Gloucestershire Golf Captains

The weekend started on various days with tourists arriving from Wednesday onwards. We were blessed with some lovely weather with only one squally shower of rain on the Friday afternoon. Sunshine, a warm sea breeze and fantastic views over the English Channel along with great company, it doesn't get much better!

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The Carlyon Bay Hotel remained in excellent condition with friendly staff, helpful and professional as always. Needless to say that we were well looked after for our entire stay once again.

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Day 1 Thursday started the proceedings with the annual strongly contested match between Paul & Ian versus Vicky & Dereck. A closely fought battle ensued with the outcome of 4-foot putts from both sides conceded allowing a halved match. Other partygoers took advantage of the casual golf included in the package.

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Friday saw the start of the competitions here at Carlyon Bay GC with the Friday Greensomes as well as 16 Gladiators doing battle in a "friendly" match with the Pirates from Cornwall (Cornish Captains).

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The Greensomes were a mixture of mixed and all female only teams, the all-female teams were given the tee equalisation shots but the mixed teams prevailed with Mike Pigott & Sue Trewin coming out on top with 38pts, closely followed by Brian & Chris Snook 37pts, and Gordon Ladd & Jan Hill rounding off the prizes.

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The match followed, with the teams meeting at 10:30 for Sandwiches and Chips. This after a hearty breakfast at the hotel almost seemed a little too much but everyone did their duty and finished off the food!

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A closely fought match ensued with matches being equal and all awaiting for the outcome of the last few games. Unfortunately these involved GGC playing only one player each from the Cornish Pirates as one guy did not show and one declared injury after one hole. Both Captains took the honourable decision, declared both games halved resulting in a drawn match overall.

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After Friday night's revelling, we emerged on Saturday morning and were greeted by a flat calm day with the sun shining - the views across the bay were something to behold. We prepared to compete for the Men’s Presidents Shield (Hidden partners) and the Ladies Margaret Roberts (individual) trophies. These are run in conjunction with the Carlyon Cup (for overall best individual).

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​The Margaret Roberts Trophy was won by Erica Hole-Jones with 36pts, 2nd with 33pts was Maggie McDivitt and 3rd place went to Jose Wilson with 32pts.

 

The Presidents Shield was down to a photo finish with the top 4 pairs all on 70pts! Joe Betty & Jim Ford collected the trophy with a B9 38, 2nd place went to Stephen Price & Keith Hanson with B9 33 B6 21 and Peter French & Shaun Pearce finished 3rd with B9 33 B6 20. The unlucky fourth place went to Nick Broady and Phil Wilson.

 

The Carlyon Cup was a closely fought affair with Nick Broady edging out Erica Hole-Jones and Shaun Pearce by 1 point and taking the honours with a fine score of 39pts. The trophy was presented by this year's hotel duty manager Andy.

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Whilst the golfers strutted their stuff on the golf course, the non-golfing ladies did their own thing on Saturday with either a shopping/sight-seeing trip to Truro or a discounted Spa treatment.

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Saturday evening saw the annual black tie drinks reception. Dressed in our finery everyone was presented to our hosts, President Rex with his lady Sue and Captain Dereck with his lady Pat, followed by a superb dinner.

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On Sunday morning we were blessed with sunshine and a stiff breeze for the start of the Mixed Foursomes (drawn for) partner’s contest.

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This was a closely fought contest with the top 3 pairs all within 1 point of each other. Pat Righton & Ian Watkins came 3rd with 34pts, Debbie Casling & Dereck Buttler squeezed into 2nd place with 35pts and the trophy winners were Irene Moorhead & Mike Slatter with 36pts.

 

The rest of the male contingent did battle for the Secretaries Goblet (Individual) and the Secretaries Claret Jug (Hidden Pairs).

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The Goblet was another closely contested competiton with John Christie losing out to Jim Ford on the back 9. Jim picked up the trophy with a score of 37pts (B9 19). Chris Wagstaff took 3rd place with 35pts.

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The Claret Jug was won by John Christie & Phil Payne 71pts, 2nd Geoff Lowe & Chris Wagstaff 67pts and 3rd place went to Warren McDivitt & Eddie Robinson 62pts.

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On Sunday morning, Sue Parry and Maggie Drinkwater looked after the Non-golfing Partners putting contest. The winner was Millie Broady with 37 putts and in 2nd place Hilary Ford with 39 putts.

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In the afternoon, the ladies enyoyed a complimentary wine tasting session delivered by Peter Brennan.

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Later we sat down to our last dinner of the trip and had a bit of fun with a table quiz along with loads of banter. This was followed by the all-important prize giving and the countless stories of the weekend.

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Captain Dereck rounded off the evening with a few words, a couple of jokes and  thanked all the staff at both the hotel and golf club for their help and assistance in making the weekend so very special. He also asked if the partygoers would spread the word, after another wonderful weekend, to encourage more people to join us next year.

 

Everyone commented on what a great time they had had.

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We departed after breakfast on the Monday morning - all looking forward to more of the same in 2023.

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Thanks to Jim Ford & Dereck Buttler for the organisation of the weekend and to Eric Millard for standing in as our official photographer.