MY CAPTAINS DAY

Please remember if you click on any photos they will show bigger. And at the bottom of the post you can leave comments and I would be interested in how you felt the day went, good or bad let me know.

So Saturday was the the big day. Captains Day 2010. And a chance for a fun golf day and to raise some money for charity. On Friday evening Richard and I were due to put all the prizes out and get everything at the club and on my way I realised I had nothing to sound the shotgun start. So I got Richard to do a Google search and he found a Fireworks shop in Handcross. So postcode in Sat-Nav and I find it takes me to a Spar shop in the High Street. I thought I would go and ask if they knew where the Fireworks may be, only to find that the Spar shop was also the Firework Shop. They gave me a catalog and it was difficult for me to only walk out with a pack of big rockets, I can see me going back there in November and spending a fortune. So we had everything and Richard wrote the board out while I set up the prizes and got everything ready for the morning, but of course we needed to test the starting rockets and I did have 8, so we went down the first and set one off. WOW yes they are loud enough. So ready to go and back home for some sleep before the big day Saturday.


OK well maybe I did not sleep too well, and was awake at 5:30 Saturday morning, I had one drop out so down to 139, will everyone turn up? Will I get everyone around the course? Will I get away with the Speech? Will I remember to thank everyone? Oh well lets just go and enjoy it. I was at the club at 7:00 along with all the various people available from the committees, Ladies - registration, Seniors - 2's comp Men's - number of balls lost and Raffle and Ray Fisher - Photos. Good news was that one person had turned up on the off chance of a game so I filled that spare slot, and Carl Jones who had to pull out earlier in the week had also turned up on the off chance, and as 1 person did not turn up in the day (I will not name and shame) Carl got a game and we had 140 people, 35 teams. Everyone who entered got a traditional Captains day gift as we gently extracted money from them for the various charity events. And we auctioned the first and 10th tees so by the time we went out to play we already had over £1000.00 for the Charity, Dreams Come True.

I think I should also make a special mention for the Yellow Peril team who stood out on the course. Maybe next year we should persuade people to dress in team colours for fun.

So as it was my Captains Day I had bagged the first off the first with my team of this years Captains, Phil Eggitt, Melissa Hauffe and James Gillham. All I had to do was get to the Tee on time and set off the starting Firework. I thought I better take 2 just in case the first one did not go off. Luckily Vernon was on the first tee too and if anything went wrong he would sort it being an ex-fireman. I then had a great idea, I only had one tube to set off the Fireworks so if I wanted set off 2 together I could put one in the tube on my bag that is designed to hold the putter. So one in the my bag and one in the tube, light and stand back. Well the one on the bag went OK but as it was at a low angle and it seemed to go into the house to the left off the first and explode in their garden. The one in the tube got to the bit where it fizzies and goes in the air, but just stayed there, all 12 of us realised it was about to explode and we ran in all directions just as it went off. OOPS, glad we had a practice the night before, but everyone heard and we were off. There was a great atmosphere all around the course and we all knew it would be a little slow, but there was a lot of friendly banter from all parts.  In order to extract a little more money we offered the opportunity to double you money for a £5.00 bet on the 11th, all you had to do was get on the green. Shoina and Michelle from the charity were there to collect the money and we raised over £500 there alone. My Team played well and we had a great fun day and ended up with 81 points.
 

So back in the club house and the ladies Sue, Donna, Anne and Barbara collected all the cards, checked them and put all the information on the board. We started with a few thanks and this had to include the Greenkeepers, the F&B team, The Pros, The Management team all the people who helped organise the day and of course all of the 140 members who had come to support the event. And then it was on to the presentations:

The first presentation was for the number of balls lost, with 140 people in the comp how many would it be. It turned out to be a staggering 262, so I can only imagine that many balls are lost every day on the course. Two people had guessed correctly so £50.00 each, and Matt Hambleton kindly donated his £50 back into the charity. I also had a small gift for the people who had lost the most balls (and were still at the club) so please see the picture to the left of the presentation of some very nice Pink Ladies Balls to the boys

Next we had the Auction and there were some great items, this included some painting painted by our own Donna Davies, a Fitness Massage, a video golf and fitness session with Ryan and Kier, a Ladies Yonex Driver donated by Melissa and a Callaway Golf bag and Odyssey putter donated by Gareth Taylor. My thanks to all who donated these items and also to Richard Kindon who walked around in a Model Stylie showing off the paintings.

The four nearest the pin awards were very interesting this year, along with Graham (4inches) Boyd and Paul Tickner we had a hole in one on the 16th by Neil Osbourne. Now I know last week I said that the Hole In One may start a trend but I did not expect to have three in a week, as Rob Croxford also had one on the 11th in our Wednesday competition too. Of course we could not expect Neil to buy all 140 people a drink, but he very kindly offered to give £150.00 to the charity for his great achievement, which was his first one. So thanks Neil although it does seem strange that this is the only sport that when you play a good shot you have to pay out lots of money too.  Maybe we should get the England strikers to buy the whole crowd a beer when they score a goal.

And lastly on the final prizes. I was originally going to have 3 prizes but when I came in I thought I would go to fourth and arranged for a box of Pro V's from the shop. It was only after all the count up was complete that I discovered that it was MY team that had come fourth with 81 Points.

In Third place were Ron M Andrews, John Currie, Gary Galman & Paul Mewettwith 82 Points.

In second it was the team of Robert Croxford, Paul Dolan, Mike Lowery & Ian Massbery 85 Points.

And the winners with a magnificent score of 89 Points were Stephen Elliott, Jonathan Elliott, Josh Hemsley & Jason Gooding.

So it only remained for the final count up of the money, which Terry Wills been had  looking after all day (thanks Terry) and we had raised a magnificent:  

£2,840