St Andrew @ Wallasey

 Last night Wallasey hosted the annual St Andrews dinner, the third I have attended, with still two to go. I had a lead role in this one as I had to make my last major speech of my Captaincy . There were about 100 people in attendance and the in-house catering team did us proud with traditional Scottish fayre including the haggis which I got the opportunity to stab to death. The address was conducted by Tom Blackstock in his usual exuberant style with bagpipes accompaniment.

Then it was up to me to summarise my 18 months in office and I threw a few stories in to add to the entertainment. I was fortunate to recieve a standing ovation at the end of it which was a great surprise and very much appreciated.

We then adjourned to the bar to exchange stories and experiences with the ex-Captains and my personal guests, Jim Mitchell and Paul Spivey. Jim very kindly led the evening with the Selkirk grace  to maintain the Scottish theme 

Golf is now starting to return to normal with no formal events to attend so I can return to playing at the Club when I want to. That said, the weather has been awful with high winds and rain. We lost eight fence panels at home and I have obtained enough wood to replace them, so that will take me a few days. The price of wood was extraordinary and has increased three fold since I last needed to buy some. So at least I now have enough to see us through the next few years as most of the panels which came down were over 20 years old. The ones which remained and survived I had already replaced at some previous time.

The golf club lost the three elegant pine trees by the clubhouse but not any of the scrubby sycamore around which they were circled. So that will be a maintenance job for the greens staff that they were not expecting!

So two St Andrews dinners this week then we are into December and the festive dinner season. Lets hope the latest COVID mutation is kept at bay long enough for everybody to enjoy it. Ho ho ho!

Princes to paupers

Last week I was in Sandwich in Kent for the inaugural final of the Linksnet golf society. Kent is a long way from anywhere, even Kent itself, so the four and a half hour drive was not too bad and the company and competition were first rate. Princes golf course which hosted the event though was a real disappointment. The layouts were very samey and so had no wow factor about them and the service and food in the Lodges was very poor. So poor in fact that I wrote a letter of complaint. They seemed very non-plus about it all so i will not be back, nor will I recommend the place to anybody else.

Compare that to our day at Royal Birkdale a few days later when we were treated like royalty and had an excellent day with The Visionaries. My golf stood up to it pretty well and the meal afterwards was first class. even won a fiver from the captain of S & A which does not happen too many times in a season.

We are now well into the dining season, The Bromborough St Andrews dinner kicked things off and was a very pleasant red jacket affair and on Saturday we had the Leasowe St Andrews dinner, a more boisterous event. Sandwiched between the two was the Bidston Summer Ball which showed off everything good about Bidston. The girls could wear their finest adn the hospitality was first class.

Most clubs in and around Liverpool have a St Andrews event and it seems to stem from the fact that many of the great golf designers originated from Scotland, and St Andrews in particular so these dinners are in recognition of them, rather, than usually assumed, the patron saint of Scotland.

Wallasey hold their event this weekend when I do a speech summarising my 18 months in office. Then I am pretty much done in terms of official dinners and speeches at the club. Our incoming captain will be announced  to the members on 10th January.  

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!