Ifs and buts, drives and putts
7 June 2010
The Sophies Legacy Golf day on May 22nd at Naunton Downs GC, Gloucestershire, was a cracker of a day. The sun shone, the course was in great condition and Portabello catering provided wonderful food. I think the bar was suitably exercised as well!
In teams of three/four, some handpicked and others cobbled together at the last minute, battle did commence. The transition from the preamble to the competitive nature shown on the golf course was most noticeable. “We are here for a bit of fun” and “let’s have nice day” was quickly replaced with “that was crap” or “why have you hit it there”. For a few hours, it seemed charity took a back seat.
Ten Teams were assembled from both near and far. The furthest being comprised of London, Cirencester, Marlborough and a Welshman from Florida! This was the first team to register for the event, hotly followed by the family Hartnell, second to register for the event. Their captain Pete Hartnell, had the unenviable task of maintaining order amongst the family and team, but put in a solid performance to guide his team to fourth on the day with a team score of 84 points.
Third on the day with a team score of 88 points was a blend of youth and experience – Charlie Roddan, George Roddan and Matthew Oughton (all under 18 and decent stow rugby players) and Ian (Jock) Roddan, plus a caddie none other than Dave Oughton. The young lads cleaned up some of the great prizes on the day individually, with Charlie bagging the Champagne for nearest the pin on the 6th, and George winning the overall individual event! They couldn’t stay for dinner unfortunately, but the caddie did! And he picked up all their prizes!
Second on the day was perhaps the biggest surprise for more reasons than I dare put into print. My team which really was another Team Crumbly was more a blend of age and excuses. The team – Geoff Townsend, Pete Macraonor, James Collett and myself, had a touch of the conference league look about it on paper, but perform we did even if Jammer Collett had to leave us on the 12th, fed up with Petes old Jokes and Geoffs unfeasibly rude stories I guess, – where does he get them from. Still, we mustered 90 points worth of luck and magic, of which Geoff contributed most, which given he hasn’t picked a club up for 2 years was pretty fantastic!
The eventual Winners, and I think favourites for the day were our Geographically eclectic bunch captained by Ray from Florida. “A solid and consistent team performance” was Rays comment following the win. One of his stock lines from his Newport County days I imagine. His team mates were not so sure, as Ray actually played brilliantly scoring the same amount of points as Charlie Roddan who won the individual competition. It took a lot of explaining at the prize giving by Mash (Our awards Manager), but explain eloquently he did. It took the rulings on the best back nine, then the best front 6 to determine the winner. However, all of Rays team contributed just at the right time, giving them the title of Team winners with 91 points.
A big thank you to Will and Tom Bowen who cleaned golf clubs to raise money on the day, and all those that let them! Sara for all her trademark organization (of me mostly) and her Debbie Magee support act at prize giving, Mash for being compere for the awards (a natural) and Benny for his masterful selling of raffle tickets – he sold the lot!
Thank you Sophie for bringing all these great people together to raise over £1100 for great causes
We had tremendous sponsorship for the event, and a very big thank you to them all;
Golf prizes
Champagne and Designer golf shirts courtesy of Tyrone Hanlon and Tiger Foods
Golf gloves and shot glasses courtesy of Macmillan
12 sleeves of golf Balls from Roger Mills
Sponsored Raffle Prizes;
Half a spring lamb from Adam Henson of (countryfile fame)
A case of wine from Portabello Catering
A Silver clubman membership to Naunton Downs Golf club, courtesy of Naunton Downs GC