Clear blue skies and a challenging wind were the reward for the Maxitours players who made the trip to the Championship standard West Lancashire Golf Club today.

An early shower followed by a hail storm and gale force winds caused even the seagulls to take shelter, however the skies soon cleared and the general consensus was of a ‘brutal but very enjoyable day!’
‘All we needed was a plague of locusts and we would have had the lot!’ observed soft Yorkshire man David Kelly.

A few Manchester United fans turned up looking miserable and bleary eyed after a disappointing and late night at old Trafford yesterday. Crazy fan David Hillier looked depressed after the Sunderland defeat and his woes continued on the golf course. In fact he actually scored more penalties than the reds as he saw his ball flying out of bounds over the Southport – Liverpool railway line on the long 11th.

(Things are not all bad for the red faithful -apparently David Moyes has promised to get United into a major European competition next year, but he hasn’t decided which song they are going to sing yet.)

Today was a day for hitting controlled low shots under the wind. Tiger Woods would relish playing his trademark low ‘stinger’ into the breeze. ‘Most shots I hit today were stingers’ complained frost bitten Dave Parsons blowing on his numb fingers after hitting several of his very own ‘trademark’ thinned iron shots.

The scoring in today’s tough conditions was understandably very average. Gary Hempstead(11) returned fresh from playing badly a Portuguese pro-am and he turned on the style in front of his home fans. Gary contributed extremely well to earn his team of Mark Davin(3), Mark Simister(11) and Brian Kelly(13) a career best 4th place with 71 points.

Bramall’s brilliant Richard Blackwell(13), Andy Hamlett(9) and Ron Jolley(16) earned some valuable Order of Merit points as they teamed up with Simon Hemsley(9) to score 73 points and 3rd place.

There was some magical golf from the Didsbury team as Barney Ross(3) holed a full wedge on the par five 2nd and Paul Dalby(3) holed an old fashioned bump and run approach with his 6 iron on the 7th hole to collect valuable eagles for their team. Phil Vokes(2) and school teacher Kevin Hamilton(+1) also played well to earn second place for the high quality fourball.

Today was a day when experience, desire and determination were required in order to succeed. The ageing yet charismatic team from Swinton Park has all these qualities in abundance. They picked up four shots on the tough stretch from the 13th to 15th holes to earn their first victory of the winter. Smooth swinging Frank Massey(12) relished the challenge and also commented on the excellent quality of the tees and greens. Jimmy O’Reilly(10), John Reilly(7) and Jim O’Driscoll(11) were the rest of the gifted team.

Special mention should go to Ian Buxton from Darwin Golf Club as he defied the odds by completing 18 holes wearing a pair of shorts.

Many thanks to all players for your 100% attendance and support once again today.
Yours in Golf,
Tim

Nearest the Pin 3rd Kevin Seaton Dozen Srixon Soft feel
Nearest the Pin 12th Brian Kelly Dozen Srixon soft feel
2’s £85 8 pro V1s or 16 srixon AD333s each Paul Dalby Kevin Beattie Danny Huffman