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Senior Men’s Golf Chairman’s Blog

Every fortnight, I have reported on the winners and other outstanding performances in senior golf at Roehampton Club. This last fortnight there has been no major competitions and only one Wednesday roll up event upon which to report. This has given me the opportunity to get up to date with the results of the various knockout competitions in both the winter season and the summer.

Winter matches were delayed by the bad weather before and after Christmas to the extent that the finals of the Colum Sharkey and the winter foursomes were not completed until April or May.

Below I list the various winners in both winter and summer knockouts and the results of our spring, autumn and combined medal competitions.

Knockout results

Colum Sharkey Cup 2023
Winner Jim Kumar
Runner up Stephen Jones

Winter Foursomes 2023
Winners Michael Godfrey and Anders Grundberg

Senior scratch 2023
Winner Andrew Walker
Runner up Greg Waunford-Brown

Ockleshaw Cup 2023
Winner Roy Martin
Runner up Clive Nicholson

Ockleshaw Plate 2023
Winner Peter Bateman
Runner up Murray Feely

Super Seniors 2023
Winner Peter Sabine
Runner up Ralph Evers

Seriously Seniors 2023
Winner Peter Sabine
Runner up Michael Godfrey

Spring Medal 2023
Winner Peter Bateman
Runner up Mel Davies
Gross winner Roy Martin

Autumn Medal 2023
Winner Quentin Robey
Runner up David Moss
Gross Winner Nigel Candelot

Annual Medal (Combined) 2023
Winner John Wyn-Evans
Runner up Suresh Vara
Gross Winner Roy Martin

Holes in One

It is also our practice to note other distinctions achieved during the playing of senior competitions each year. These include the scoring of holes in one – achieved this year by
Roy Martin playing a shortened version of the 5th hole and by Terry Dillon on the 7th hole.

We also like to mark the scoring of eagles in our competitions but none have been reported to me yet although undoubtedly there will have been some. I hope that this will prompt readers to let me know of any that I can report at our AGM in October.

Stableford Grail Competitions

Our other major events during the year are the monthly Stableford Grail competitions. Winners since last November have been:

November 2022 Raj Vara
December 2022 Raj Vara
January 2023 Ian Taylor-Restell
February 2023 Martin Waller
March 2023 Ian Taylor-Restell
April 2023 Nicholas Brown
May 2023 Simon Lucas
June 2023 Peter Bateman
July 2023 Hassan Dajani
August 2023 Alec Lever

As you will have seen, some names crop up more than once in the winners circle.

 

Among those regularly distinguishing themselves have been Roy Martin – not only winner of the Ockleshaw cup but also odds-on favourite in most gross competitions, Peter Bateman – who won the Spring medal and the grail in June, Raj Vara and Ian Taylor-Restell – both two-time grail winners and Peter Sabine who won both the over seventy-fives knockout and the over eighties too.

 

Our most recent trophy winner, Quentin Robey, new holder of the Autumn Medal, is pictured.

 

Finally, I should congratulate Alec Lever who not only won the August grail but won the two-day Club Autumn Meeting last weekend off the back tees. He has certainly hit a purple patch, from which I benefitted on Monday when paired with him we won our seniors match away at Malden by 7 and 6 in an overall victory for Roehampton Club Seniors.

That reminds me to report that the Senior Team has now a record of 11 wins, four halves and four losses in our 19 matches to date.

Yellow Ball Team Stableford

Yesterday we played a team Stableford competition using a yellow ball. Each team of three had a yellow ball used on successive holes by each player in turn. The points scored using the yellow ball are doubled. We had a surprisingly small field of 21, possibly due to the turn of the weather. We went out between 9am and 10am against a backdrop of dark clouds and strong winds but the field got through the eighteen holes at a good pace without umbrellas and waterproofs being needed.

Two of the seven teams of three achieved the magnificent total of 118 Stableford points. Congratulations to Michael Murray, David Openshaw and Peter Ryan-Bell who won on countback, ahead of the runners up Anders Grundberg, Nigel Karmel and Peter Bateman. To put their scoring achievement into context, the team coming last amassed only 88 points!

Douglas Millar, Senior Men’s Golf Chairman