The Old Elizabethan Association

The seventh annual golf extravaganza was held at La Grande Mare on Friday 26th August and attracted 34 golfers, of very mixed abilities, including six ladies.

Once again we were blessed with dry weather and two teams of three ladies led off the procession at 0900 followed by two teams of three OE’s with the remaining players opting for an afternoon tee-off, from 1330 onwards.

This year, there was slight change to the format in that there was a separate competition for the ladies teams and any suggestion from the ladies that this was engineered to prevent a ladies team being awarded the coveted OE Golf Trophy was immediately refuted by all the men present! The mere thought of it.

There were prizes for nearest the pin for ladies and nearest the pin for the guys, this being on the 10th green. Additionally, there was a prize for nearest the pin with the second shot on the 7th, this being open to both genders. The main prizes were for best scoring ladies' team and best scoring men's team.

As in previous years, and in order to bring the required “old school theme” into the proceedings, there was a prize for the neatest score card as well as for the best team name.

This year, two men's teams had only two actual players but these teams were awarded, entirely at random, a “ghost” player.

In the evening, 41 diners gathered in the restaurant to enjoy excellent fayre off the Summer Value Menu from The Brasserie at La Grande Mare following which the prize giving took place and this year a warm welcome was extended to Jurat Jerry Girard, a former President of the OE Association, who, following his outing on the golf course, was delighted to present the prizes.

Nick Brett, who once again organised the event, welcomed all present and offered his thanks to those who had assisted in making the event yet another successful occasion, including Jaine Vermeulen for invaluable help, the staff of the restaurant for providing such excellent food, Nick Brett Property for the pack of three golf balls given to each player and Roger Smith for his usual and superb artwork for the nearest the pin markers and matching wine bottle labels.

This year, the winners were……

Nearest the pin, ladies – awarded to Caroline Mallett who although her shot was off the green it was deemed to be close enough so she went home with the bottle of “Elvis – wine with a thrust” and the accompanying collector’s item art work.

Nearest the pin, men – awarded to Nick Falla who received a bottle of “Vin de Mona – wine to make you smile” together also with excellent art work.

Nearest the pin, second shot on the 7th – won by Pippa Hudson who was delighted to receive a bottle of “Vino Che Gavara – life’s too short for cheap wine” plus the colourful marker.

Best Team name – judged by Gilli Brett and awarded to the “Ditch Boys” of John Hudson, Tom Bell and John Hooker. They each received magnificent pens to continue their creative writings!

Neatest score card - the winners were adjudged to be “Nick’s Nasty Nobbly Niblicks” namely Nick Brett, Roger Smith and John Bihet who each were given bags of sweeties for their efforts.

Best Ladies' Team – with an excellent score of 83 stableford points, golf-shop vouchers were presented to Sue Falla, Caroline Mallett and Karen Fooks.

Best Men's Team and overall winners – Mike Webber , Richard Ogier and their ghost, Nick Falla, with a magnificent 86 points due in no small way to the contribution from Nick! Again, golf shop vouchers were handed over together with the magnificent OE Golf Trophy which will no doubt be returned in time for next year’s competition suitably inscribed and lovingly polished!

Well done to all the winners and thanks to all who took part.

And finally, and hot off the press, the date for next year’s event is Friday 31st August 2012.

Nick Brett
5586

You can see Godfray Guilbert's pictures of the event here.