Winter 04 Newsletter

Contents
Captains Review
 The year has gone extremely quickly, it seems to have ended before it began. Previous Captains warned me that I would have trouble with nearest the pin markers, they were correct as Mill Ride was a disaster.

Due to section membership reducing over the past few years, your committee decided to implement a new rule allowing guests to be invited to day meetings. We were hoping this would encourage new members, especially Associates. This has not been a great success so far but we must keep trying as we need to keep our numbers high, otherwise we might not have a BA Club in the future. So please try and encourage new members to join so that we can all continue to get a lot of enjoyment out of the Golf section in years to come.

I must have done something right during the year as the weather for matches and day meetings was excellent. You all enjoyed my jokes so much that after a few day meetings I ran out of material.

This year at the beginning of September it was our turn to host the ASCA tournament. This took a lot of organisation for a year prior to this. Games were held at Betchworth Park Golf course with two evening meals held in the Pavillion at the Concorde Centre. Eight airlines participated with Icelandair winners of the mens and SAS winning the ladies event. I would especially like to thank Jim Griffiths who was my rock in helping me organise this tournament. Also a big thank you to Richard Plumtree, Les Sibley and all the other helpers.

Is there anybody interested in joining the committee as new blood is always welcome to generate fresh ideas and discussion? Please let me know by phoning 0208 738 9735 or email Mike.L.Robinson@britishairways.com.

I would like to thank the committee for their support and hard work during the year and hope the members have enjoyed participating in all our events.

My best wishes go to Les Sibley as next year’s captain and I hope he enjoys himself as much as I did.

Finally have a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Mike Robinson

Day Meetings 2004
 Wyke Green - Tuesday 23rd March 2004
"Hail" to the new captain - that was exactly the weather which greeted Mike Robinson's first meeting as captain. Perhaps understandably his first tee shot was very inauspicious as he nearly wiped out the players on the 18th green. Apparently his short game was very good during the round, which led to a nickname of "Houdini" and a creditable 29 points.

The course was in reasonable condition, but playing long with the strong winds and damp fairways. However the warm weather practice enjoyed by Clive Heathcote in Zimbabwe during the previous week payed off and he won convincingly by 5 points with a score of 38 followed by a trio of left-handers (beware they are taking over).

Reading - Tuesday 20th April 2004
This meeting in lovely Spring weather almost turned into the "Dave Skiggs show", as he not only won the individual stableford competition for the second year running, but also the team prize in the afternoon and added one of the "nearest the pins" for good measure.

On a day of generally low scores Pete Tiner came second with a very good 36 points and not to be outdone, one of Dave's playing partners, Mark Hennessey, was third with 35 points as well as picking up the team prize and a "nearest the pin". The third member of the group, Richard Plumtree looked at bit embarrassed when he collected his team prize along with Dave and Mark.

Merrist Wood (ASCA Qualifier) - Tuesday 11th May 2004
Our 3rd day meeting of the year doubled as the ASCA qualifier but unfortunately the course was in bad condition. There was a lot of surface water on the fairways and around the greens, which had recently been tined, and work was still being carried out on the bunkers as we were playing.

It was another good day for Dave Skiggs, who just missed out on the overall scratch prize, but won the stableford. Paul Cissell beat Dave on countback for the scratch prize with 52 points. Ray Harpur had the best score in the morning with 35. The 4 qualifiers for the ASCA tournament were Paul Cissell, Dave Skiggs, Alan Burrows and Nigel Weldon.

Sonning - Wednesday 16th June 2004
If only our illustrious captain had followed his own instructions on how to get to the Sonning course he would have been able to go out at the head of the field! Unfortunately, this wasn't the only problem we had during the day. The nearest the pin markers went missing both morning and afternoon, much to Nigel Finch's amusement, but at least this meant Mike joined a long list of captains who suffered similar problems.

The morning stableford was won by Geoff Manning on 37 points, with Mike Bannister, playing his first day meeting, in second place. The afternoon team competition was won by Dave Fielding, Clive Heathcote and Pete Lynam with 69 points on countback from the team of Jim Griffiths, Richard Collard and Bill Bissett.

Betchworth Park (Pairs) - Thursday 15th July 2004
The course was in excellent condition as always for this years Pairs competition. With the winners for the last two years not taking part there were going to be new names on the trophy and with good weather conditions scoring was going to be good.

The highlight of the morning round was a hole-in-one by Nigel Finch at the 2nd and the best score was by Les Sibley and David Burton with 44 points. The best score in the afternoon was also 44 by the pairing of Colin Smith and Dave Norfolk but the overall winners were David Sheppard and Peter Lynam with a very good score of 86.

