Boat of Garten LXI

We've all just returned from what was a fantastic weekend, played in weather as good as any we have ever experienced. When we left Boat of Garten this afternoon, the temperature reading was 24 C.

We were back to the more normal format of Grantown on Sunday and B.o.G. on Monday and the teams lined up on Sunday as follows:

Steve Fulford, Ian Dring, Dick Taylor & Ken Page

Keith Gray, Peter Street, Rob Pollard & Syd Freeman

Harry Salter, Ian Stewart, Hugh Riches & Jas Bhagrath

I couldn't get a photo of the 4th team as they seemed to scatter to all four corners. Keith Murray had left Nottingham at 4 am and driven up the road just to take part - and this was after representing Scotland in the Home International Squash championships - Veterans' over 55 section - and he was busy practising and trying to shake the journey out of his system.

The weather improved all afternoon and it was still glorious after we'd finished golf, checked in at the Grant Arms and walked across the road to the Garth Hotel:

l-r: Jack Simpson, Peter Street, Malcolm Grigor, Jas Bhagrath, Syd Freeman, Ken Page, Dick Taylor, Keith Gray, Hugh Riches, Ian Stewart, Ian Dring (face hidden), Keith Murray, Rob Pollard, Steve Fulford & Archie Cook. Missing was Harry Salter who had driven back to his holiday home in Aviemore to shower and change.

Steve Fulford had the best score of the day (40), with Malcolm Grigor next best on 38, followed by Ken Page & Ian Dring with 36 and me with 35 points. Keith Gray got both NP's and Ken Page LD.

Dinner and drinks on Sunday evening were great fun - the noise levels in the dining room were considerably elevated by the presence of 16 of us round one long table.

Sunday was great but it was even hotter on Monday - it was already 18 C when we arrived at Boat of Garten just after 9 am and the snow-capped mountains were looking magnificent:

We had some time to kill before our scheduled 10 am start and Keith decided it was time to do some calisthenics. Here he is, nimbly leaping to his feet after the demonstration:

Our team photo again shows only 15 of us - this time, it was Archie who was missing - he'd had to cut short his round at Grantown on Sunday due to back and leg pains and had then spent a sleepless night trying to find a comfortable position on his bed - to no avail.

l-r: Stewart (silly "shorts"), Simpson, Salter (silly hat), Murray (kneeling), Dring, Freeman (dressed in the dark), Riches, Taylor, Pollard, Street, Page, Gray, Bhagrath, Grigor & Fulford

Steve started well, but his score dwindled away a bit. There was, however, no challenge from his playing partners, but unknown to him, those ahead of him were faring much better - none more than Keith Murray - out in the first group of "no-hopers" - who scored 39 points off his new handicap of 7 - equivalent to a gross 74. Syd, too, was having a good day.

In the end, Steve just did enough to hang on and win the trophy on his very first appearance in the event, emulating his old mucker Ian D's feat last time around:

Jack and Ian D shared the NP's and Harry got the LD. The full two round scoreboard shows:

Fulford	71
Freeman	69
Murray	68
Stewart	67
Pollard	65
Gray	65
Bhagrath	64
Grigor	64
Taylor	63
Dring	63
Page	62
Riches	57
Simpson	52
Street	49
Salter	48
Cook	11

and the prizewinners therefore were:

Overall winner	Steve
2nd overall	Syd
3rd overall	Keith M
Scratch	Syd
Sunday winner (not overall)	Malcolm
Monday winner (not overall or Sun)	Keith M
NP's - Sunday	Keith G (2)
LD - Sunday	Ken
NP's - Monday	Jack/Ian D
LD - Monday	Harry
Sunday team	Steve/Dick/Ian D/Ken
Monday team	Syd/Keith G/Dick

So Steve becomes the 21st name on the trophy, which, incidentally, has now run out of space to record the winners - we may have to add an additional band, increasing the height of the trophy.