Maxitours at Superb Vale Royal Abbey

A beautiful winter morning greeted the competitors as they arrived at this additional Maxitours event at Vale Royal Abbey. There were clear blue skies and a crisp frost which soon disappeared to reveal fantastic greens as the sun heated up both the golf course and players alike.

The cloudless sky encouraged Colin Lynch (know as Magnum to his friends) to travel in his new latest Ferrari ‘ California ’. Nobody is quite sure what Colin does for a living and suspicions were further aroused when you took a close look at his four ball, this included a top gynocolgist, an MD of a drug powder coating business and the ex Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police.

Ian King’s Bramall team set the early pace returning a very solid 81 points to earn some valuable Order of Merit points. Also recording this score was Peter Coughlin and his North Manchester team who enjoyed their first trip South into deepest, darkest Cheshire .

This score was incredibly matched again by millionaire Terry Davison and his ‘last of the summer wine’ team from Hazel Grove. Alan Clough, Ian Ainsworth and Geoff Haynes all contributed well and they took the overall lead with an excellent back nine. It looked for a long time as though thrifty Davison and his men would get the record for the tattiest ball ever to win a Maxitours event as he enjoyed playing with a Pinnacle 384 which was last produced in 1986.

Late in the day Davison was forced into second place by Cath Rawthore and her feared team from Sale Golf Club who thought their 84 point tally could scrape into the top five and were both surprised and delighted to win. Cath Rawthore who was playing off plus 1 due to a previous win now will be playing off plus two in future events- come on chaps, pull yourselves together!

Many thanks for everyone who played today, several competitors asked me to pass on their thanks to the Vale Royal manager for their excellent freindly team and also the greenkeepers who presented the course wonderfully.