From your Captain:

Fellow Seniors,

I’m sure, those that are going, are all looking forward to the VC tour that is looming upon us. It always promises to be a great occasion, rain or shine. Last year, we had plenty of the former, so I’m hoping for better things for VC Graham. If you’re not going, have a think about it for 2026. Most of the new intake for 2024 were amongst the first to book for this year. That tells you something.

We’ve seen a lot of new faces join the senior section already this year, and I have a long list of new club members for April to wade through. Quite a lot of these are of senior age, so our numbers could be swelling even more. A warm welcome to everyone.

I’m looking forward to having our post golf prize giving on May 19th. It will be great to see as many of you as possible. Hopefully, there will be no 5 hour rounds to delay proceedings! In days gone by, the monthly winners always received their tankards on the day. It was a great tradition, that sadly, no longer happens.

Our InterClub matches haven’t got off to the best of starts. At the moment, we are showing figures of W1, D3, L5. However, and a very big however, we are undefeated at Stoke. A couple of clubs switched fixtures around this year, so we play away first. This means that we have an early abundance of away fixtures, but we have, thus far, only played 2 fixtures at Stoke. I’m hoping for better things when we click into gear! Having played a number of games away already, it’s really impressive to see how the conditions at Stoke compare so favourably to other clubs. We are blessed with a course and greens in super condition and have received great feedback this year.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the recent sunshine and getting out to play plenty of golf.

Kevin Price

Senior 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

Quite a busy month, featuring almost unbroken fine weather. And of course, as a heatwave beckons, your humble correspondent is off to the land of power outages and the prospect of iffy weather for the next few days.

On the competition front, there has only been one specific Seniors’ event, the Stableford on 9th April. Congratulations to Phil Hickley, who won Division 1 with 39 points. Modesty prevents me from announcing the winner of Division 2, except to say that he also scooped the pool for the 2s. Congratulations also to John Parkinson and Colin Pottle, who finished 1st and 2nd in their respective divisions in the Laird Round 2 on 13th April.

There have been some fine performances in the Swindles, resulting in Malcolm “The Barber” Norton having to be particularly active with the scissors! Robin Owen recorded an impressive 42 on 4th April, winning by a staggering 6 shots. Simon Merriam won three days later with 41 and the following week John Crane triumphed with 42. Enjoy your 5 shot cuts, gentlemen. Congratulations also to Phil Hickley, who sensibly decided to win with a “mere” 36 on 23rd April.  

We come now to the Interclub matches (must we?). It started so well, a home match against The Warren resulting in a narrow win for Stoke, then a few days later we were far from disgraced, going down 3-5 at Brett Vale. Then, as one of our desperately unlucky players succinctly put it after The Warren return match, one wheel fell off, then the other. A heavy defeat at Colchester was followed by… well let us say that there were just 8 points in it at the end of the match at The Warren. Food was good though.

May is a busy month, with the Vice Captain’s Tour coming up in just 2 weeks’ time. I’m looking forward to seeing loads of you there for what is always a most enjoyable few days. In the meantime, good luck to all playing in the American Greensomes today – a favourite format of mine.

Many Happy Returns to all members who have their birthdays in May.
As always, if anyone wishes to share any “amusing” stories with me for the next newsletter, this can be done anonymously, or otherwise, by emailing grahamcork@outlook.com . Reports of outrageous fortune – good or bad – are particularly welcome!