Match Report Clitheroe Golf Club 2016
A slightly later than usual write up for the second Parrots outing, owing in no small part, to the Wellard family taking care of a family of ducklings (and their mother) that decided to hatch out in our back garden last Thursday with us not knowing what to do with them. More about them later.
But, fifteen players made the afternoon round at Clitheroe with Luke and myself joining the party at lunchtime. Getting the Parrots experience for the first time was new member Nick Bramley, so welcome to Nick.
When I left Thornton-Cleveleys at noon it had been raining most of the morning, but fortunately for the thirteen players taking on the morning 9 holes at Clitheroe the weather was clear with no rain, and that was to remain the case for the rest of the day, although a strengthening breeze was in effect during the afternoon. That’s as much weather as you’re going to get this week after it was pointed out that my last report resembled more of a weather report than a golf report!
Scoring was reasonable in the morning, with little to suggest what was to take place in the afternoon. And it was close at the top too, with a three way tie for first place on 17 pts shared between Mel Johnson, Frank Healey and Mike Barnes. I think they won the princely sum of £3 each for their efforts! Well done!
Now Clitheroe is a tricky course at the best of times, the greens are a test to say the least, even though it was early in the season and they weren’t at their fastest, they were easily the fastest I’ve played on this year, but true. However, this year the course made monkeys out of most of the afternoon competitors, with an unprecedented 11 players out of 15 scoring lower than the handicap buffer zone! Without naming names, there were nine hole scores of 6 pts and three lots of 7 pts amongst those low scores.
So buffer zone scores of 29 pts from Trevor Middleton and 30 pts from Stuart Weston proved to be good scores on the day, taking 4th and 3rd places respectively.
After his maiden victory last time out, I was drawn to play with John Cottam again in the afternoon round, surely he couldn’t repeat his amazing form from Heysham? Well here was an early indication, a 320 yd drive down the middle of the first, a Par 5, albeit downwind on the day!
Once again John bent my ear all the way round (refer Heysham report!) about how he wants to get his handicap down, and so again by the 18th tee John had amassed 34 pts through some excellent play notching two birdies along the way. A good drive off the 18th tee meant even a regulation six net five at the last would lead to 36pts and a certain two shot further reduction. But wait! Second shot stuffed into a set of trees, chip out, all resulting in a seven for one, giving a total of 35 pts and only a one shot reduction. Hmmm, this handicap secretary starts to get a bit suspicious that the man ‘doth protest too much’!
However, despite John’s heroics again, there was someone left in the field to challenge him. Another player from the Fleetwood stable, Kev Gerrard, had gone out in 20pts three point ahead of John’s 17pts. Could he maintain his lead? Well, in fact, yes he could, scoring on every hole Kev came home in 17 for an excellent total of 37 pts and the win. Congratulation to Kev taking first place from John who came home in second place.
With the high number of low scores, there are a number of handicap revisions up as a result of Clitheroe contained within the following handicap changes :-
Kev Gerrard 13 to 12
John Cottam 21 to 20
Martin Greenaway 8 to 9
Glenn Wellard 6 to 7
Bill Pye 20 to 21
Mark Thomas 20 to 21
Warren Murphy 19 to 20
Frank Healey 13 to 14
Anyhow, to heck with the golf, I’m sure you’re all desperate to hear how the duckling saga turned out. Well, I can report that they left chez Wellard this morning, chaperoned by yours truly stopping traffic on West Drive and Fleetwood Road as they crossed to get to a pond in the Burn Naze area!
If you are interested in the golf, the updated leaderboard has already been posted to the website by Phil. If you need a reminder of the web address it is www.parrotsgolf.co.uk
Next up on the tour is Pikefold, which made its first appearance on the rota last year, and was so well liked Mike booked it again. So until then, particularly for many who played at Clitheroe, there’s still time to get some well needed practice in!
Glenn
