2012 Clark Trophy - East Herts Golf Club

Some 20 people including six most welcome guests (Ian , John , Frans, Roy, Paul and Brian) , turned out to play at East Herts Golf course on the 12th July. Although the weather forecast earlier in the week was dire for the Thursday - as expected with Steve B signed up to play -  it remarkably changed and we had a cloudless morning with the afternoon ideal golfing weather but becoming more unsettled  from 5pm onward. So the later groups played the last few holes in the rain, much better that we had expected at the beginning of the week.

The East Herts Golf Club lived up to it's reputation as being a quality club. It has a wonderful club house and the course was in great condition, considering the heavy rain of late. It is set in a magnificent park-land setting endowed with many ancient trees set in tranquil, rolling parkland around Hamels Mansion. Opposite is photographic an example of this -  a view of the 18th hole, looking back towards Hamils Mansion.
The Club house is to the left of this picture and has a large dining room/restaurant, two bars and a nice little  pro shop. Some of the society enjoyed sipping their drinks on balcony that overlooks the 18th green whilst watching the tail-enders arriving back. The Par 71, 6215 yard course proved to be a good but very enjoyable test with the average score being a mere 27.4 points. We played six three balls and one two ball on the day Ian C joined Alban and Mick S and bearing in mind he'd not hit a ball on a course for more than five years performed extremely well almost invariably out-driving both Alban and Mick - so he just needs to address the short/mid game and he'll be a serious contender again. It was especially nice to see Brian back again following a gap of just over two years. Brian was less fortunate in that his trolley had a problem that resulted in him pushing it and a very heavy bag from the first tee before eventually calling it a day (out of exhaustion) on the 14th and returning to the club house just before the rain began falling - excellent timing. Inspecting Brian's card to suggested that he performed very credibly over the 14 holes he played too. It was great to welcome Paul and Roy to the society for the first time who were Graham's guests. And last but not least Frans and John, guests of Alban who've been to a few of the previous events who played with Captain Steve plus Kevin and Event Secretary Graham plus "weatherman" Steve respectively.   Feedback from all of the guests was positive suggesting they very much enjoyed their day.

Election of President

It seemed quite fitting to appoint the role of President following Ted's passing. The person we'd consider would be an ideal ambassador for Nortels and uphold its values and its tradition and be the role model for those members and guests of the society. The role has no executive responsibilities, which means this is purely an honorary post. The only really duties that we'd expect are to step in to take the chair at the AGM when the Committee are elected and to present special prizes/gifts on behalf of the society. The President can resign at any stage (especially if they'd prefer to take up another role we'd like them to do - eg Captain/Vice Captain).
Having taken a while to consider the most appropriate person the Committee felt Laurie would be the ideal candidate and he kindly accepted the role.

So to the results:

1st Alban  - 35 points (two shots off his handicap!).

Sue and Ian Clark joined us for the evening meal and presented Alban with the Clark Trophy

2nd Steve B - 34 points  (and Nearest the pin in 2)

3rd  Graham Newell - 31 Points  (and Nearest the Pin)

Guest Prize Paul S 31 points

President. Laurie offered thanks on behalf of the society to Ian and Sue and presented them both with a photo frame memoir  and a bouquet of flowers for Sue.

For all other results - see  the NORTEL's web pages.

Details of the latest positions of the Nortel's Clubman/Player of the year, and Eclectic competition are now being held on the Nortel's website Result's Leader-board page.

A summary of the  range of this year's results is being held on the Results page.

The next event - Captain Vs Chairman team match-play event. This takes place at Enfield Golf Club  on 20th September. We will meet at Mid-day, with the first tee time at 1pm, to allow those working to take a half day. For more information visit the Nortel's news page.