It was a lovely autumn day in Melbourne, although it did take a while for the temperature to drag itself into the 20s. The course was in tip-top condition, and the scene was much enlivened by a good number of bright (and sometimes ugly) Hawaiian style shirts to channel the style of Stuart on his Memorial Day. Of course, Rodger was here again, and he repeated his claim that, one day, he is going to hold the trophy aloft himself. Unfortunately there were a number of withdrawals due to the dreaded lurgi, but we ended up with seventeen members on the tees, and that included Allan and Whitey, who has just completed an illustrious season with the flannelled fools. His team managed to win the grand final by a single run, thanks to a great bowling spell by our man in the final over of the match, where he took two wickets for two runs. Bobbie turned up for the barbeque afterwards, and we finally have an explanation for his recent absence from the field. It seems he has a bad case of gunslinger’s finger that prevents him from holding the club in his inimitable style. Hopefully it will loosen up soon, and we will see him back to take on the world once more.
The field was fairly well bunched up after the first week, and so there was a lot of interest in how today’s event would pan out to decide the eventual winner. If Targe hadn’t had a previous commitment to go to Nurmurkah last week, then there might have been an entirely different announcement to make. Because, for the day, Targe pretty much blitzed the field to turn in the top score of 40 points. However, not far behind him on 38 points was Stan, who, with his very steady 34 points last week, finished with a total of 72 for the event. Pepsi was last week’s leader, and he finished the day a few points further back with 35 which meant that he, too, finished on 72 total for the event. As there can be only one winner, the rules provide that a countback on today’s round will decide the result, and Stan’s 20 points on the back nine was more than enough to beat out Pepsi with 18 points. As a result, Stan was declared the winner of the 2022 Stuart Clarke Memorial Trophy. Pepsi was just a little bit cheesed that he had missed an eminently gettable putt that lipped out on the 18th to drop the chance to get his name on the trophy again.
Craig put in another steady and reliable round to keep the points rolling in without doing any harm to his handicap to gather second place. Ken, and his marker, got a bit carried away on the 18th and tried to claim five points for a par with two strokes to play with. This little slip dropped Ken back to a share of third place with Brendon, who had what he considers to be an ‘average’ (below?) round. One highlight for Brendon was the occasion of playing his 400th round with the club. ChrisJ continues to be unfazed by his newish handicap, and improved on last week’s performance to take out 4th place with his total of 66 points. Last, but by no means least, was CJ himself, who continued to make use of the trees to his advantage even when they are no longer there. The stump of the pine tree on the 11th was more than willing to put his ball back into the fairway.
For the nearest the pin competitions, the first BallPin was on the 4th, and Brendon was able to get it close enough to win yet another ball. Another consistent ball bandit took out the prize on the 18th in the person of Craig. The ProPin on the 15th was a Jackpot, and, for a while, it looked as if Blighty was going to be the happy chappy. Pepsi spoiled the party, took the money and sank the putt for a birdie to bring our total for the day to 10.
After the round, there was the usual barbeque, which was described as sumptuous and grilled to perfection by the three budding MasterChefs, Matt, Keith and Blighty. Maybe there is another role for Keith in TV land. There was a good deal of chin-wagging and reminiscing indulged in until a rather small number of members adjourned to the function room for the Club Annual General Meeting. The necessary statutory business was dealt with and the makeup of the Committee was confirmed with only minor changes from that of last year. The minutes of the meeting with full details will be circulated shortly.
Results for Saturday, 26 March 2022
1st Winner Stan Blackshaw(34, 38, 72) (c/b) 1st Andrew Petricola(37, 35, 72) 2nd Craig Cameron(34, 35, 69) 3rd Ken Watson(33, 35, 68) 3rd Brendon Mitchell(36, 32, 68) 4th Chris James(32, 34, 66) 5th Chris Priems(32, 33, 65)
Seniors Results – 1st Stan Blackshaw(34, 38, 72) 2nd Craig Cameron(34, 35, 69) 3rd Ken Watson(33, 35, 68)
Nearest the Pin Results: ProPin – 15th Andrew Petricola BallPin No 1 – 4th Brendon Mitchell BallPin No 2 – 18th Craig Cameron