Balmoral 2023

It was our 22nd outing to Balmoral last night - and the first time we had managed, courtesy of our host Gary Coutts, to increase the number of Banchory guests to 12, signed on by 4 Balmoral members, each of whom played in one of the 4 fourballs.

Nigel volunteered to acquire the drinks for our post-golf celebrations:

We piled that lot, plus the food that Keith had prepared/acquired, in to the team bus along with 12 bodies and sets of clubs and set off to Balmoral, where Gary met us and took us in to the estate (back entrance this time).

We were threatened with an early shower but it came to nothing and soon we were back to blue skies again. Balmoral had lost their regular greenkeeper golfer, Duncan Stewart, who had been "poached" by the King and had moved to Dumfries House. The course this year wasn't in the best condition but the surroundings are lovely. The rough, however, was lethal, and there were many lost balls which kept the scoring lower than usual.

Jas hasn't been able to play golf this year but decided to give it a go last night. He had a somewhat embarrassing start when his opening drive rebounded behind the tee back almost to the clubhouse:

 As well as the above, Ian Sh sent me a few more photos he took last night:

Scorecard

Clubhouse

Either side of the 1st fairway, there are statues of Albert, Prince Consort and Queen Victoria looking over at each other

View from 2nd tee of Crathie Kirk

Of course, there had to be a team photo as well:

Gary Coutts standing between Ian D and Jas, with the 3 other Balmoral members - Brian, Peter and Brendan - on the far right

Now, the scores. 10 of our group of 16 had stableford points in the mid-20's - only 6 managed to reach the respectability threshold of 30 points and 3 of them were Balmoral members. I scored 31 points, Ian D had 33 and Harry 35.

The winner, for the 3rd time, was Balmoral member Brian Lees with 37 points. Harry took 2nd place. Nearest the pins were Gary and Brian whilst Ian D got the longest drive. The team prize went to Brendan, Harry, Hugh and Rob with a total of 107 points, taking the best scores 3 at each hole.

The Challenge 2022

There was a weather warning for strong winds in the morning but dry until the afternoon. They got it wrong - yes, there was a bit of wind but it certainly wasn't enough to merit a weather warning. The course, too, was looking very good for October - the greens were true and running well. Hugh had played in the medal yesterday when there were mud patches on the course so we decided to play preferred lies, but, in retrospect, there was no need - the fairways were fine.

Thankfully, no late cancellations so it was a full house of 20, playing in 5 fourball matches. The leading game was between the father and son team of Malcolm and Matthew Grigor against the formidable R.o.W. pairing of Ian Dring and Syd Freeman. Predictably, the "away" team had a reasonably comfortable 3 & 1 victory.

Match 2 went the same way, with Harry Salter and Raymond Orr (guesting for R.o.W.) defeating Brain Dawson and Ian Sharp 4 & 3. The 3rd match was much tighter, with Rob Pollard delighting his partner Nigel Meany by holing a tricky "9-footer" (according to Rob) on the final green to level the match with Dick Taylor and me.

Thankfully, matches 4 & 5 went Scotland's way - John Waddell and Keith Gray beat Hugh and Jackie Riches (also guesting for R.o.W.) 2 holes up, and Carol Dawson and Jack Simpson notching a 2 & 1 win over John Meaden and Julie Dring.

This was the 3rd overall tie in the 19 years since 2004 that this end of season event has been held. Scotland maintain the overall lead with 11 victories, with R.o.W. having 5.

We had 4 logo'd balls left so there were NP & LD competitions. Nigel got the NP at the 3rd hole and I got the one at the 7th. Ian Dring predictably won the LD at the 10th. The ladies' NP at the 3rd presented a bit of a problem as none of the 3 hit the green but, by popular acclaim, Jackie was awarded with the ball as she was the only one to clear the ditch.

Rob took the photo of me and Hugh with the trophy:

Barmaid Jacqui then took the team photo of those still present:

Unfortunately, no catering available this year but hopefully the meal will be back next year for our 20th event (if we're spared!)

Terry Edmonds' Memorial Trophy XXI 2022

Although the numbers dwindled over the last few weeks, there was a still a fairly healthy turnout for the event at Aboyne. For the first time we had a junior golfer joining us - 9 year old Eli, Paul and Samia's son, who played 9 holes with me, Paul and Malcolm. He looks like a future star and it won't be too long before he's beating his Dad - and the rest of us.