The excellent evening meal was enjoyed even more because of the wine supplied courtesy of Nigel.

Mill Ride (Captains Day) - Tuesday 17th August 2004
Another course in good condition for this year’s Captains Day and thankfully the forecast thunderstorms never materialised. There was good scoring in perfect conditions in the morning and Gary Tunnell was the overall winner with an excellent 43 points followed by Lee Shurey on 39 and his playing partner Dean Burton with 38.

The afternoon team competition was based on the yellow ball format, but in the Monte Carlo, scores are multiplied together, so high scores were expected. Amazingly Ray Harpur managed not to lose his team’s yellow ball this year which helped him, Dean and Lee to a massive 152 points. This was more than enough to win the competition convincingly.

The recurring theme of this years day meetings are problems with the "nearest the pins". This time no one remembered to bring any of the markers in at all. After a trip back to the golf club the following day (thanks Richard P) and some detective work, the winners were identified and Mike was able to forward the prizes onto them.

Oak Park - Monday 13th September 2004
The day got off to a bad start with torrential rain on the way to the course but this had just about cleared by the start of the morning round. This was a new course for the section and considering the earlier deluge was in remarkably good condition.

The morning stableford was won convincingly by Stan Brown who was due a win as he has been a member of the section for 9 years and hadn't won before. Ray Harpur was the early leader in the clubhouse and finished second though in his opinion he hadn't played particulary well.

The afternoon conditions mixed bright sunshine with a few heavy showers, which clearly did not bother Malcolm Coleman, John De Rebello and Jeff Thomas who won the team stableford competition with 88 points.

Match Reports 2004
Total results - Won 2, Lost 5, Drawn 0
 Laleham Match - 17th April - Lost 4.5-1.5
The day was fine with some sunny patches, though the usual Laleham wind was present to make club selection interesting. The course was still showing the effects of last year’s drought on the fairways, but with winter rules in operation and the greens in fine condition some good scores were recorded. Unfortunately most of these were by the home club and we were beaten overall by 4.5 to 1.5.

For BA there were some brave performances in defeat but it was left to Bob McSorley & Pat O’Shea to halve their match against strong opponents and the second last pairing of Bernie Forbes (winning for the second year in a row) and Roger Woof to record our only win. The Laleham team also won all the nearest the pin prizes, which were an excellent innovation sponsored by BAGS.

So after the false dawn of our draw in 2003, it was back to congratulating Laleham on another win and buying the port for the traditional toast from the Billy White Trophy.

Gatwick Match - 22nd April - Lost 8-4
After their defeat last year and with a new trophy to be played for, the golfers from Gatwick arrived at Betchworth Park with high expectations.

The course was in very good condition so early in the season and it turned out to be a very pleasant spring day, with only a light breeze and little cloud.

The Gatwick team got off to a good start narrowly winning the first 2 matches before Stan Knollman & Alistair Wiseley and Richard Croxford & David Burton brought Heathrow back into contention. Two heavy defeats however left the score after the morning matches 4-2 to Gatwick.

In the afternoon, the Heathrow team made a couple of tactical changes to their pairings and also used substitute Bernie Forbes but to little avail as Gatwick continued to dominate. Linda Rich & Alan Burrows won their match 3&2 but with only David Burton & Richard Croxford winning out of the last 4 matches this gave Gatwick an overall 8-4 victory.

Again there were nearest the pin prizes and the "soon to be 50" Richard Croxford kept the Heathrow colours flying by winning two of them.

Delta Match - 18th to 20th May - Lost 18.5-16.5
This year it was our turn to host the golfers from Delta. The first day's play was held at Betchworth Park and consisted of 8 four ball better ball matches and also one singles match. There was an outstanding display of golf from Howard of Delta, who shot 29 for the front nine and ended with a 65. Needless to say he won his match convincingly. There were some close matches, with 2 of the four balls and the singles match going to the last hole. The overall score after day 1 was BA 4 Delta 5.

The second day was held at Stockley Park and consisted of 8 greensomes matches and a singles match. BA again put up a good performance and won the day 5 to 4, bringing the overall score level at 9 matches apiece. The best performance was by David Burton & Mick Baylie who beat their two lowest handicappers 5 and 3.

The third day was held at Merrist Wood and fortunately, the course had improved a bit from the previous weeks day meeting. There were 16 singles matches to be played plus one to count ,which BA had won on the Monday, making the overnight score BA 10 Delta 9. For a time the omens were looking good for BA as wins alternated between the two sides but unfortunately we then lost 4 matches on the trot and never recovered, losing the overall match eventually by 18.5 to 16.5.

