Wet wet wet

My golfing group, the Visionaries, were fortunate enough to be invited to play Hillside near Southport on Friday. Hillside is a wonderful links course with high dunes and clever bunkering which test even the best of golfers, so we were all excited to be playing there. The hospitality was excellent, and the course was laid out as a hard task for us. All that would have been fine had it not been for the fact that it absolutely chucked it down for five hours or so leaving everybody soaked to the skin.

After a change of clothes and a few liveners in the bar though, all was forgotten and the camaraderie which is developing amongst us continued at a pace. So after getting home and drying out the kit, thoughts changed to The Mockbeggar Trophy which was hosted at Leasowe on the Wirral yesterday.

Mockbeggar is an old sailing term used to describe a 'lone house' and Leasowe golf course sits between the former Mockbeggar Hall and the sand bar known as Mockbeggar Wharf which is off shore in the Mersey estuary .Mockbeggar Hall is now part of the Leasowe Castle hotel. 

The competition involved teams of four golfers, one being the serving captain, another being a Junior  golfer and the other two players being one each from the division 1 and 2 categories dictated by handicap. We were doing pretty well until, yes you guessed it, the heavens opened with six holes to play, and the wheels came off. Some teams ran for cover but in true Wallasey style and in deference to our hosts, we pressed on, finished and probably ended up mid-table.

The Leasowe hospitality was great and it was sad for them that the weather was unkind. Well done to Gathurst golf club near Wigan, who won. The event has been running for 30 years now broken only by Covid restrictions last year, so long may it continue. Now time to dry the kit out again for another crack at Wallasey this afternoon!

Royalty

After many a false start it now feels like my tenure as Wallasey golf club captain has started. Yesterday my 2020/21 year group were delighted to be invited by our 2013 past captains to the links of Royal Liverpool, Hoylake, Golf Club for our first Salver day. Each year group holds a Salver day and your club captain for that year invites you to attend. Some club captains reach a stage where they can no longer play golf, so on that occasion you miss out but yesterday there were 25 of the 27 clubs represented.

The day started with a very competitive round of golf for said salver, and the winners were Grange Park with 42 points, a very good score considering the wind conditions. The Wallasey effort contained the same two numbers, but in a different order!! 

Attention then turned to the main event of the day, the dinner in the first floor dining room. Although I  have dined at Hoylake before, this was the first visit to the dining room. The Liverpool captain was also very kind in showing my 2013 captain the library and a couple of other rooms tucked away upstairs making the whole experience very enjoyable for everybody.

We are fortunate to be playing at Hillside in a couple of days, and then in the Mockbegger trophy on Sunday so at last I will be able to record my thoughts and achievements in the blog, as I committed to do well over a year ago.

While I had a great time, yesterday was also tinged with sadness when we received the news that long standing member, Roy Bulmer, had sadly lost his fight with cancer and passed away. Roy was in his 90's and until recently had still managed the occasional nine holes around Wallasey.  Roy was one of a number of members who took care of me in my early days as a member, a gesture I have never forgotten. He was also a very competent amateur golfer. He was a seafaring man who would always take his clubs with him so to take advantage of any opportunity to play. One of his greatest achievements was to finish second in the Tasmanian PGA tournament in the day.

He also became the archivist for the golf club and I hope he was able to see the way the club is now using much of his collection of relics to the benefit of the clubhouse and social media sites.

I wrote to him only last week in an effort to update him on club news, I do hope he had an opportunity to read the letter and understand he was in all our thoughts. Rest in peace Roy.

Going going gone

One thing I have missed out on during lockdown more than others is a rummage around a good old fashioned auction house. I have had to travel further than normal since the closure of the Wirral Auctions site in Birkenhead, and I still do wonder where all the eclectic 'treasure' which Neil used to sell, has gone. The Hoylake rooms have always been poor quality, but the other major sites seem to be Knutsford and Macclesfield way.

I have, therefore, been much more selective at what I look at and bid for, as you can never be quite sure what you are getting unless you have seen and felt the goods during the preview days.

So I have taken my financial life in my hands again today and speculated a bit over some art prints and posters to see whether after a bit of restoration they can be sold on to accumulate some funds for more investment. Antique bargaining for me is very similar to my golf equipment process. For example, when I purchased my Q follow golf trolley SWMBO indicated to me that it would be sensible to sell one of my other 'golf toys' before I laid out for this new one. That way we are fairly golf neutral, and that's the way I  try to be with auction items.

So the main purpose today was to buy enough stock to sell most on via E-bay and recoup funds to pay for the good ones to be restored. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen, although the collection of Harold Riley prints I had hoped would be part of the process had a reserve of £40-£60 and went for almost £1000. I couldn't see much profit in that sadly.

Anyway, I am expecting viewing days to be reinstated shortly albeit with a booked visiting slot, which will get me out of the house to do something other than play golf! 

Happy Days....

 

Angels and Deamons

Eagles and Visionaries does not have the same feel to it, but that was effectively how the Liverpool Society of Golf Club Captains have started their 2021 season as far as my year group is concerned. The Eagles are the 2019 year group and they and the Visionaries share a Captain of Captains. He very kindly donated a trophy which we are able to compete for annually if so desired. There were a large number of us who were able to enjoy the company, competitiveness and challenge of group golf. The host club, no names, no pack drill, coped very well as they staggered food and drink arrangements to ensure Covid restrictions were maintained.

I am pleased to report that the Visionaries were victorious which was in no part due to my performance and I think myself and my partner Terry, were the Eagles best players!!

The Wallasey Captaincy activities kick off this week  with the first of the pre-Scratch team challenges against Bromborough. Myself and the IP|C will need to be on our metal to win this fiercely contested friendly match. The Senior major took place yesterday but my round was curtailed by the rain which started to fall as I was conveniently close to the Clubhouse. Molly kindly dried off a few seats for us so we could shelter under the umbrella's. That will now be a thing of the past as we can enjoy being indoors from next Monday. 42 points won the title which was very fine performance in the circumstances.

A lot has changed at the Club as has been documented in earlier blog entries, but also on Monday we have scheduled a day long board meeting to try to position the Club going forward into 2022 and beyond. We have some major capital projects to consider and raising funds to pay for such work will be at the forefront of those discussions.

I then have golf days at Royal Liverpool and Hillside to look forward to as well as the second Scratch match and the Mockbeggar trophy at Leasowe, but more about that and the board meeting next time.

I am now off for my second inoculation, again at Chester race course, after which I might book a staycation somewhere. If you don't like needles, look away now!