It was a fine afternoon and the course was in great nick. Best individual score on the day came from Gary, who had 37 points, just pipping Keith on countback. Here's the full list:

Harry and Gary got the NP's and Syd and Gary the two (age divided) LD's. As ever, the team competition, which was the best two at each hole, was a little controversial. I had indicated beforehand that there would be an appropriate reduction in the scores of the 4-man teams - probably 10%. Teams 2 & 3 scored 85 and 84 points respectively, while the 3-man team had 81 points, so any deduction of 5% or more would have been enough to seal victory for team 1. Gary challenged this and asked what would the result have been had we just used the overall team averages? Well, guess what - team 1 would still have won - their average was 32.7, whilst the other teams only averaged 31.3.

Linda, as usual, donated the prize balls and I had intended to give mine to young Eli, but I never even got my hands on it - Eli had already pocketed it!

Now the photos - first of all waiting for our post-match meal:

Keith took this photo just before he had to dash off and greet some unexpected visitors at home. After we'd eaten, we did the presentation out on the (west) balcony:

From l-r: Syd Freeman, Jack Simpson, Harry Salter (half hidden), Malcolm Grigor, Ian Stewart, Linda Edmonds, 16 year old Sam Edmonds (6'1" and still growing), Samia Saeed-Edmonds, Eli Edmonds, John Waddell, Gary Grant, Rob Pollard, Paul Edmonds and Nigel Meany.

Before handing over the trophy, there was a round of applause for Samia who had been awarded the MBE in the Queen's New Year Honours List for heading up NHS Wales' Covid team during the pandemic.

Here's Linda doing the honours with Gary:

The trophy was donated by Linda after Terry passed in December, 2001. The first planned playing for it in 2002 was rained off, as was the 2009 event. (Interestingly, none of our other events have been rained off twice - even our oldest outing to Boat of Garten, which has been played over 70 times now, has only been rained off once). Also, the event didn't take place in 2020 due to Covid, so there have only been 18 winners in the 21 years the competition has been held.

Gary and Malcolm are both members at Aboyne (as was Syd in the past). This was Gary's first win but Malcolm has won the trophy 5 times. Me, Paul Edmonds, the late Les Gray and Keith Gray (no relation) have each won it twice and there have been solo wins for the late Dave Edwards, Archie Cook, Harry Salter and Ken Page.

I don't have a record of Keith's winning score in 2017, but, from the other years, Les has the highest winning points with 42 in 2006.

We look forward to next year's event and hopefully Paul, Samia and the boys can make the long trip north again.

The Challenge XVIII

The doom-laden weather forecasts from earlier in the week were a thankfully distant memory as, appropriately, 18 of us lined up on a coolish but fair morning for the 18th consecutive playing of this now traditional season closing event. The earlier starters lined up for a team photo on the first tee:

The top match was between Malcolm and Raymond, representing Scotland, and this year's Quaich winner Harry, partnered by Syd, with Scotland coming out on top by the surprisingly high margin of 5 & 4. The next two matches had to be 3-balls so I had to devise a system of matchplay that would be fair to both teams - and each of the participants. Two Scots - Keith and me - played Rob, whilst Dick faced Nigel and John W, who was hastily transferred (under duress) to the R.o.W. team at the last minute. Individual stableford scores were the basis, with the 2-man team aggregates divided by two. Both Keith and I struggled to play the same holes well and, standing on the 15th tee, Rob was 3 holes up and hoping to be able to walk in victorious at the Doo'cot. It wasn't to be, with Keith and I winning the last 4 holes to narrowly take the match for Scotland by just one hole. Subsequently, Keith queried whether we could have "done a Nicklaus" and conceded Rob's tricky downhill 6 foot putt so that the match was tied - but too late. After all, this was at stake:

Nigel and John W didn't have as much trouble in their match, comfortably beating Dick by 4 & 3. The last 2 matches were mixed - and married - fourballs. The Sharps beat the McWhinnies 2 up - not that John and Joan, having to represent R.o.W., were too disappointed. The final match between the Moirs (for Scotland) and the Riches (R.o.W.) was interesting as, normally, both Lynda and Jackie would have been playing for the opposite side from their husbands, but, in the interests of marital bliss, on this occasion they had to go over to the dark side. It was reported that Lynda played fantastically well, with two net eagles and a few birdies, so Scotland won this match 5 & 3, so taking the overall score to 4 matches to 1 in Scotland's favour. After lunch, most of the winning team (minus Raymond) lined up on the steps outside for the team photo:

The overall result since 2004 now reads Scotland 12, R.o.W. 6.