These matches are very close when played in the UK and I'm sure one year we will eventually beat them.

SAS Match - 11th June - Won 4.5-1.5
The match was held at the Koge Golf Club in Copenhagen. This picturesque golf course was very good, with fast undulating greens and although the skies were overcast, the expected thunderstorms only materialised briefly during the round.

Our new "super sub" is none other than Ned O'Shea. He won the deciding hole with his partner Dean Burton, with an up and down out of the bunker on the par 3 18th to win by 1 hole. The team won 4.5 to 1.5 with good wins from Les Sibley & Stan Brown and also Nigel Weldon & Mike Robinson.

Welsh Triangular Match - 11th July - Lost BAAE 397, GE 353, BA (LHR) 344
The golfers from BAAE have obviously got the taste for success. After their first ever win in this triangular competition last year, they made it two on the trot at Chippenham Golf Club this July. They had a runaway victory by 44 points from GE, with BAGS another 9 points behind in last place. BAAE were so dominant, that they won all but one of the individual 3 ball groups. Les Sibley was the BAGS highest scorer with 36 points.

British European Match - 26th August - Won 5.5-1.5

Karlstejn Match - 21st to 22nd September - Won 4.5-1.5

Aer Lingus Match
This match was unfortunately cancelled by Aer Lingus.

It's the Knock-Out!
 This year, thanks to David Burton and of course the members who took part, we have had what Mike Robinson called the best Knock-Out for years. Not only did we have lots of entries but also completed all the rounds on time and kept everyone up to date through the web site.

The final, between Ray Harpur and Nigel Weldon, was played in glorious Autumn weather on the East Course at Wentworth on 26th October. Both played well but Nigel was really on form, with a stableford score of 38, and won 4&3. The crucial period was around the turn. Nigel looked to be in trouble on the par 5 ninth but found his ball in the clear 40 yards from the green and a cute lob wedge allowed him to get his par and win the hole. Next at the par 3 tenth, his tee shot was wayward to the left and hit a tree, with the ball dropping into a bunker. Ray's tee shot found the green, so advantage Ray, only for Nigel hole out from the bunker for a birdie and another hole won against the odds.

A 3rd and 4th place decider is still to be played between Bob McSorley and Kristian Mower at Fox Hills.

Day Meetings 2005
 23 March - Flackwell Heath
11 April - Mill Ride
03 May - Reading
14 June - Hartley Wintney
14 July - Betchworth Park (Pairs)
15 August - Windlesham
05 September - Oak Park

BAGS Matches 2005
 09 April - Laleham Mens - Laleham
22 April - LGW - Betchworth Park
17 – 19 May - Delta - Atlanta
09-10 June - SAS - Foxhills
08 July - Welsh Triangular - Chippenham
August - British European - Exeter
September - Karlstein - Home
October - Aer Lingus - Away

Monthly Medals 2004
 Laleham Spring - David Burton - 67
Stockley Park Spring - Ray Harpur - 72
Laleham Summer - Gavin Bamberger - 69
Stockley Park Summer - John Kelly - 67
Laleham Autumn - Result to be confirmed
Stockley Park Autumn - Geoff Thomas - 72

British Airways hosts Annual ASCA Golf Tournament
 This year British Airways hosted the annual ASCA golf tournament at Betchworth Park Golf Club from the 8th to the 10th of September. The event was a great success with eight mens and two ladies teams taking part with a total of 54 golfers. Airlines participating largely reflected the strongholds of European golf with Scandinavia, Ireland and Spain to the fore, but there were also teams from Austrian Airlines and Alitalia which is encouraging for the future.

The weather was unexpectedly summery on the practice day and for most of the two day competition which was a bonus for Mike Robinson and Jim Griffiths the hard working organisers. They had spent many hours over the last six months to make sure everything ran smoothly including transporting the golfers between airports, hotel and golf course and organising dinners and social events in the evenings. The gala dinner and prize-giving was of course held at the Concorde Club and everyone was impressed with the welcome and the facilities.

The competition itself, which is played off scratch (like professional golf competitions) produced some very high quality golf with a top mens score of 35 Stableford points and 34 for the ladies. The ladies also had some fine individual highlights with two of the competitors scoring eagles (two under par) on a pretty tough course. The mens team winners were Icelandair , who coincidentally will be next year’s hosts and the ladies competition was won by SAS. Icelandair brought with them some photos of the spectacular course they plan to use amongst the lava fields near Reykavik and we are hoping that the BA team will be inspired by the setting to win the trophy in 2005.