Day 119 - Captain's Day

One of the main days of the calendar for the Club Captain is Captain's Day. This is when he gets to organize a competition, in a format of his choice, to compete for the Captain's prize. For those taking part, this is an opportunity to win a Board Competition - this means that the winners get their names emblazoned in gold leaf in perpetuity in the Honours Bar. A much sought after honour.

As well as choosing the format of the competition (I went for Greensomes Stableford), it is also the Captain's job to purchase the prizes and to feed and fuel those playing. I offered coffee and bacon rolls on arrival as well as a suitably logoe-ed ball stamper.  In addition, there was a half-way gazebo erected to allow the players a choice of drink and snack as they came past. (Here, I shall ignore the member who when asked "What do you fancy?" asked if my daughter was on offer...).

Despite the vaguely positive weather forecast, the morning turned out to be damp and drizzly and actually very cold for those of sitting rather than playing: thank heavens for Tony who came to the rescue of wife and said daughter with the offer of a warm blanket under which to shelter.

The chosen format seemed to go down well with the field and some fine scores were recorded. My son and his partner managed a fine second but were beaten by two points by the eventual winners, who carded a more-than-respectable 43 points. It was great to see the obvious pleasure Andrew and James got from their win - and they deserved it, with a score of 5 over par!

Day 118 - Celebrations

Family and Friend commitments today kept me away from the Old Marlburians match at Burhill. We set off for Uley in Gloucestershire  this morning: our first long drive in the new car. All went well, despite the usual incidents on the M4, which our traffic-aware SatNav managed to avoid.  Best man, Ian, and wife Debs have moved from Surrey to take on a former mill with associated gardens, fields and outbuildings. They are doing a fantastic job and everything looked very much under control - though there is obviously an enormous amount of effort required behind the scenes!

University College Class of 1976

It was great to get together with College friends (yes, it's almost 40 years ago that we arrived in Oxford as naive freshers...) and amusing how everyone reverts to type within a few nanoseconds of getting back together. Enormous kudos goes the to the long-suffering wives...

Home again with nary a concern...well that's not quite true: the car battery was in the "amber" zone when we arrived with "35 miles left in the tank", which gave us a few worries as we have yet to really understand how accurate the on board computer is. On today's evidence, the answer seems to be "very", which bodes well for the future.

Home by 18:30 in time to help in getting an evening BBQ onto the table as we had the opportunity to get together with the in-laws-to-be and wider family. Fortunately, the evening was mild and we were able to sit outside until the late evening, which was a real bonus.  Lots of talk about past weddings and some discussions of the one to be, on which much more anon!

Day 117 - British Beef

Lots of golf today! In the morning was playing in a vets match against the RAC at Burhill. I hadn't played in the Away leg (which we had lost badly) so was keen to do my bit for the eam. As it turned out one of our opponents was feeling a bit under the weather and his game was decidedly off, so that the poor other guy, who played really well, simply wasn't able to carry his side in the better ball format.  We won our match 3&2 and the team triumphed by 1 point.

My heart groaned inwardly when I was told that the lunch was a(nother) carvery... but I needn't have worried. The beef was simply the best that I have ever had at Burhill, succulent and cooked medium rare just the way I like it.

I was due to play again in the late afternoon so decided did not have much time to change out of my jacket and tie and back into golfing gear. This was for the June Twilight Golf and Supper. The weather forecasters had been warning of some Armageddon-like torrential rain during the day, most likely in the evening, so it was with some trepidation that we teed off at 6 pm.  We needn't have worried: there was a small shower as we finished and that was it, though it was humid and warm throughout.

This absence of rain and wind did not help our golf though and neither of our pairs were going to finish in the winners' circle.  The theme of the Twilight was "British" and a dinner of beef had been advertised: not really what I wanted again. So, it was with joy, that I was served my salmon en croute and Eton Mess for dessert. A second excellent meal at Burhill... could this be the start of a trend?

Day 116 - T-Day

After months of waiting, today was T-Day... I had an appointment at the Tesla Service Centre in West Drayton to collect my new car at 3 pm. It was a bit of a slog getting there: train to London, Tube to Paddington, Train to West Drayton and a 15 minute walk...but it was worth it!

