Maxitours at excellent Ringway.

Well draining Ringway Golf Club looked like a Christmas card scene this morning with lovely clear blue skies and a thick covering of white frost.

Ringway is a terrific forward thinking Club with a great team of staff. The secretary and barmaids are all incredibly attractive, the new steward makes an impressive bacon bap and the Club Professional Nick Ryan is a local legend.

The highly respected Ringway Head green keeper is also refreshingly positive in his attitude ‘Of course you’ll be on the greens, no problem. We’ll try and brush the frost off for you’. Absolutely brilliant.

Deciding which tee to allocate people on a shotgun is always tricky and I try and do it on a first come and age basis. Many Maxitours players have their own strategies to try and secure a good starting point. Ian King very often complains of a bad knee in the winter months and Colin Roberts can feel another dose of gout coming on. Alan Clough claims to have an old war wound which plays up in the cold.

Brigit Bardot lookalike Elaine Sloane came out with a new one today to avoid the long walk to the 12th tee. ‘We can’t start on that hole its haunted’ she claimed in all seriousness.
‘A horse called Hercules had a hard life working on the course 100 years ago and was promised to be put out to pasture, due to Golf Club cut backs he was shot instead. He now terrorises the golfers on the 12th hole where he is buried’. Luckily the horse didn’t appear and her team of well shoed female thoroughbreds managed to start with a 5 point haul.

Ringway has an elevated clubhouse lounge and I always enjoy assessing the different swings on display. I struggled to analyse big hitting and wild swinging Charles Herberts fast motion as he managed to hit a 300 yard cracker down the first. Fortunately I could analyse him later in the day after his hooked tee shot on the 17th narrowly missed the Pro Shop.

Pete Coughlin travels all the way from Halifax each week to play badly on Maxitours. After every event he normally faces a long drive home with nothing to show for his efforts. Today he was absolutely delighted to drive back over the tops with a new shirt after his team of Gary Conroy(6) Garry Smith(9) and Mike Wilson(10) finished in 3rd position. They scored an excellent 78 points.

Sixty year old Ex European table tennis champion John Hilton(10) enjoyed watching his ball pinging off the frosty greens and his team of Richard Blackwell (14), Tony Jennison(5) and Andy Hamlett(9) scored a terrific 79 points to take second place.

Todays winners were Jim Caldwells(9) well spoken team. ‘Loaded Jim’ sponsors the Sale rugby club and his team of ‘Sharks’ played great golf to take their first victory in two years. A solid team performance saw John Leighton(14), Charlie Williams(18) and John Kelsall(10) all contribute for a very commendable 81 point haul. Very well played chaps!

Thanks to the full field who turned up today, I really hope you enjoyed your golf, Tim.

Nearest the Pin 13th Hole Jamie Greenwood Dozen AD333s
Nearest the Pin 16th Hole Gary Conroy Dozen AD333s

2’s 9 Pro V1s or 18 Srixon AD333s each Martin Firth x2 Barney Ross Harvey Mattinson