Club Championship and Grade Cups

Saturday threw up some tricky conditions with the wind blowing non-stop all day and for the majority of the field, the scoring reflected that. You obviously can't win it after one round so it was all about hanging in and limiting the damage, in particular over the closing holes.

Last year's Club Champion, Luke Edgell and the evergreen Ross Bockman share the lead in the Championship having both shot rounds of 73, to have them one shot ahead of Chun-Ta Wu. Ross and Chun-Ta have the halfway lead in the Senior and Junior Championships respectively.

In A Reserve, Terry Hill leads the way with 79, one shot ahead of Peter Dawson with Chris Yates and Adam Elliott both a further shot back. Mick Harding, with an excellent round of 82, has taken an early 4 shot lead from Damien Moore and 5 over Chris Mitchell in B Grade while Scott Irwin leads C Grade after his round of 90 has him one ahead of John Steuart and Michael McNee.

Good luck to everybody for the second round this Saturday - after which the top 15 in each Grade will make the cut and progress to rounds 3 and 4. 

Josie Garrett leads the Women's Weekend Premiership after her round of 85 gives her a 4 shot lead over Kimbalee Sloane.

November Medal

This was played in conjunction with the first round of the Championship and Grade Cups and Damien Moore had the "score of the daý" after a countback with Mick Harding when both finished with nett 67 and won the Medal for B Grade- poor Mick was in B Grade too!! At least he has the lead in the B Grade Cup!!

Peter Dawson won the Medal in A Grade after a countback when he and Ross Bockman both finished with nett 70 while Scott Irwin won C Grade with nett 68.

Josie also won the Women's Medal with nett 74.

Midweek Strokeplay Cup

If it was a Par week a couple of weeks ago, it was Strokeplay week, last week!

Ian Brown leads the way in A Grade after a 1 under par round of 70 last Wednesday, which has him two ahead of Ross Bockman, with Ross Kocass a further shot back. Ian Brown and Ross Kocass share the lead in the nett event with both scoring 68s

Paul Quill leads both the gross and nett competitions in B Grade after shooting 81 off the stick for a nett 63. Both Greg Bourke and Derek Johanson shot 82 gross and both had nett 66.

"Veni, vidi, viki", as any historian or reluctant student forced to learn Latin, could tell you means: "I came, I saw, I conquered". The words were uttered by Julius Caesar, or so his publicist tells us, whenever he won a battle in Europe (which was quite often). It was the Roman form of bragging in the Golf Club Members' bar.

However, there's no record of the great conqueror reciting his famous phrase when he invaded Britain at the end of summer in 55BC.

This was possibly because, as wins go, the win in Albion was pretty marginal (code for a stuff-up). But it was his first attempt, the weather was lousy and his opponents were all blue (either painted with woad or, more likely, just blue with cold).

Caesar's army landed in Kent, got soaked to the skin because they forgot to take umbrellas, marched inland, beat up a few of the natives, got drunk on Kentish cider and then, when the weather turned really nasty, they went back home and claimed a win (on a countback).

More recently (last week) a newcomer emerged from the mist on our golf course, like a hero from a Boys' Own Adventure storybook, to take on the blue army of the Friday Club and, unlike Caesar, this combatant had a resounding victory.

Champions - 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's

As the challenge to crown our Centenary Champions in 2021 continues we remember early great Champions. It is hoped that many of our current members can recall them.

Throughout the 50s and 60s and just into the 70s we see the achievements of our super Champion of all time!! Les Lofthouse joined the club in 1950. He came from Stockton Golf Club. He was in the army nearby and was then stationed at North Head in Manly.