The handover process (thanks Emma!) took about an hour: it was just like being in the Apple store and having someone explain how your new iPad Air functions.  And then it was time to drive home.

I then discovered a very disappointing truth: London traffic is desperately awful and it makes no allowance for people whatever type of car they are driving. It took me over an hour to get home, but at least I got to test the Google Maps sat nav app...which kept changing its mind about which was the least bad way to avoid the traffic jams.

But get home I did! And I managed to do so without constantly fiddling with the enormous screen that controls all of the car's functions ... honest, Mrs L...

Day 115 - Compo et al

Again a (very) early start this morning: the challenge being to get to Wentworth for a Vets match at 08:30 without risking getting snarled up in the traffic jam that is the M25. The solution: leaving the house at 07:00 and taking the back roads. This did mean arriving by 07:30 but this is far less stressful than the alternative.

We played our return match against the Last of the Summer Wine (as the Wentwoth Vets are called) on the Edinburgh Course. This was in better shape than I remembered last year, with the large greens posing plenty of problems for those of us not used to them.  We had thrashed them in the home fixture in April and they were clearly out for to level the score.

Ron and I played the same pair as we had in the home fixture and, when one of them holed a 40+ft putt on the first for par, we knew we were in trouble... before we could even turn around, we were three holes down and seriously concerned that the match was going to slip away for us. Gradually though we hauled them back in, arriving onto the 18th tee just 1 down. 

It wasn't to be though: with his partner OB off the tee, the other Wentworther played zigzag golf until he put a ball to within 6 inches from 90yds out.  Revenge is sweet....  if you are the not the revengee that is....

Day 114 - A welcome change

After 4 days on the trot, a day off from golf was due today - which was just as well as my energy supplier had to come by this morning to do one more last adaptation of my car charger and to carry out some final tests... after all, the new wagon is due for collection in only two days' time!

It was also good to get some time at home too to catch up on all the things that do not get done on days when you only return home from the course in the afternoon: lots of things ticked off my To Do list.

That I was not as efficient as I might have been, I blame on the England ODI XI. I started watching the game from the off and was soon hooked as Messrs Root and Buttler demonstrated that it is not only Auatralians and others from the Southern Hemisphere who can take an innings by the scruff of the neck.  I did feel sorry for Jason Roy, out on the very first ball of the game, but after that there were lost of things to get excited about.

As the commentators on Sky insisted on calling them, "New England" performed on all cylinders breaking lots of records, including their highest score ever, together with the most sixes scored in an ODI and, evenutally their largest ever win. 

The bowlers then did their bit and it was a real pleasure to watch an England one day side record a victory. But can they repeat it...? Or is it yet another false dawn: only time will tell!

Day 113 - One more ball...

View from tee box of 5th? at Effingham

Another lovely summer's day and a first for me today: I was playing in a Burhill Vets Friendly match against Effingham Golf Club. I don't think that I had ever played there before (or if I had it was a very long time ago!).  I very much enjoyed the course: it offers some splendid view over London and its environs, as well as having some typically tricky Colt greens and bunkers.

My partner, Michael, and I had a see-saw of a match: up, down, and fortunately up again by the end.  We recorded a 2&1 win, which was probably a fair result. I had some excellent holes, especially a couple of crucial putts - once to half a hole with a birdie! - and some not so good, and my partner came to the rescue on some crucial holes too.

One of the things I collect is a new logo-ed golf ball from all the courses that I play: I added one from Effingham to the collection, which is filling up nicely.  Before long, I shall have to purchase another ball holder!

Over the past 72 hours I had been wearing a heart monitor (about the size of small smartphone), with three sensors attached to the chest. This is essentially a non-stop ECG over 3 days which will hopefully give the docs the information they require. I was delighted to be able to take this off at the end of the game, and also to have my first proper shower for 3 days!  Nobody else complained, but I was very conscious of the fact that the weather has been warm of late... and I hope that I sleep better tonight...