Tayside Autumn IX

Raymond's match report from yesterday's return to Drumoig for our 9th Tayside Autumn outing: "A blustery day on a testing course. However you all responded with good scoring. The individual scores had 2 with 33 points, 2 with 35, 1 with 36 and the winner John Meaden with 37 . Well done John Team scores - there was a clear victory for the team of Ian Dring and John Meaden with 72 points, a good 6 points from the runner ups Nigel Meany and Les Gray. Windy conditions made the nearest the pins shots a bit difficult but both greens were hit in one. The nearest the pin on the 2nd hole was won by Ray Orr and on the 14th by Ian Dring The longest drive on the 9th was won by Harry Salter - a splendid drive of around 280 yards splitting the fairway ( risking the waters on either side) The longest drive for the veterans on this hole was won by Ray Orr with a much more modest effort. Full results for the day are attached. The meal afterwards was good golfers fare and the staff were friendly. A fair venue for a golf outing at a reasonable price. All in all a Good Day Out and Congratulations again to the worthy winner - John Meaden" Now the photos, firstly Ian's, starting with the view from the iconic 9th tee:

Now my photos, also starting at the 9th tee - Gordon in action:

Les had travelled down in Nigel's car with Ian, but Les had forgotten to bring a mask so Nigel gave him this one to use:

The legend says "No Scotland No Party" - not sure any of us understood what it meant. To finish, Raymond presents John with his prizes:

Click on this link (or copy and paste) to follow our route yesterday - https://www.relive.cc/view/vMq5WQx9wQO Thanks to Raymond for organising and, as he said, a great day out and very reasonably priced to boot.

Tarland 2021

Gary's match report - "Good day at Tarland with nice weather, course very tough off the whites. Results. 1st Team 3 Keith, I Dring, Jas Syd. -- Average score 29.75 2nd Team 2 Ian Sharp, IRS, Gordon and Harry - Average score 27.0 3rd Team 1 Gary, Nigel, Ken John Meaden - Average score 26.5 Best stableford ( 35), nearest hole on 7 and 12 - Ian Dring. 2nd Stableford IRS 34. Longest drive 60s - Gordon Longest drive 70+ Syd" Afterwards at the Commercial Hotel we were greeted by an extremely stroppy barmaid and our plan to drink in the beer garden was thwarted by the occupant of the adjacent house dying, with his still warm body lying out over the wall, just feet away from where we had planned to sit. Anyway here's a few pics:

Respectively - the team at the start; Gordon on the 1st fairway; and Harry checks to see if the way is clear for one of his monster drives at the 4th hole. Many thanks to Gary for organising. Tarland's a tough track off the back tees and we discovered that certain people can't tell the difference between 6 and 15.

Boat of Garten September 2021

2021 was the 36th year since the B.o.G. trophy was introduced back in 1986. (The first informal outing was in 1984, followed by 2 in 1985). This was our 70th proper event - September, 1992 was rained off and May, 2020 had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. We did manage a full event in September, 2020 but had to restrict the May, 2021 event to just one round. For the benefit of those not present, the scores this time were:

It was Syd's 11th win - his first since 2014 - and the first time the event has been won by an Octogenarian. It must also be the first time that as many as 6 players scored 70 + points, which would have been enough to win nearly half the outings in the last 18 years (detailed records not available before 2004). Syd's winning total of 78 is the second highest in that time - Ian D's 79 in September, 2015 remains the highest and Dan's 62 in May, 2007 the lowest. Here's the complete list of names on the trophy together with the number of wins:

Now for the photos. First a team shot, excluding me - note Keith M showing off by demonstrating that he can still crouch:

That was followed by this:

Now the complete team photo:

Finally, the presentation of the trophy to Syd: