With the AGM waiting for us after the golf, there was no shortage of important business to discuss – or at least to postpone until everyone had finished comparing scorecards. The weather, meanwhile, had drawn up an agenda of its own. The relentless heat gave way to gathering clouds, distant rumbles of thunder and, eventually, a full-blown deluge.
That sent us in search of yet another meeting place, having already surrendered a particularly lovely air-conditioned room. The storm may not have kept its distance, but it did at least allow the golf to take centre stage before the serious – and occasionally less serious – business of the AGM began.
The day started off from the 10th tee with blue sky and a feathering of fluffy white clouds, as the holes were played the wind started to pick up. The course, as usual was in great condition, although the tee boxes were heavily sanded, didn’t make too much of a difference. And! Most importantly, there were more grapes!
A true September field kicked in with a full complement of 48 – 39 members and nine guests – as plenty of familiar faces emerged from their summer hiding places. On paper, that healthy turnout promised a lively day and a busy terrace afterwards. Golf, of course, rarely reads the paper unlike our avid followers.
The Singles Matchplay Final was played between Darren Hancock and Robin Eastman was won by the former 5&4 to become this year’s Singles champion. Well done to all the participants of this year’s matchplay competitions.
We got on with the presentation as quickly as we could so we could have hash out our AGM – the results as follows:
Gold: Sam Hancock (41 pts and best score of the day from a member)
Silver: Tommy “9.5” McGinn (40 pts)
Bronze: Gary Cornforth (37 pts)
There were three “Twos” today from Darren Hancock, Andrew Jones and Tommy McGinn. The NTPs followed up from Sean Davey (3rd), Andrew Jones (6th), Carol Hanak (13th) and Ian Benzie (16th).
The McBride Bottle went home with Kevin Whiting and we had three Best Guests each receiving a super souvenir of a sleeve of SMGS golf balls to remind them of a fabulous day – Sean Davey (41 pts), Russ Todd (36 pts) and Peter Devlin (35 pts). Ian Benzie took another prize home – the lucrative one – the football card with Swansea.
Keep up to date with SMGS at www.smgs.org. Sponsorship opportunities are available for upcoming games, so please contact smgs91info@gmail.com if you are interested. We are also proud to be supported by Michaela Schmidt at www.golf-hotspots.com for all your golf travel needs.
Next week we head to Roda for the first instalment of our Club Championship.
Pictured L-R: Ian Benzie(NTP), Kenny Cunningham (Silver 4th), Lee Eastman (President), Dave Blinston (Aspiring PBomber), Andrew Jones (2s, NTP, Silver 2nd), Richard Whitely (WannaBe PBomber), Tony Smale (OG PBomber), Darren Hancock (Singles Mathchplay, 2s & Gold 2nd), Tommy “9.5” McGinn (Silver 1st) and Mick Pryke (Captain).
