viv Bacon
Once again, Seniors take two of the three top positions.
Nearest the Pins:
Society NP's:
Hole 7. Unbelievable. Nobody!
Hole 14. Roger Jennings bent it round the mountain to about 4 yards. Did he get his birdie? No he didn't. Kept his nerve to get his par.
Captain's NP's
Hole 9. Andy Price hit one of his better shots, also to 4 yards. Birdie? Nope. Par.
Hole 18. A NP competition without Pankaj getting close wouldn't be a proper NP competition. He left it to his penultimate shot though. Just one to go from 2 feet to get his birdie,
Team Accumulator
1st place. Team 3. 129 points.
These boys accumulated very well. Hans Benzler, Ben Wilcox, Peter Dymyd and Sean Carr were in cahouts all the way round.
2nd place. Team 2. 128 points.
These boys and girl got on quite as well. Gary Stone, Mick Callanan, Ray Stone and Viv Bacon. What a motley crew. One of the boys was overheard muttering that if Viv hadn't blobbed one of those holes, they would have won. Bit harsh.
Bunker King or Queen
It was never going to be a Bunker Queen was it! Turns out our Bunker King was Peter Dymyd with 5. We are not sure how well he played out of those bunkers, but he got a prize that might come in handy next time out.
Captain's Distance
There was a prize for guessing the distance of the Captain's second shot to the middle of the green on the 17th hole. Last time out he creamed his drive which just left him a short iron on and then a one putt for a birdie. This time? Who would gamble that he would pull one into the trees? Who was confident that he would repeat a cracking drive?
Hole 17 is 402 yards long. For the Captain's second shot, his Garmin said 171 yards to the middle, so another really good drive. There were lots of guesses around that mark but none spot on. The nearest and best guess was by Mick Callanan with an amazingly good guess of 173 yards.
Wheels
An additional prize was offered by our Captain. This one was for the most spectacular change in fortune between the front and back nine. 21 points on the front nine, and one point on the back. Now that is spectacular and well worthy of that technical golfing term, "the wheels have fallen off". And the prize? A set of wheels of course. Unlucky winner? Mick Callanan.
LBS
Viv had given us the formula to work this out but none of us got it right. y x 2 x 1.129 slope + 4x - 4% margin for error = 45. y is the number of players and x is the Mick Callanan back 9 effect. Pankaj nearly got it with 44 but he made a schoolboy error when adding up. The sweep of €31 adds to the €28 rollover from the last game. €59 in the kitty for next time.
CBKO
The second semi took place today between Tony Bowers and Ray Gambrill. Tony got off to a great start and didn't really give Ray much of a look in. Tony was 5 up at the turn and it looked like it was only going one way. However, Ray rallied a little bit and won the first two holes on the back nine, getting the score back to only 3 up. There was a glimmer of hope for Ray but it all went Pete Tong from the 12th. Tony went up another gear and won the next three holes. Hands were shaken at the 14th, a win for Tony 6&4.
Tony will play Gary Stone in the final which may well take place at Font del Llop next time out. Two heavyweights in the final, a bit like the All Blacks v South Africa!
Back in the clubhouse, our Captain took ages with the presentation, but then there were a lot of prizes. He did a fantastic job all round. Our President stood to acknowledge his efforts and to thank him for a job really well done.
Our next game is at Font del Llop on Wednesday November 1st.
As ever, this game will be sponsored by Blevins Franks, International Tax and Wealth Management.
Licence to Play
We expect Members to obtain the appropriate Federated LIcence valid in Spain. This licence grants permission to play on all the Courses on our schedule and includes the liability and accident insurance required by Royal Decree 849/1993.
As a general guide, resident Members should be looking to obtain an Annual LIcence from their corresponding Spanish Regional Federation. In the Valencia Region the cost is €101.30. For those not wanting to have an official handicap, the cost is reduced to €89.30. There is a one off joining fee of €15.
Non resident Members can also obtain an Annial LIcence if they wish. If not, they should purchase a One Day LIcence at each course which affiliates them to the Federation for that day's play. A One Day Licence costs €2.