Captain vs Chairman event - Aldenham Golf Course - October 2011

View of Aldenham 1st Green and Fairway

Fourteen people turned up for the Captain vs Chairman's match play event at Aldernham Golf Course on the 10th October 2011. It was fantastic to see both Frank and Peter Pearce joining us for this autumnal day. It has been many years since we last saw Peter who moved to the States (the extremely hot part - Arizona I think), but he was in good form.

The course was in really good condition; not withstanding comments made about stones in bunker sand everything else was tiptop. The ground-staff were fighting a losing battle with regards the leaves as the wind was very strong coupled with the large number of trees on the course meant that at times there were waves of leaves blowing across the fairways. Although this slowed us up and finding balls was the winds made controlling the ball more difficult it did not spoil the enjoyment.

The clubhouse is lovely and the catering was superb too all in all a lovely place to visit. And to top all of that Steve Barber came along so that almost guaranteed the rain would stay away - and it did...

The teams were chosen with three four ball teams and one two ball making four groups in all with the Captain (Tony) and Chairman (Alban) choosing to play their single's final on this occasion too.

And so to the result,

The first two groups halved, the Captain's team took the third and Alban beat Tony in their match. This meant for the very first time ever that we have had a draw. Which means (Ryder Cup style) the trophy is retained by the last winning side, which is the Captain.

Nearest the Pin was taken by Tony with a superb 8-iron shot to within 3 feet of the pin, alas he missed the birdie. Nearest the Pin in two was a great scramble effort by Steve B to within about 6 foot of the pin.

We took the opportunity to award the doubles wine prizes today too as John Skinner had to retire through injury leaving the final unplayed but going by default to Dickie and Graham, winners for the second year running - we wish John a speedy recovery.

Some photos follow:



The latest top 11 positions for the Clubman of the year follow :

Position	Points	Player
1	182	Steve Read
2	177	Alban Macdonald
3	173	Graham Newell
4	167	Dickie Smart
5	154	Tony Farenden
6	149	Steve Gollop
7	143	Laurie Ockleford
8	126	Vic Clark
9	120	Kevin Franklin
10	117	Chris Brown
11	109	John Skinner

The results for both Eclectic and Clubman of the year hang in the balance, and we must wait for the Brookmans Park result to decide the winners. There are a mere five points between first and second place for the Clubman award. However the Eclectic is even tighter with a mere 3 points separating 1st and 8th place. Nail-biting stuff...