Formby Ladies – Auberge Trophy, December 1st 2019

An excellent sunny day, on a course frozen hard after successive sub zero nights, made for an interesting day for the Victoria Society Christmas meeting.  The course was firm so we played on Winter greens with extra large holes which helped the scoring.  Scoring was also helped by the firm surface so shots ran and ran, provided they were straight, otherwise you could unexpectedly end up in bother.  A few of us did!

The Formby Men’s Clubhouse, looking resplendent in the sun, a venue next year?

Above – the view from the 10th Tee – a fabulous day

The whole day was a hugely enjoyable one for the 30 players, and we all met at the Auberge Restaurant in Southport for a lovely meal and plenty of wine!  This was excellently organised by Chris Edwards and Peter Watson. The group tottered onto the stairs to pose for a photo towards the end of the evening.

The winner of the Auberge Trophy, The Claret Jug, was Steve Neale with an amazing 49 points!  No he wasn’t playing in a skirt with 6 shot allowance!  Closely followed by Helen Jones and Bryan Robinson on 46 points, Bryan nicking 2nd place on countback. Roger Barron amassed 48 points but sadly for him as it was his first competition with the Society he can’t collect a prize.

To cap a fine evening Bryan Robinson also won the Captain’s Raffle and collected a lovely fruit cake with a delighted look on his face!  Merry Christmas Bryan!

The Ladies Longest Drive was won by Della Thomas and Paul Stanson collected the men’s prize.  Nearest the pin in two on the 7th was won by guest Lisa Greenhalgh
TWOS – Peter Kenny, Dave Gant, Della, these being conventionally made on Par 3s.  However Peter Watson managed a 2 on the 4th, for 5 points he points out, and Roger Baron also had a 2 on a Par 4.  Well done guys!

The Captains Challenge for the year was the best points scorer on the Par 3s in up to 5 meetings.  The gross winner was that man Peter Watson yet again, and the winner with most Stableford Points was Kevin O’Donnell.  Thanks to the Captain John Wilson for sponsoring these prizes and keeping spreadsheets of the scores throughout the season.  Dave Gant was the winner of the Victoria Society Order of Merit for the 2019 season.  Well done Dave.

Finally many congratulations to Captain John Wilson for all his hard work and year raising so much for the McMillan Nurse Charity. 

Captains Day Pleasington GC Monday October 14^th 2019

John Wilson’s Captain’s day was held at Pleasington Golf Course near Blackburn on Monday 14^th October.

It was a lovely day with the course generally in excellent condition, with the greens being in fine nick.  And it didn’t rain which after the wet weather we’ve had recently was a real blessing.

Before the real action we all had three shots for nearest the pin on a hole set up in the golf swing room.  Many virtual shots must have gone into the water but Peter Watson won with an impressive 8ft from the pin.

The main competition was won by Dave Gant in fine form with 38 points.  He retained his trophy from last year.  Second was Paul Stanson with 33 points and Evan Bale was third. Nearest the pin was won by Chris Edwards.  The longest drives were won by Peter Watson and Sue O’Donnell.

A scheme by which we could purchase ‘mulligans’ proved very successful and raised £100 for the Captains Charity.  Thank you all for your support.