Thank you one and all who came along to The Inaugural FCA Golf Trip.  I hope you all had as good a time as my hangover said I did.  Judging by the feedback I have received so far everyone certainly enjoyed themselves.

Let’s talk about the golf. It was a challenge; the course was a pretty stiff test all on its own and then we add in the wind and on a couple of occasions the rain and it certainly became “interesting”.

The winners:

The top prize for the event went to Lynda Vongyer for Best Lady and Chris Romney.  Chris only won on countback as he made less of a mess of the last 3 holes than Trevor Catmull who was flying until those last 3 holes where he managed the grand total of Zero points (Don’t worry we will be adjusting both of their handicaps for next time unless they can produce a proper WHS handicap).  They both won a “magnificent’ trophy from Paul Casey and £100 of vouchers kindly donated by Laird Mackay from Canford Health.

The team event went to an absolutely great team who shone through with some excellent golf (I wish this were true but as it is my team I will say it anyway).  The team was made up of Laird Mackay, Pete Scholey, Shirley Park and me.  We scored a creditable 90 points and won by 2.

The nearest the pins went to Stevie O’Neill who won ISME’s Sausage,(Actually it is a surprise hamper from www.fruitpigcompany.co.uk ) and Chris Romney who won a bottle of Firecracker Gin from www.pentlandhillsgin.co.uk .  There was a prize for nearest the pin in 2 on 15.  This wasn’t awarded on the night and whilst I left the marker just past the water only Bob Jones told me he beat it.  So he who shouts loudest wins the debrief the prize goes to Bob Jones. It is a round of golf and lunch with Matt Tunaley at his course at South Kyme.

The longest drive was an interesting competition as our team had spent the whole day remarking that the ladies didn’t get much of a break as their tees only seemed to be a few yards in front of the men.  Until the 16th when they got about a hundred yards.  I thought I had it in the bag after my drive only to be beaten by Shirley who was eventually pipped by Flyn Reid who took home a dozen balls donated by Kev Pellatt.

The Casey’s ball competition started really well for my team as we lost the ball on the second hole and sadly no-one actually managed to get it all the way round.  As you all remember I had a fairly tough regime for fines with £5 for the water and £1 for bunkers.  To my knowledge no one failed to clear the ladies tee but quite a few of you managed to fine the water.  We decided to offer a prize for the largest contribution to the RAF BF and this went to Laura Kilbey for a magnificent effort and was a bottle of Scotch donated by Lynda and Gary Vongyer.  I have just checked the justgiving site and we have so far raised £547 for the Benevolent Fund.

The final and possibly most prestigious award was The Blevins Cup.  A magnificent tin cup marked with a map of the Falklands and labelled Las Malvinas. This was awarded to the most memorable F*&K Up on the first tee.  In news that will surprise no one that knows him Pete Scholey won it by getting to the tee with all his consummate skills and sense of occasion only to remember that he didn’t have a ball.  Well done Pete, we want the mug back for next time.

I am told by the ladies that the Spa was lovely, the staff excellent and a wonderful time was had by all. In fact, it was only slightly improved by watching some of the wind and rain outside.

I hope you all enjoyed the dinner (once we had enough seats and tables for us to sit down).  I thought overall the food was pretty good. I will add the photographs to the www.altengwalk.co.uk website if anyone has any others they would like to share then please do send them to me.

Finally, I just wanted to talk about the future, I have created a short survey which should take you less than 3 minutes to complete.  If you could visit it to give me your feedback and suggestions I would really appreciate it. The link is here https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/H875NHR