Men's Captain's Blog - Par Date: August 21st, 2018 I begin this blog in the knowledge that the Competitions & Matches Committee have already started making plans for the Captain’s Drive-In. If that doesn’t signal the beginning of the end for Viv and me I don’t know what does. It has been a great year so far and we still have lots to look forward to despite Adrian’s premature takeover bid! It seems almost impossible to believe that the 25th celebrations are now less than four weeks away. One of the things that has struck me as captain this year is how we all interact on and off the course. A part of golf that I find appealing comes in the high standards applied to the rules, etiquette, appearance and behaviour. I think we have a very healthy attitude to these standards at Bletchingley. However, I think there are a few areas where we could make some improvements for the benefit of all. I have listed these below. In doing so I am not in any way lecturing but simply offering my thoughts on how we could create even greater harmony within this lovely club of ours.
- Always finish a round in a competition because even if you are having a nightmare your score impacts the overall effect on handicaps. If only people playing well finish their rounds it creates an artificial outcome.
- Try to be reliable when signing up for matches and competitions. It takes a lot of effort and time to organise a match and drop outs are the bane of every organiser’s life.
- If you do have to drop out of a match let the organiser know as soon as possible, offer an apology for the inconvenience and find a replacement yourself to play in your place.
- There is a sign defining the club standards for appearance outside of the pro-shop. If you have any doubts about what is right or wrong, it tells you. I think we are letting standards slip a bit on this front and that can only lead to a downward spiral. I think we all need to make an effort to dress to our club attire code and to encourage others to do so.
- On the course I would hope that the unraked bunkers, unreplaced divots and unrepaired pitch marks that seem to be more common are from green fees rather than members. However, if you are standing around waiting for a playing partner to play please use that spare time to rake or repair even if they are not yours. The better the course looks the more likely green fees are to do the right thing.
Course news Having had a period of more traditional summer weather, the course is starting to recover. The fairways, in particular, have bounced back but some of the greens remain very rough and most the men’s tees are in pretty poor shape. Hopefully, the planned drill seeding can help these to recover before the winter. Competitions The Knockouts are now heading towards a conclusion and I am sure there will be some terrific matches that decide the outcomes. It is very nice to see Wally and Beryl in the Semi-final of the Mixed Pairs. They will be fighting for a place in the final on Friday against the formidable paring of Viv and Tim.
On Saturday there was a very good turn out for the Granville Wise with Pat Wilkins winning it with 37 points after a very tight count-back with Sarah Hussey who obviously also had 37 points.
Alan Cottle won the recent Mid-week Stableford with 35 points. As this is a Men’s Captain’s Blog I don’t normally include Senior’s or Ladies results, but I have to give Ros Shepherd a mention for her one point win over Debbie Rose in the ladies Club Championship. Ros scored 72 points over 2 rounds.
Having mentioned Ros, it would be wrong not to mention our hard-working Club Secretary’s 42 points in the Seniors Captain’s Day. Well done, John Blackley. The Seniors Championship also offered a very tight finish with John Coxall winning with a net 75 after a count-back which put Mark Fuller in second place. In the biggest competition of the month Adrian & I took on Mark Fuller & Rickey Betteridge in the Knees Jobs Crutch Match. Adrian and I were in control all day with Mark & Ricky hanging on for dear life. At one down on the 7th they some how managed to scrape a half at each of the next 8 holes. In one of the greatest injustices in modern golfing history, they then won the 16th and 17th provoking chest-pumping on the 17th green and outrageous gloating on the 18th tee. As with most premature celebrations they didn’t look quite so clever on the 18th green when we won the hole to halve the match. Joking aside, it was a great game which offered all the best attributes of the game that golf is. Social news The Teams for the BGC Ryder Cup on Monday have been carefully selected by Karen Cottle, producing some tantalising encounters. The format is USA vs UK. I’m not sure what happened to Europe, but I can only assume it had something to do with Brexit.
The 25th Anniversary weekend is coming up rapidly. The entry sheet for the Borer Anniversary Trophy becomes live on August 25th so make sure you sign up for this landmark event. There are stacks of prizes up for grabs and, as always, Roger & Veronica will be manning the half-way hut keeping us all watered & fed. They have done this every year since the club opened and I would like to offer them my personal thanks for their generosity over the years.
On the Sunday after the 25th Ball there is the Hangover Scramble. These competitions are generally great fun, but I can see this one being extremely entertaining given the state we will all be in and the post-mortems on the night before. I have put a request into the Club Committee, but I would also like to appeal to the membership as a whole to try and pull me put of the bushes behind the 18th green ready for the first tee off.
Humour They say a picture paints a thousand words, so I will curb the words now and add the pictures. | 
