Day 255 - Night and Day Golf

Arrived at the Club this morning in time for coffee and a bacon roll.  Burhill had organised a competition and meet-and-greet for recent new members today and I was there to play and do what I could to make everyone feel welcome.  The format was a two-man team competition and I was paired with Rob, who has recently moved to Burhill for Hampton Court.  Also in our four-ball were Lee, from Wentworth and Mark currently at Guildford.

It was another splendid day for golf: 20 deg, sunshine and no wind - what more could we have asked for? We played the Old Course and, it must be admitted, the greens were a bit slow... not that this did anything to stop our playing partners who amassed a fantastic score of 44 points in the better ball format.  It was a fun event and a good way to meet new members.

Back home for the Rugby World Cup Final: New Zealand were simply too strong for Australia, although the latter gave them a good run for their money.  It has been a great competition - if we skim over the England performance - so much better than the football or cricket versions which both seem to go on for ever, with endless meaningless games.

Hallowe'en Night Golf - what a scream!

At halftime, we made our way back to the Club, both to see the end of the game as well as to get ready for Night Golf.  We were to play 6 holes at 6:30 pm and arrived to find them all lit up: green lights on the tees and around the greens themselves, white sticks in the fairways and blue demarcating all hazards.  All we needed was some lit-up golf balls and we were good to go!

I played with Mrs L, along with Roger and his wife Kate.  We ended up with a very respectable 12 points, or 2 per hole, which I thought was pretty good considering that we were playing in torchlight and hitting golf balls that were definitely shorter than is the norm: we even managed a par on 7, which was more than I had done in the daylight 9 hours earlier!

An excellent supper of ghoul-ash followed by apple pie closed off the evening. It was all great fun and super to see the effort that people had made to get into the spirit of the occasion, with some great costumes on show...

Day 254 - Hayward's Heath

The morning was dedicated to leaf clearing: how do a few trees produce such volumes of the stuff?  It was wonderful whilst they lasted but at least most of them seem to have made their way to the ground...

Leaves still there on a
Haywards Heath fairway

After a brief weather delay, we headed off to meet my brother Tony for an afternoon's golf at Haywards Heath Golf Club.  He joined the club recently, taking advantage of one of the flexible memerbship schemes they now offer.

On their website, the course is described as "A stunning parkland course and clubhouse where a memorable experience awaits", which is perhaps over-egging the pudding somewhat.  The course is though an interesting blend of long and short par 4s, along with some handsome par 3s and 5s.  The area is very much clay based which meant that it was a bit heavy underfoot after the morning rain but nevertheless we enjoyed some late autumn sunshine and played most of the round in shirt-sleeves, which isn't bad for the last few days of October!

Tony decided to put a supplementary card in for his round, which meant that Kathryn and I played along for the ride.  The front nine was definitely easier than the back half and my scorecard reflected that.  Nevertheless a satisfactory round was played by all and I look forward to returning to play there again.

Showered and changed, we moved on to Tony and Jan's for a delicious supper and a catch-up.  My contribution was a magnum of red, upon which we inflicted some serious damage... and Kathryn drove home!

Day 253 - Poppies

Today saw me up in London for a Board Meeting and one of the things I wanted to do was to track down and purchase a poppy for this year's Appeal. I looked everywhere but couldn't find one anywhere: I was looking for one of the smaller pins, rather than the traditional buttonhole.

And then I got to Waterloo Station and I couldn't move but for poppy sellers... There was a bunch of young Royal Marines who were having a great time taking selfies with anyone who was interested: they seemed to be having a high old time!

Time for a quick supper at home and then on to the Club for a meeting. On this occasion, I was sitting down with the Vice Captain, the organizer of the Nations Cup competition and the Captains of the six teams.  This is a competition that is played early in the new year, roughly at the same time as the Six Nations Rugby tournament.

The meeting was arranged to review the 2015 matches in readiness for next year's competition. We had made some changes last time to the way things ran, including increasing the number of pairs playing from 6 to 7, as well as using our Intelligent Golf system to support the managers and to record the results.

We had a good discussion and agreed on a number of ways forward: everybody was very constructive and two Captains had made a special effort to be there. All of this bodes well for next year's Nations Cup...bring it on!

Day 252 - Basingstoke

Autumn trees at Basingstoke Golf Club

A leisurely start this morning:the plan was to meet up at 09:30 for a 10:00 start... but not at Burhill, instead our opponents for the day were Basingstoke Golf Club.  So, first problem was to negotiate the traffic to get there. Trusting Google Maps, I decided to take the M25/M3 combination.... and it turned out to be just fine.

Yes, there was some traffic but it kept on moving and I arrived just on time. And I also had great fun trying out the car's new AutoPilot options: I set the car going at the required 50 mph speed through the lengthy roadworks, pressed the AP button and enjoyed the ease of letting the car do its thing. The only problem was when white dashed lines disappeared and were replaced by studs on the road, which didn't quite work!

