It was our 12th Summer Tour - and the first time we had ever returned to the same location - Slaley Hall, where we had gone in 2007. There was a record turnout of 13 for the event, including debutants Keith Gray and Ian McRae. The southern based contingent - George Cox, John Davies and Bob Cooper were all present and correct - although they did comment about leaving the sweltering south behind to travel to relatively cool and cloudy Northumbria. Bhagrath, Street, Gray and Pollard were all already based in northern England for different reasons, so their journey was a lot shorter than the rest of us.
Most of us arrived in good time for a relaxing lunch and some ale, although the Freeman, Cook and Corbett chariot was a bit touch and go, having left Banchory a full 2 hours later than Bill, Ian and I did. The first day's play was on the Priestman course, which we had played once back in 2007. The layout's pretty good but they were doing a tremendous amount of work on their bunkers and this, allied to the occasional shower at the start, had an off putting effect. Here's a typical scene as Archie retrieves his ball from the G.U.R. at the short 3rd hole:
The rough was pretty severe and there was a huge premium for staying on the fairway as Archie (again) found out:
It was a pretty hectic finish to get off the course, showered and changed for dinner at 7:30 pm - and there was no time for prize-giving, but the day's honours went to John, with an impressive 37 points. I was next with 35, with Syd and Rob both on 33, Dan & Keith 32, and Jas 31 - pretty good scoring overall.
NP's went to Bob and Syd and I won the longest drive at the 18th.
There was the slightly unusual/never before seen image of a waiter serving Jas a half pint at dinner - he was promptly scolded of course. A couple of photos were taken after dinner - and for those who can't remember/don't know Bob, here he is:
Likewise, here's John and George having a laugh:
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