Spring into Autumn dinner

Just when it can't get any more busy, it does. Thursday last saw the annual dinner and AGM of the Liverpool Society of golf club captains, held in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Liverpool, beside the Liver Building. 250 gentlemen all in red coats looking like an audition party of the greatest Showman descended on the place to eat drink and be merry.

As a serving captain, I joined the other such fellows for pre-dinner drinks with the men in suits. we then joined our respective tables and chatted amiably until the speeches. We were fortunate that we had reverted to 2020 for this event and we therefore had the R & A ex-captain who knew how to put his words across. we were then serenaded by the immediate past captain of the society, Ray Erskine as he handed the captain of captains baton to Charlie Abbott .

We all got sloshed and dropped off at home by our amiable cab driver.

Thursday just melted into Friday as the Club held its main event, the Spring dinner, my premier dinner of my captaincy, delayed from April 2020. My fellow Visionaries were well represented as were the Club ex-captains. The food was excellent, the speeches went well and all in all it was a tremendous success. When people commented about it being the best dinner in over 40 years then it gives you a warm feeling and an indication that we are going in the right direction.  Off to bed at 3am!!

Saturday was quiet....until mid-day when I was on parade for an old sweats luncheon at Birkenhead Park rugby club prior to their match against local rivals, Waterloo. Much beer was consumed , the company was excellent and I got mistaken for Jack Rowell again!! 7 pints later I was poured into SWMBO's car and taken home.

Sunday was a day of rest before a Seniors golf competition yesterday. Is there no rest for the wicked?

Dinner time

The Annual dinner season has now kicked off big style. recently I have attended at Lee Park, Jewish club which still says grace in Hebrew, and where one of the toasts is to the State of Israel, but the first big ball was at heswall where I was accompanied by my youngest daughter Emma, as SWMBO was away. The Bromborough dinner dance followed not long after so at last I was able to take SWMBO out in one of her posh frocks. The Cheshire centenary dinner then followed at Mere. The ambiance was good but sadly the entertainment was a bit lacking which took the edge of the event really.

The Visionaries have continued to get together with recent visits to Southport and Ainsdale (bit wet), Woolton, where the pre match bottle of wine did not do the golf much good,  Childwall and Wigan. Wigan was the last of the 27 society courses I had left to play and what a joy it was. The clubhouse is an old abbey, Arley Hall, which one can imagine as a gentleman's club type of  clubhouse in the day. Now it is very welcoming and warm while maintaining its plush interior. it has a moat around it with black swans swimming merrily. In the day women were not allowed over the bridge on Saturdays, and there is a tale of a member physically carrying his wife back onto dry land so to speak. That must be why they all marry small ladies!!

This week is a big one for me as we have our rescheduled Spring dinner, the 'Spring into Autumn' dinner  which I host. I will make my first formal speech to the members and then sit ack and listen to the responses. That is preceded by the Liverpool Society of  Golf Captains dinner in central Liverpool where 300 aged gentlemen will be shuffling round the city centre looking like circus ring masters. Let's hope the entertainment is a bit better at that event.

I have then very kindly been invited to Birkenhead Rugby Club  on Saturday for the Chairman's birthday celebrations. I think the liver might need a break after that!!

Mixed golf

After an unexpected victory at Llangollan on Friday in the Linksnet competition, I had a fairly average round at Carden Park on Monday. There was a period on the front nine where I just lost my swing and it is a tough enough course at the best of times, so I ended up in mid-table so no prizes on that occassion.

Sandwiched between those two golfing commitments were two dinners at Wallasey golf club. On Saturday I hosted the Captains Prize final weekend which consisted of 9 finals being played with all age groups and genders of the Club taking part.  The Club is producing some very rood Junior girls at the moment and one of them won the Junior knock-out cup in a match which went to the first extra hole. A few other finals went the distance and my Captains prize finished on the 15th green with a record equalling forth title for Dave Gibson.

I have now worked out that I do hold a unique record myself. There have been 4 captains in the history of the Club who have served more than one term.Mr R W 'Pendulum'  Brown was the first captain in 1891 and was again captain in 1982. Mr J Cameron served two years during the First World War and C W Hesketh served between 1939 and 1945.

During the war years the Captains Prize was suspended, and it was not played for when Mr Brown was captain, so I have become the first captain to award two Captains Prize's at the Club.

50 or so people then sat down for a dinner and we were joined by 20 or 30 other club members for the subsequent presentations.

On the following day, Sunday, the Club held it's annual Matrimonial and Mixed competitions. Both titles were fought for very competitively with Mr and Mrs Palmer retaining the Matrimonial after some spectacular golf. Again there was a large turn-out for dinner which allowed me to use a few golf stories I had been saving up.

