If you look at the Home page of our website, it does say that, "its a well known fact that the sun shines most Wednesdays". On our first game back after the summer break, it did, apart from 15 minutes at the beginning of the round, and 15 minutes at the end of the round. During these times, it rained. Nothing to worry about particularly in those 15 minutes at the beginning and, after all, we need the rain! But the 15 minutes at the end was proper Spanish. Unfortunately, four of our groups were nearly home, but not quite. They got wet, very wet. TBF, they toughed it out, and to a man, they came in agreeing that it was only a shower and that we really did need the rain. Quite rightly each group got a round of applause as they came in.
Unaffected by the rain, and playing in benign conditions was your Poster Boy. His group, second off, were at the tee but it was raining and there was no sign of the boys who were teeing off first. Mick Callanan was adamant they hadn't tee'd off, and somebody said they had seen Captain Jordan having another coffee back in the clubhouse. So, the second group waited a bit, then waited a bit more, then waited until it had stopped raining, then tee'd off. As it turned out, group one had already tee'd off in the rain and got soaked playing the first three holes. Group two, Poster Boy's group, tee'd off in the sunshine and stayed dry for 18 holes. That's the way it goes sometimes!
This obviously helped his game. He managed to draw and slice his ball around every swarm of midges to rack up 17 points on the front, and 20 on the back. The back nine included near perfect putts from greenside bunkers at holes 15 and 16. Smart thinking, unusually, given the state of the sand after the rains. So, a winning score of 37 points and his first gold star for a long, long time.
Nobody offered to take his photograph, and he is notoriously bad at selfies, so below is a very recent shared birthday photo with his granddaughter.
Miffed at getting soaking wet, AND losing, were Peter Dymyd and Dave Smith who finished second and third respectively, both with 35 points. Dave Smith was miffed more because he got wetter than Peter, and he lost out on the back nine countback.
Seniors
The playlist was a sea of S's. 11 in total. We would normally expect to see Ray Gambrill's name at this point, but he is recovering from training for the next Olympics. He was practicing his front walkover by the pool in Dubai. This is similar to a front handspring but the legs move one after the other, in a smooth fluid motion. They didn't, and they weren't! One knee, crocked. SOB. Poster Boy took full advantage.
NP's
Hole 9. Stroke index 18, pin at the front, playing about 110 yards on the day. Just have to get over that bunker. Paul Vuckovic did and got it closest to the pin. Birdie?? No, bogie!! Whoops.
Hole 18. Ray Gambrill, playing this hole in warm sunny weather, hit his shot just 12 yards short and slightly to the right. Everybody else, playing this hole in the rain, couldn't get closer due to soggy balls. Did he get his birdie?? No, but finished with a par, in the sunshine!
LBS
Some normality has returned. This has always been a x2 course, ie no of players x 2 lost balls each. 23 x 2 = 46. Dave Collie worked this out, then studied AEMET for the weather. He added +3 for showers = 49. Then, he knew there would be swarms of something or other out there that would affect players' concentration. A few games ago it was mosquitoes. This time if was midges. He added +3 for midges, 52. Correct, and well worked out. €32 to the good.
CBKO
Roger Jennings was playing Andy Price in the first semi-final. It promised to be a fairly even contest, Andy having just the one shot. And that's the way it turned out. Roger was two up at the 17th so Andy could still get it to a/s and the 17th was where Andy had his shot advantage. Andy played it well, and wisely. He cleared the bridge and water and his ball landed, he thought, on or close to the green. When he got there, it was nowhere to be seen. Remember, it was a bit showery at the time. So, he couldn't find is ball, so the hole, and the match was lost right there. A win for Roger 3&1. He will play either Viv Bacon or Roger Miller in the final. Congratulations to Roger and commiserations to Andy.
Back in the clubhouse it took some time for everyone to dry out. Our Captain did his usual fine job with the awards and he was at pains to thank everyone for their efforts given the conditions. He reminded us all about the importance of the next game at Oliva when our Sponsors will be in attendance to check up on us. And lastly, he did mention that the UK were good at Tiddlywinks, but not much else?
Our next game is at Oliva on Wednesday 18th September.
As ever, this game will be sponsored by Blevins Franks, International Tax and Wealth Management. And this time, our Sponsors will be with us. Peter Hodgkinson will have a round, and we will be joined by Brett Hanson after the game. It will be a great opportunity to meet top professionals in the field of investments, taxation, pensions, wealth etc. Go to the Events page of the App for more details.
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 with handicap from their corresponding Spanish Regional Federation. In the Valencia Region the cost is €104.20. There is a one off joining fee of €15.
Non resident Members can also obtain an Annual 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.
Just what we need. Our league Captain in top form as we head to Bonalba.