From your Captain …….

Having played both courses in the last week, I am pleased to say the greens are improving, particularly Gainsborough. With warmer weather and continued showers, we are in perfect grass growing conditions and both courses are beginning to look good. We are now in the golf season proper with warm weather and sunshine to come; with that in mind, enjoy your game of golf, please replace divots repair your pitch marks, and keep up with the group in front. These are simple things we all need to remind ourselves of now and again. It is an active month for the Senior section with the Senior Championship rounds 1 and 2, 4 inter-club matches 2 away to Felixstowe and Frinton and 2 home to Benton Hall and Gosfield. For our monthly Stableford we are trialling a choice of tee for those taking part, we believe the new world handicap system will make this a potential permanent format for our Stableford Competitions.

Inter Club matches-on behalf of all the seniors, I want to thank Pete Hele, Malcolm Norton, and Kevin Price for all their hard work, planning, organising and selecting players for the inter-club matches. I want to remind you all that when you sign up to play, you are committing to a team event, representing Stoke by Nayland Seniors. I am sure there are occasions that you genuinely have to pull out, but I would ask that this should be an exception and not the norm. The inter-club matches are a great social event, as well as an opportunity to play different local courses in a friendly social atmosphere.

Quote for this month: “If profanity influenced the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is.” Horace G Hutchinson.

John Parkinson SbN Seniors captain, 2024

Disclaimer: The following is a light-hearted review of the previous month’s events. No offence is intended, I hope none is taken!

Full (formal) information can always be found on the senior’s website www.stokeseniors.com

All club information can be found at www.sbngolfmembers.co.uk

Well, here we are with another issue of SbN golf related ramblings.

Q. What’s the difference between rain in January and rain in May?

A. In May, the course doesn’t close; yet!

A good place to start this month would be the VC tour at East Sussex National. I’ve had some really great feedback on the courses and the venue itself. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and get on well together. We had some demonstrations of how golf should be played from one or two of our more talented members, and it goes without saying, a great first day score from latecomer, Mick El Paso Henry. Sadly, day 3 was cut short when all but one of our members called it a day after heavy rain left the greens resembling a Sunday afternoon at Glastonbury!

Full credit to our deserved winner, Mark Clark, who won the reduced 36 hole tournament, and special mentions to, firstly, John Gove, being the only person to swim the entire 18 holes on day three, and secondly, a beaming Richard Middleton, who, not only became the new owner of the coveted SbN parrot, but has also pioneered a campaign for safety awareness in golf buggies.

VC elect, Graham Cork, was able to confirm next year’s VC tour on May 13th-15th at Greetham Valley. In what is, as always a popular event, many of the places were immediately snapped up by those at East Sussex. I’m sure Graham will be providing an update on remaining availability.

My thanks to Simon Oliphant of www.cmon.golf for donating some of the winner’s prizes, also to Amazon rain forest trust for donating Richard’s parrot.

The monthly stableford was held on May 13th, this coincided with the VC tour the following day and the Essex Senior ko match on the Constable course. Inevitably, the numbers were reduced, but some 30 players took part in a tough contest for those playing off the white tees. Div 1 was won by Pete Hele with a strong 37 points, whilst Div 2 was won by Bill Wardle with a similar score. You’ll be pleased to know that next year, this competition will be played one week later, when hopefully, more people will feel able to participate.

I mentioned the Essex Senior’s team, unfortunately, they were unable to progress beyond round 2, being narrowly defeated by a strong team form Orsett. This match went to the final pairing on the 18th hole, where Stoke needed to hold on to a 1 hole lead to force a play off. It went to the last 2 putts of the contest, which regrettably, didn’t go Stoke’s way. But overall, a great team performance.

The John Day team fared no better. A long journey to Abridge, a fairly sombre greeting, a wet, sodden course and the belated news that it would be winter wheels on trolleys only, or restricted to the buggy path, left the team facing some tough challenges. Although it went to the last 2 games, Abridge ran out eventual winners 6-3.

At Stoke, we held the first Mike Moore scramble on May 1st, when Mike’s wife Karen, attended to present the ‘Light Bulb’ trophy to the winning team of Paul Sandfield, Mick Henry, David Giles and David Humphries with a net 57.

The final competition of the month was the Veteran’s Cup. Whilst not officially a Senior’s comp, the vast majority of participants were seniors. With fairly average scores, the competition was won by Senior Captain John Parkinson with a credible 36 points, he was pursued by Dick Lumsden and Peter Jay, both on 35 points.

Interclub school report for May – Johnny has great ability but must try harder! The fortunes are not favouring Captain JP this year. In May we managed 2 halves, 2 losses and 1 solitary win. Leaving the stats for the year thus far as P12W3H2L7. The good news being, we still have 18 matches to turn the season around. Please email any suggestions for securing victory to JP directly. (15 clones of Mick Henry has already been suggested!)

Not a great deal to report in the swindling department. Out of 5 potential fixtures, 3 were cancelled due to rain. Those that took place saw fairly mediocre scoring. Gone are the 40 plus point scores of previous years, but all is not in despair, despite lower scores, the winners are still being cut by the same amount! Quite right too! The last swindle of the month on May 31st, was cancelled rather belatedly, unfortunately, nobody mentioned it to Trevor the Fish Waterhouse who completed 18 holes on his own, to not only win, but also, as a WhatsApp poll dictated, still be the recipient of a 4 shot cut!  A water house, also known as an aquarium, being quite an apt surname for Trevor!

Next month, or June as we are now, sees a number of competitions in the offing. The senior’s club championship takes place on June 5th, with those fortunate enough to qualify for round 2 playing on June 12th for the championship trophy. At the moment though, surprisingly, there are only 34 names down to play, with a lot of the usual members not participating. We also see the monthly stableford and captain’s prize contested on June 19th. Zoned entry is now open.

Looking forward, the senior captain’s day is being held on July 10th. If anyone has any contacts for would be sponsors, or possible auction lots, please let Captain JP know. The senior guest day has also been opened on October 14th. This is always a fun occasion and spaces are limited. If you wish to come along with your guest, please let John Williams or Alan Line know.

As we are now in June, although it doesn’t feel like it, the extended pick, wipe and place ruling has officially ended.

Many Happy Returns to all members who have their birthdays in June.

Details of June’s schedule and all fixtures in 2024 can be found on the website.

Club V1 is the place to go to enter your availability for all 2024 Interclub matches, you can also sign up for the team, if you’re not yet a member.

If anyone wishes to share any “amusing” stories with me for the next newsletter, this can be done anonymously, or otherwise, by emailing kevinprice@btinternet.com