I make that about 15 speeches delivered so far so will probably exceed 20 for the year given the dinner season is now up and running. Gentlemen, that reminds me.....

 

Cirque de Soliel

The dinner and event season seems to be getting back to normal as this picture of the Liverpool captains at West Lancs Golf Club will testify to.

Fourteen of us sat down to a meal accompanied by the ex-Captains of the Club and 50 or so members. We were treated to first rate dining, a few glasses of wine and the necessary speeches. There is always a nugget in there somewhere, and I have managed to recycle several of the stories I have heard up to now.

A couple of them I used yesterday when we held our Finals Day at Wallasey. There were 9 finals which took place and they encompassed the whole range of the golf club. The finalists in the Junior knock-out were 10 and 11, and Esme Gordon triumphed to add her name to a growing list of young lady players there are at the Club. The other finals embraced the Ladies, Men and Senior Men and all were fought for hard but fairly.

The competitors then sat down to a pre-presentation dinner, with the event concluding with winners photographs on the 18th green. Luckily there were no golf balls being fired in which that was going on.

So good luck to the winners and here's to the Winter competitions which will kick-off in October. 

when you're in a hole.....

....stop digging!! If, however, everybody did that then Sir Anthony Bamford,  owner of JCB, would not have made millions out of his collection of diggers. Subsequently he would then not have been able to invest huge sums in building his championship golf course near the JCB head office in Staffordshire.

Last week I was able to attend with this motley crew and see first hand just how good it is. The small diggers are used as tee markers, but the difficulty of the course is summed up by the fact that there are two holes over 600 yards long, from the yellow tees, definitely too hard for me. This picture is of the 17th hole island green. 218 yards down hill, no bail out area and lots of sand.

It was a great day and fascinating to see the future of Championship golf course design, and we were looked after like royalty, so a big thank you to those who made it possible. You know who you are.

Mark Selby, the snooker player was there when we were, as was Philip Serrell, the antique roadshow specialist. I had met Philip at Turnberry once and was convinced he drank in my local pub, before he put me right as to where I know him from!! I suspect neither 'celebrity' realised they were in the presence of golfing superstar Dr Frank Stableford,  aka big John the lookalike. Fore! 

Dancing on the ceiling

After a hectic few weeks of golf things have started to settle back into a normal routine so the last few weeks have given me the chance to do some social events. 

One of the Senior gentlemen at the club has recently moved into an old pub in the centre of Willaston village, The house is called the Old red Lion and it dates from way back. We had a very enjoyable soiree and spent much time admiring the garden. Goodness they have done some work. I did search high and low for the bar without much success though!!

The next day our oldest grandson came to see whether he fancied joining the junior section of the golf club. It was good to have time with him, we had a bit of brunch  and his dad went home with all the paperwork necessary to get him on the list. Let's see how it progresses.

Last week the ex-Captains finally got to have a lunch together. This is the first time for at least 18 months that they have been able to do that. It was a very sociable event and one which will now be scheduled for October and January. It is always good to get the opinions of the senior club members and while they had a few gripes mostly the feedback on progress was positive.

Golf did then rear its head as I was invited to the Marston's corporate golf day. Marston's has become the club brewer of choice. I have been struggling though to get a decent amber ale on draught and thought it might be a good way of talking first hand with the rep to help achieve this. Sadly it seems the majority of members prefer the pale, lager-like ales which are locally brewed. I think this is all in poor taste but I seem to be fighting a lone battle. Consequently I am suggesting they get bottles of some decent beers and I will try those. It is a sad indictment of modern drinking habits that if I did not play golf there I would certainly not use it as a pub.

Limited beer choice was also in evidence when we went to Haydock Park races on Thursday. I must admit I did not expect a great real ale selection and my expectations were certainly met. The bar staff were all young people and were like rabbits in the headlights as they had never done a busy race day before and were the only staff the course could get as the hospitality sector struggles to find good quality staff.

None of this stopped us from having an excellent day celebrating a significant birthday with one of SWMBO's mates. One of her other chums who we lost track of after an ill-fated holiday in Turkey some years ago also appeared on Facebook with a new partner, so that may be an opportunity for the olive branch to be tendered. We shall see.

Then to last night when SWMBO and I attended a Motown concert at the Liverpool Grand Central Hall. The band and music were both entertaining but the venue was just amazing and is certainly a hidden gem about five minutes walk from Lime Street station. The organ is the oldest in the North West of  England and the range of events they run is very diverse with a boxing evening scheduled for tonight for example. We will certainly be looking to go again.

 

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!!