Our match today was in the Vets Penang league: a set of home and away matches played through the winter months. A bit of pressure on the team: Burhill won this competition in 2014/15...  I hadn't played Basingstoke before and was looking forward to it: it looked it really good shape.  I was playing with Chris, against our opponents John and Derrick, and was going to be giving shots to the other three.

We were quietly optimistic after the first hole, which we won easily, but this didn't last long as our opponents not only got back level quickly but then drew ahead, achieving a 2 hole lead by the turn.  It was not easy as we were playing against a couple of very steady golfers, who mixed and matched well.  But, we hung on in there until a great/fortunate putt resulting in a birdie on the 15th got us back to level. Another birdie on 17 gave us an unbeatable 1 shot lead, which we sealed with a (three-putt!) half on the last.

In turned out that our win was important: overall, the match was shared with a score of 2 1/2 to 2 1/2, leaving everything open for the return match early in the new year.  Whether we can match the excellent weather we enjoyed today is more questionable...  The golf was followed by a wholesome shepherd's pie and vegetables... and everyone agreed that a nap would ideally be in order!

A slow trip back through the heavy traffic was painful, but I did get back in time for the Social Committee Meeting at the Club at 7 pm. This was mainly a review meeting as most of the events have now taken place: all we have left is the Hallowe'en Night Golf on Saturday...  still place available if anyone is interested!

Day 251 - Driving Test

Contrary to all expectations, it is almost November and we are still playing golf, not only in the dry, but even in short-sleeved shorts (and I even saw someone out there in shorts!).  We cannot complain...  I went out to give the grass a cut and collect up some leaves and within a few minutes had to go back inside to shed a few layers: it was warm out there!

Today was a Disorganised day - and a sad one at that as one of our number, who has been a stalwart over the past months, has opted instead actually to get himself a job: Xenos, we shall miss you!

There were 6 of us out there today: easy for the format as we split into two three and played 2 out of 3 to count: my group, with Jan and Sean, just managed to do enough and came out winning by a solitary point. My game was in a lot better shape than it had been at the weekend.  One reason for this, was that I actually managed to hit most of the fairways.

I put this improvement down to putting to use a small tip that I had picked up from one of the gazillions of golfing emails that I receive in my inbox every morning. I am not sure that it would work for you, but just in case, have a look here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrUybh4V4EU


In the evening - out for a drink at the Running Mare in Cobham - still somewhere that feels more like a pub and less like a restaurant!

Day 250 - Photograph 51

Woke up nice and early this morning (still enjoying that extra hour in bed now that we are back on GMT!) to be greeted by thin sunshine but with the promise of another lovely autumn day. The morning was spent on chores, followed by a trip to Kingston.

We had forgotten that it was half-term week so beat a quick retreat once we had done that which we had to do. Al very efficient though I did fail to find the designated electric vehicle charging spaces in the car park. 

Arrived home just in time to see England fail to play out the draw in Dubai against Pakistan. A valiant attempt by the tail-enders but they had left themselves to much to do. 

Up to London to the theatre this evening. Had a pre-theatre meal at Côte (they must be doing something right as they kept on turning potential customers away!).

The play itself was based on the true story of the discovery of the DNA structure and the role played by Rosalind Franklin. Her work proved to be influential in the Crick/Watson/Wilkins paper though this was only made public posthumously. Nicole Kidman plays the lead role in an understated but intense manner. Not a blockbuster but thought provoking and a great evening out!

Day 249 - Birthday Girl

After the extra hour in bed this morning, we made our way to the Golf Club this morning: Kathryn had some work to do on the Ladies' computer and I wanted a few words with the Pro Shop.  The courses were looking good in the autumn sunshine, but not a day for golf today.

I wanted to get on the A3 as soon as possible... for, overnight, the latest version of the software that powers my Tesla (version 7) had downloaded and I wanted to test it out!  As well as a redesign of all the dashboard and the control panel, this version includes the first steps towards the driverless car: Autosteering.

Wimbledon here we come..
on AutoPilot

As long as the on-board cameras and sensors can recognise the white lines on the left and right of the car, and you are travelling over 24 mph, you can engage the Autopilot and the car will drive itself, following the road's contours and managing the speed within the constraints imposed by fellow-drivers and, if you choose, the speed limit. 

It was a bit nerve-wracking when I first engaged it, but it seemed to work just fine. It was a strange experience though oberving the car drive itself, as I kept my hands on my lap... The next thing is to trial the automatic lane changing... but that's for another day.

A pre-shopping aperitif

We drove up to Wimbledon to give some parental input into The Wedding Dress Choice, and it appears that our views had some merit as a deposit was paid.. one fewer decision to be made!  Afterwards, we headed up to London for lunch with the birthday girl herself and Paul, her fiancé.  They had chosen a favourite restaurant of theirs, NOPI, just off Regent Street.  We hadn't been there before but were very impressed: good decor, fine service and delicious food. The idea is to choose plates for sharing and, unusually, the portions were actually generous enough that this worked just fine with the four of us.

Fully replete, now time to go home to see if the Pumas can achieve an upset against the Wallabies. I doubt it, but who knows?