Mike Black's "Half Decent Round" Takes Seely Cup

The week at Freshwater Bay started with a three ball scramble on Bank Holiday Monday which was open to all members, first place went to Sammi Keen, Lucy Burke & Kev Garrett with a net 55.9 proving that the fairer sex can play scrambles. In second place with nett 58.55 was Russell Macgregor, Gary Holmes & Robbie Faulkner, while third place was filled by Paula Burke, James Burke and Tony Jones a mere 0.35 of a shot behind.

The Veterans Stableford played on the Friday saw only one player beat par and the competition being declared Reductions Only with the CSS rising to 70, John Whitehouse (24) was rewarded for his 39 point win by having his handicap slashed by a full two shots. Four players finished on 34 with count back deciding the final order; John Mew (14) second ahead of Richard Couse (17) in third with Chris West and Les Joyner finishing out of the prizes. With the scores from this monthly event going forward to the Ogle Tankards sees Peter Marsden increasing his lead by 4 points to 210 whilst Jim Payne and Dennis Smith stayed put on 205 and 204 respectively. Previous winner Ray Cooke has begun a late charge moving from 11^th place to 4^th - nicely poised on 203 points.

The major event of the week was the Seely Cup on Saturday which is restricted to players of 20 handicap and lower, out of the 30 entrants Mike Black (15) ran out the winner with a nett 64 beating 11 handicapper John Burke on the back nine. When Mike was asked after his round how he had got on he replied he had had a “half decent round” – can’t wait to see a decent one then! Third place was closely contested with Steve Orchard (10) finishing third on 66 ahead of Dave Morey and John Sexton on count back. Played in conjunction on the same day is the Rentawelder Trophy for handicaps of 21 and above, but very unusually there was not a single entry!

The week was completed with a fun four ball scramble on the Sunday with the winning team of Miles Oldershaw, Tony Keen, Ian Ball and Sammi Keen scoring a nett 52.75 ahead of second placed Kev Garrett, Bill Hinchen, Nick Punter and John Sexton on 54.