Another one bites the dust

Last weekend saw number 2 son finally tie the knot with his long term, and patient, partner Hannah. There was a lovely service in the Prenton Methodist church near the house followed by a Routemaster bus journey to Oh Me Oh My Oh in the heart of the Liverpool ex-World Heritage Site. 

You may have read that Unesco have removed the status from the Liverpool waterfront as there appears to be too much development going on. It will not hurt Liverpool at all and just makes Unesco look a bit like a qunago really.

Routemasters are now no more although London has introduced a modern version of them. They ran through central London on heritage routes until April 2021. The grandchildren now understand the expression ' don't jump off a moving bus' as prior to the wedding they had no idea you could!!

Anyway, the' three graces' are still like they always were, and they provided the backdrop for some of the wedding photo's as the venue have a very impressive roof terrace. Drink was taken, too much by some of the guests, but everybody had a great time.

It was good to see relatives and friends who had not been able to mingle for some time and as usual, and goodness knows how, we ended up with a house full for a few nights! We were planning a quiet few days, but that never seems to happen. So here is a picture of the happy couple. I wonder what will happen next!!

 

The Comfy Chair

 A whole month goes by and no posting on here again!! I think I am playing far too much golf to find time to post, but I am now able to report on some real highlights.

It was great that the Royal Liverpool Spring Dinner was able to take place and myself and a number of my colleague captains were at last able to wear their red jackets. We were joined by the Captain of the Royal & Ancient golf club of St Andrews and in total about 125 people dined in the wonderful Royal Liverpool club house. Hopefully this is the start of the dinner and ball season as we see COVID restrictions starting to be lifted.

Wallasey was able to host the 2019 captains from the Liverpool golf society shortly afterwards and there were 60 or so people in attendance there. Another first allowed mt to sit in the Captains chair, an item presented to the Club by |Sir Ernest Royden in 1924, the year he was Captain.

Golf has started to stabilise now so my chart looks less like a heart beat and more flat line!! I have played Prenton, Ormskirk, Huyton & Prescott, Royal Liverpool and Hesketh recently and they all provide their own challenges. Next week I am at West Derby and have a few holes with the Wallasey ex-Captains before tucking into a bit of dinner. I am sure drink will be taken!!

Two thirty

I thought today was a new experience for me, but having racked my brain I now realise that is not the case.

Today I had a tooth extracted (almost) which I thought was for the first time. It had cracked and was not possible to fill so it had to come out. There ended my being able to say that i had all my own teeth. Well I suppose I do, but am one less than a full set!! I indicated that I almost had the tooth out because one of the roots is still in situ as it proved difficult to extract it as it was the one above which the crack occurred. The dentist thinks it should be OK and may even ease closer to the surface with age. If that is the case then she may be able to extract it later.

One often hears of people who have had car accidents itching out pieces of glass some years later as the body slowly rids itself of the debris.

The reason I had experienced a tooth extraction before was that one of my milk teeth had refused to come out before the adult tooth behind it had appeared. The operation to extract happened in about 1960 I guess and I was put to sleep with full anaesthetic and doctor in attendance, with mother and father there to check I woke up. None of the pain killing injections and off you go approach which I experienced today. That said I wonder when the numbness will wear off and any pain will start to kick in?  Not too long I suspect.

The Highs and Lows

That sum's golf up pretty well really. There are days when everything goes your way and times when it doesn't and the last few weeks have certainly been like that. We are entering the knock-out match period of the season, and I have been dashed a few times on the 18th green. Sometimes you think you have been beaten, which is fine, other time you think you have lost which is a very frustrating feeling. I also entered an English Golf Captains event at THE Wilmslow and did not play very well. I am not a great fan of the Wilmslow course and I am unsure why they have added the THE to the front of their name. Wilmslow is part of the Viagra triangle in the Eastern part of Cheshire, the other two towns being Alderley Edge and Knutsford, so maybe it is a supplemental boost to their perceived status in that part of the County. All very strange though.

SWMBO and I were delighted to be able to host the ex-Captains, the Council members and their partners together with some ex-Captains widows in our garden as an opportunity for them all to get together. The ladies in particular had probably not seen each other for 18 months or so. It was a very convivial gathering which I think everybody enjoyed. The Club then hosted an array of Captains from the Cheshire and Lancashire clubs for a match and some refreshment afterwards. I was able to make a short speech and enjoy a few beers with the locals.

I was disappointed that an opportunity to play at St Andrew's in the Old Tom Morris 200th birthday celebrations  passed me by, but a further Salver Day at Wallasey in the middle of June  focused my mind and that earlier disappointment was washed away when yesterday I was able to help our 1997 ex-Captain win his Salver Day for the first time after 24 years of trying.

So the highs and the lows of the game have been encapsulated into the month of June, I await with interest what July will have in store.   

Photo bombed

The last golfing commitments have flown by but happily in more pleasant weather. I entertained a friend from Ireland who has been very good to the family over the years, and he loved the Wallasey experience. Unfortunately I lost 2 & 1 but the craic as they say was excellent.

Next day was a trip to Caldy to play before the scratch match. That was another narrow defeat on the 18th green, and the trend continued as I lost my Summer pairs match with partner Pete, also on the 18th green.

I then started to do a bit of globe trotting, playing at Llangollen in Wales and another defeat,  before playing at Sandiway with three very low handicap players. Wallasey managed to get a half out of our match but lost 6-2 overall. Tommy Fleetwood, the tour pro followed us round and gave us a master class in how to play the 18th!!

In between all the golf though, I had a chance to put my best kit on and present some prizes, and no, the prize was not a table!!

  ....and with technology getting the better of me, there are odd sized images showing the presentation of the 2020 Captains prize to Ian Jenkinson who also won in 2014, and Neil Self winning the Frank Stableford Senior Open, a 36 hole England golf competition. Ian then went off to play in the England Senior Amateur Championships as did many of the Wallasey attendee's

My latest set of  jaunts ended with a very enjoyable Salver Day at Lee Park golf club, a Jewish club to the South of Liverpool , and an invitation day to Heswall on the Wirral. I think we ended up mid-table in both, in no small part to my poor putting.

So next week is looking a bit quieter, although I am sure there will be some new drama's to keep everybody riveted to their seats until next time. 

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.