It was good to see the return of one of the founding fathers of the MGS golfing society Alan Draper to this event.  Furthermore, he went on to win the trophy!!!  with Hon Treasurer Andy Tippett playing a full part.  Looking at the roll of honour Alan’s last trophy win was the Freddie Jones Captains Day Trophy won in 2005 – so he has not lost any of that competitive edge whilst down in Devon.  In terms of this popular event we were blessed with an even number and no withdrawals at the eleventh hour for a pairs event allowing us to play in 5 fourball groups. The weather was also kind and we experienced a nice Autumn day which was dry and warm on a high quality golf course with some excellent team and individual scores being achieved on the day. The average stableford score being a very good 30.70. The main event on this outing was the GBH Trophy which is the society’s annual stableford pairs “better ball” competition.  Captain James scoring a nice “blob” on his joker hole making the ultimate difference – Jerry might start talking to him again by this time next year: maybe – maybe not!.

The overall results were as follows: –

GBH Trophy

Lots of strong pairings fought hard for this trophy which was won by Messrs Draper & Tippett in a tight competition decided on back 9 count back only :-

Place	Team Members	Score
Winners	Alan Draper & Andy Tippett	49 (B9CB 27)
Second	Jerry Watkiss & James Gallifant	49 (B9CB 22)
Third	Dereck Coppard & Tim Gorringe	47

Individual Stableford

For this event the individual stableford competition takes second place but was again a keenly fought contest: –

Place	Individual	Score
Winner	Alan Bigley	38
Second	Andy Tippett	36 (20 B9CB)
Third	Jerry Watkiss	36 (15 B9CB)
= Fourth	Dereck Coppard, Kelvin Paterson, Mark Hughes	35

Specialist Events

Great to see these back on the agenda with members ensuring the markers were handled safely – I believe this was successful and can continue in the same vein at future events:-

Winner Longest Drive (Hole 13^th):  Alan Bigley 

Winner Nearest the Pin (Hole 5^th): Jerry Watkiss

Worthy of note is Kelvin hitting the ball sideways at pace at the Handicap Secretary on two occasions putting his life at risk.  One finishing as seen in the photo below the other rewarded with the threat of a severe handicap cut and a kick in the unmentionables if it happened again!! 

Anorak Corner

The day saw just 4 birdies which takes the seasons total to 43 (49 at the same point in 2019): –

Player	Hole	Score
Jerry Watkiss	2nd	3 on the 272 yard par 4 (SI 13)
Alan Draper	9th	3 on the 327 yard par4  (SI 7)
Alan Draper	13th	4 on the 479 yard par 5 (SI 10)
Andrew Burnett	15th	3 on the 246 yard par 4 (SI 18)

Player of the Year standings

The player of the year award goes to the player with the best four stableford scores during the season. This is now extremely tight at the top with just one more qualifying event to play this year.  The following all have four rounds under their belt this year and are currently positioned as follows:-

Player	Events	Best 4 average	Best 4 Total
PATERSON, Kelvin	7	36.50	146
LEFTLEY, Kevin	7	35.75	143
MANN. Michael	8	35.75	143
BUCK, Chris	5	35.25	141
GALLIFANT, James	7	34.50	138
HUGHES, Mark	6	34.50	138
BURNETT, Andrew	7	33.75	135
HOOLAHAN, Sandy	6	33.75	135
WATKISS, Jerry	5	33.25	133
BIGLEY, Alan	6	32.75	131
WILLIAMS, Andy	5	32.00	128
BURNETT, Nigel	4	31.50	126
BENNETT, Tom	5	30.75	123
HOWROYD, David	4	30.75	123
COLLINGWOOD, John	7	30.00	120
SMITH, Steve	5	29.75	119
MEADOWS, Graham	4	28.50	114
MONTAGU, Rob	5	28.50	114
COGGILL, Tony	4	26.00	104
GORRINGE, Tim	4	25.25	101

The November fixture will be held at Seaford Head golf course on the 20^th November.  It would be good to see another good turnout for this event.