Boat of Garten LVIII

The forecast for the weekend was pretty reasonable but we were a little disappointed with the cloud cover when we arrived at Grantown. First of all, however, bacon butties had to be consumed - and, for once, we had some friendly banter with the caterers. Yes, old grumpy drawers has gone, replaced by a much more cheerful couple.

Debutant Kenneth Gray was, as usual, wearing a vibrant, almost luminous, coloured golf shirt with shorts, but Chris was the only other one that was brave enough to start in shorts. By the end of the round, however, many of the rest of us were wishing we had followed suit.

Many photos have been taken over the years at this spot at the 7th tee:

Everyone made it round to the Garth after golf to quench their thirst with beers in the garden:

Kenneth Gray, Peter Street, Richard Simcox, Les Gray, Rob Pollard, Malcolm Grigor, Jack Simpson, Keith Gray, Chris Dickinson, Dan Corbett, Ian Stewart, Jas Bhagrath, Syd Freeman & Dick Taylor

Dinner in the Grant Arms was good fun. Fuelled by the pre-dinner drinks, the referendum banter was good humoured. Chris had a bit of a mishap with his wine glass, which he snapped in two:

Monday morning looked promising and Jack and I joined the short-wearers. Some found it a little chilly in the early morning air, but the sun soon broke through to warm everyone up. Here's the team lining up at the start:

There is a memorial plaque under one of the silver beeches near the practice green that always makes me feel a little uncomfortable:

Hopefully there won't be another one like this for a while yet.

A quick lunch and prize-giving in the clubhouse was followed by the usual swift pint in the Boat Inn, Aboyne, with the winner standing his hand, as tradition dictates. It also gave us the opportunity to take the formal trophy presentation photo on the banks of the Dee:

For the record, the aggregate scores were:

Freeman	75
Grigor	70
Dickinson	68
Gray, Keith	66
Street	65
Gray Les	62
Corbett	61
Stewart	61
Taylor	60
Simpson	60
Gray, Kenneth	57
Pollard	57
Bhagrath	51
Simcox	17

Richard has a bad back and again only played the Sunday round (in a buggy).

The prize-winners over the 2 days were:

Overall winner	Syd
2nd overall	MSG
3rd overall	Chris
Scratch	Syd
Sunday winner (not overall)	Rob
Monday winner (not overall or Sun)	Chris
NP's - Sunday	Rob/KAG
NP's - Monday	Rob/MSG
LD - Sunday	Chris
LD - Monday	Dick
Sunday team	MSG/PWS/KJG
Monday team	IRS/CD/LWG

Another super weekend. Next year, our September outing will be the 60th Official Outing in our 30th year. An amazing achievement - and one that we should all celebrate in some way.