ASTBURY GOLF CLUB NEWS:-      FINALS DAY 2010

It is hard to believe that another golfing season is drawing to a close but as Sunday was Finals day then this must be the case. Many will wonder “what happened to the summer” as much of July and August saw golfers avoiding the rain and the only ones to benefit were the companies producing waterproofs and umbrellas!

Fortunately September has started a little brighter and for Finals day players only had to face a fairly strong wind which together with some tricky pin positions added to the difficulty. The one good thing was that rain held off and for once everyone got round in the dry.  An amazing fact on the day was that three members of the Westrup family appeared in 4 events which I think is a first for the club.

One of the first matches was the Junior Knockout Final between Ryan Cockerill & Richard Griffiths. After the first 18 holes Richard had taken a strong lead and despite all Ryan’s efforts it was another trophy for the Griffiths sideboard. The interesting fact here is that Richard took home the trophy won by his brother Harry last year.  In the Ladies section the finalist for both the Ladies Scratch and Club Cups were Chris Westrup and Kelly Morley. They played the Scratch Cup a couple of days ago and despite taking a lead into the second round Chris was unable to hold onto Kelly who won at the 35^th hole making it her third win in this event.  It was a similar story in the Ladies Club Cup final as again Chris went into the second round with a slender lead only for Kelly to fight back and win by the narrowest of margins. Over the past few years Kelly and her sister Cydonia have had a stranglehold on both these trophies and if they do lose out they appear to quickly regain them. As for Christine Westrup she was hoping that she could have made it at least a hat trick of wins for the family as both her sons appeared in the Mens finals. The Ladies Summer Trophy was played over 18 holes and it went to the first extra hole before Gill Hodges & Pat Hall finally beat Jane Bozon & Denise Swindells. In the Mixed Knock-Out Mick Statham & Joyce Ashley beat Alan Percival & Alwyn Ayre.

In the men’s section three of the finals were 18 holes and these were the Senior Cooper Cup which was won by Brian Oliver (his second success in the event) from Brian Ashworth. Then we had the Harper Cup (13 handicap and above) which went to the 20^th hole before Colin Chapman could claim victory over Mike Henderson. The 3^rd event over 18 holes was the Hibbert Trophy which is a foursome’s event and after a gap of 30 years John Van Oss was once again on the winner’s rostrum although his partner this time was young Matt Westrup who hadn’t been born when he won first time round. The losers in a very close match were the formidable partnership of Adrian Smith & Ian Pickup. The Men’s Club Cup featured another Westrup, this time it was Andy (Matt’s elder brother) up against Howard Wilford over 36 holes. You could say it was youthful exuberance against the more languid style and on this occasion it was exuberance that won the day, although taking a comfortable lead into the final 18 holes Andy found himself under pressure on the back nine and eventually won on the last hole. The last event was the Men’s Scratch Trophy contested by Andrew Hardie & Ian Walker. By normal standards this has been a quiet season for Andy but all his swing problems disappeared on the day and Ian was unable to prevent Andy winning the Scratch Trophy for the 5^th time.

Finally as readers will know I am always on the look out for humorous incidents and this week has been no exception.  On Wednesday one player who uses what has become the modern nightmare, a remote control trolley found out to his cost that there is a limit to the range of the remote control.  Whilst playing the 16th hole in the Roll Up on Wednesday he suddenly found that his trolley had got out of range and as can be expected veered into the pond and slowly slipped below the surface. I understand all was recovered although very wet.  A second incident occurred on Saturday during a match when one of the players from the opposing side hit his drive on the 12^th hole into the trees on the right of the tee ( Ed:- Thats Puzzling !!). Seeing a path through the trees he thought he had found a short cut only to end up on the canal bank. Rather than retrace his steps he decided to ask a “passer by” the way to the course which resulted in him going over the footbridge and ending up by the 14^th tee! Fortunately due to modern technology he was able to contact his partner and rejoin the match albeit more than slightly embarrassed.

OJT 6/9/10