From your Captain: 

Both courses have improved immensely over the last month. Gainsborough is in excellent condition and the Constable greens are improving fast, all credit to our greenkeepers.

Thank you to all those who have contributed to my 67-hole golf challenge, as of June 30, £2192 has been raised for Parkinson UK, way beyond my expectations. Thanks to Mark, Kevin, Malcolm, Graham and Peter who supported me through the day, a great experience, and I can highly recommend being on the Constable first tee at 4.15am.

I had the privilege of ball spotting on the Gainsborough 6th hole, June 25, at the England Golf Disability Open. A truly humbling experience watching golfers with various disabilities playing some magnificent golf. The winning Stableford championship with a score of 88 points was our very own Richard Saunders, well played Richard.

Events in July; July 10 is my Charity Day in aid of Parkinson UK shotgun start 8.30, there are still some spaces as of June 30 so get your name down ASAP, teams of 4 best 2 to score. I would love to have 18 teams of 4 taking part.

This month’s Stableford is the President Prize, remember we will be running our second trial of allowing players from both divisions to choose their tee, white, green or yellow. Finally, we have 3 Inter Club Matches, home and away to Stowmarket and away to Hintlesham.

Quote for this month:

Instead of putting pressure on myself and thinking I’ve got to make this shot, I just thought “Go ahead and make it.” It’s a subtle difference but a big one. Corey Pavin

John Parkinson SbN Seniors Captain

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

What a busy month June has been as we witnessed the transformation from the Arctic to the Tropics!

Captain Parky completed his 67 holes in one day for Parkinson’s charity, raising in excess of £2000 and counting. I hope you had a great birthday with your feet up, celebrating your tremendous achievement.

Richard Saunders BEM, borrowed Mick Henry’s sombrero for a couple of days, to win the disability open stableford competition for the third year in succession. Being on home turf, and the dry weather, was a massive help, but it seemed like Richard didn’t need any help winning by some 13 shots from his nearest rival, scoring a whopping 88 points (47 & 41) over the two rounds. Many congratulations Richard!

Richard is hogging the news this month, as earlier on in June he also completed a tandem skydive for his two favourite charities, Great Ormond Street and Autism Anglia. Please contact Richard if you wish to donate to these very worthwhile causes.

Not wishing to be outdone for headlines, Captain Parky also won the scratch part of the seniors club championship 2024. Well done Sir!

Trevor Waterhouse didn’t win anything, so will not feature in the newsletter this month.

The Senior’s club championship, round 1, was held on June 5th on the Gainsborough course. With a surprisingly low turn out, and missing pre-tournament favourite Mark Clark, who was busy in gainful employment, the field was wide open for a new winner. John Parky led the field for the best gross score, with a clutch of players all within a couple of shots of each other. Whilst Barry Hitchcock rolled back the years to record a best nett score of 70. With only those going through within 10 shots of the leader, there was an even lower turnout for round 2 on the Constable one week later. Steve Tree, Barry Hitchcock and Tony Carmoon all had the chance of putting pressure on Parky for the scratch prize, as well as competing for the Stableford prize. In the end, it was, as you were at the end of round one. Despite not being up to his normal sparkling form, Capt Parky was able to hold off the challengers and win the scratch prize with a 168 over 2 rounds, with handicap winner Barry, some 3 points behind. Well done to both.

On the 19th June, we held the monthly stableford and Captain’s prize on a welcoming Constable course. This was a held under a slightly new format for the seniors; embracing the changes to the WHS, players were given the option to select any tee for this competition. Indeed, I understand one ‘male’ member even took the option to play off the yellows! Early pace setter Roger Fleuty was looking in contention for the Captain’s prize as his 39 points seemed like it would be enough, until, sombrero wearing Mike (Kellogs) Clare walked through the door with a knowing smile and a table topping 40 points. He was greeted with the usual cheers of support and looked good value for his win with only one group remaining. Unfortunately for Mike, octogenarian Sir Robert Filer had an even bigger smile, for his 40 points was compiled with an even bigger back 9 and enough to claim the coveted captain’s prize and Division 1 winner. Kellog’s didn’t leave empty handed though, with his 40 points being enough to secure victory in Division 2. By my reckoning, Sir Robert was within one shot of shooting his age! Has he done that before? A very good showing, if I may say so.

June’s Interclub matches continued with some more underwhelming results, L2, W1, H1. The annual outing to the Frinton seaside ended with the same woeful result, although this year did actually see some points for SBN, even though it was a measly 1½. As the England football team do, we’ll take the positives, it was better than last year’s 8-0 drubbing and moving in the right direction. Frinton was not the place for opening your new sleeve of ProV1’s, with severe rough on every hole, Pinnacle Golds and a scythe were more the order of the day.

Felixstowe would be much better and more enjoyable wouldn’t it? Unfortunately not! We were greeted with a howling wind and arctic temperatures. Even with full waterproofs on, it was still a day for hunching shoulders and crossing your arms over your chest in an effort to keep warm. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it started raining, that sharp rain, combined with 40 mph winds, it felt like being attacked by a swarm of wasps. However, we all battled on. Although conditions improved slightly, the result didn’t and we succumbed to a 5-3 defeat. However, the usual whale and chips at Felixstowe made the trip worthwhile.

There were much better conditions for the home match v Benton Hall a week later. With Capt Parky away for this one, it was up to KPVC to lead the troops into battle. Things looked like they would be going the same way as usual, after 5 games, the match was 4-1 in favour of Benton Hall, however, a strong finish from the final 3 groups meant that we changed the fortunes for the team and ended up with a fighting 4-4. This was enough to show the team some mettle to carry through to the next game where we severely punished the challengers from Gosfield Lake. As Gosfield have a more ageing membership, they were struggling to put together a full side to take us on, with most of their members not relishing the prospects of the hills on our Constable course. With oxygen tanks at the ready for their depleted side of only 7 pairings, battle commenced. Despite some early scares for a couple of groups, we were able to come away with a victory, consisting of 5 wins and 2 halves. Hopefully, the tide has now turned. However, just as things are looking better, we now have a wait for our next games, with only 3 matches featuring in July, being the rearranged fixture away to Stowmarket on July 16th, followed by the reverse fixture at Stoke some 8 days later and a battle with Hintlesham away on July 31st.

We managed a full schedule of swindles in July, and even a couple of 40 pointers! Well done to Roger Davies and Neil Ashwell. Enjoy your cuts! There will be another 4 swindles in July, although the one on July 10th has been cancelled as it clashes with Capt Parky’s charity Day.

Arrangements for the Charity Day are continuing with numerous prizes, a raffle, an auction and various challenges. Make sure you enter by either joining a team, or entering your own team on Club V1. John would love to have 18 teams for this shotgun start. Also, make sure you bring some cash, if you can remember what that is. Raffle tickets will be available to buy on the day, but you will need physical money. You will also need cash for the entry fee.

July 17th sees our monthly stableford take place, combined with the President’s prize, this promises to be a great event. Entries are already open for this drawn competition on Constable, and once more, you will be able to select your tee, even the yellows Gordon!

Lastly, on July 25th, we will be entering a team into the Veterans InterClub Tournament, this year at Ipswich Golf Club. This is an annual event for 10 teams across Suffolk and Essex. Should you wish to be considered for this team, please contact Ian Mckay.

We have a couple of new members to the senior’s section this month. A warm welcome to John Craneand Glen Jackson. Glen officially takes over from Crackers as the baby of the section.

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

Details of July’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