Stoke by Nayland
SENIORS
September 2025
From your Captain:
Fellow Seniors,
My term as Captain is slowly drawing to an end and I’m now entering the last couple of months of my tenure. A lot of the golf competitions have been played, but we still have our guest day on Sep 26th to look forward to.
Some of the annual competitions have yet to be decided though. There is still time for change at the top of the leaderboard in the Roy Tricker competition and the ‘Swindler of the Year.’ In October, those who have been a divisional winner in the monthly stablefords will be competing for the Millennium Trophy. However, before all that, we have the finals of our knockout competitions to come. There are some scintillating matches to look forward to:
Desperately Unlucky Ian McKay v Alan Austin
Reg Fox Singles Colin Pottle v Phil Hickley
Ray Firth Pairs Brian Willsher & Tony Carman v Peter Jay & Martin Brown
It’s traditional for our knockout finals to have a referee. I oversaw a couple earlier in the year, so if anyone fancies officiating one of these matches, please let me know. You don’t need to be a rules guru to do this, just apply the same common sense you would use if there was an issue in one of your friendly games.
Septembers in the past have been blessed with some rather pleasant Indian summers, so I’m hoping for some more of the same this year, but perhaps with a sprinkling of rain during the nighttime.
Happy golfing!
Kevin Price
Senior Captain
Late news just in, and many congratulations to John Parkinson who won the Shaw Plate yesterday. He claimed victory over Martin Cotton, coming from 3 down to win on the first extra hole.
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
As we enter the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, there have been signs that the long dry spell is coming to an end. This may well mean that anyone playing the 6th on the Constable might not now have to play their second shot from the 4th fairway.
After a quiet July on the Inter Club match front, August was very busy, with no fewer than six matches taking place, with SbN winning four and losing two. A narrow defeat at Benton Hall on the 1st was followed by a thumping 7-1 win at home to Felixstowe, almost completely banishing the demons experienced in the corresponding away fixture in June. We followed this up with a win against Clacton, and although we suffered a reverse against Frinton, the boys were back in town with wins against Ipswich and Haverhill. Those who like statistical quirks may have noticed that the last four matches have all finished 5-3. What does this tell us? Probably nothing.
The run of high Swindle scores seen in June and July continued, for the most part, into August, the notable exception being Adrian Beckingsale’s win with 35 on 6th August, none being more surprised that this was the top score than the winner himself. A four shot cut for not quite playing to handicap? Harsh! Normal service was resumed on the 15th however, with Ian Bickers registering a stonking 44 points, 7 clear of Peter Jay in 2nd. Surely this cannot be the same man who is the proud custodian of Daphne the Parrot? A few days later Stuart Lawson stormed home with 43, the unfortunate Dick Lumsden returning his second swindle score of 40 or more in the space of three weeks while not winning.
Competition action saw the monthly stableford on the 4th. Division 1 was won by won by Steven Tree with an impressive 41 points, but in Division 2, Kevin Price trumped this in true captain’s style with 45. Plenty of good scores – Stuart Gregory, Peter Jay, Alan Austin and Brian Willsher all managed 40 or more without finishing in gold medal position. Stephen Tree carried his excellent form into the Cup and Bell medal competition, winning with a net 67, two ahead of Adrian Ault with 69. Spare a thought for Mark Clark though, a magnificent gross level par round, net 70 but only good enough for 3rd spot. Meanwhile, in the midweek stableford on the 6th, although not a seniors’ competition, seniors won both divisions, Phil Hickley edging out Peter Hele on countback, both with 38 points, while Dick Lumsden, for whom 40 points is rapidly becoming a routine score, romped home with a mighty 46, seven in front of his nearest challenger.
The month’s action closed with the Committee Cup, played at Burnham on Crouch. Congratulations to Gordon Bryan, who triumphed with 35 points, while your correspondent finally managed to escape the Groundhog Day experience of returning to Captain’s Wood Road for the third time while trying to overcome road closures!
Many Happy Returns to all members who have their birthdays in September.
Finally, I am repeating the links to the R and A rules quiz pages.
https://www.randa.org/en/quiz/level/quiz-beginner
https://www.randa.org/en/quiz/level/quiz-intermediate
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! All contributions gratefully received.