A very competitive Individual and Team competition. Mr Mark Hughes wins the individual honours edging out David Howroyd on back-nine count-back . . . and despite David’s eagle on the 5th which added a very pleasing 5pts to his card.
We had blue skies overhead and a dry but chilly day up on the South Downs on a very pleasant course which was much better than we might reasonably expect for a mid-January meeting. Alan Bigley’s first outing as captain saw a very good attendance of 20 brave and hearty chaps out on the course for this season opener, on a course we have not played for a while. A warm welcome to the new members, potential new members and guests Martin Erxleben, Andrew Jenner and Tony Willmott. The only real disappointment was the 6 temporary greens although the scoring on the day was generally very good with the average stableford score for the day being 32.05 which is well above the average for our outings.
Individual Stableford Result
Congratulations goes to Mark Hughes edging out the win over David Howroyd with a whole cluster of players in equal third place.
| Place | Player | Score |
| Winner | Mark Hughes | 39 (B9CB 19) |
| Second | David Howroyd | 39 (B9CB 18) |
| =Third | Alan Bigley, Graham Smith, John Miller, Rob Montagu & Stuart Bourne | 36 |
Team Competition Result
The team event was also very close indeed and again only separated by back nine count back. The second place team contained the Captain, Hon Sec & Hon Hdcp Sec so revenge is likely to be swift and served cold for whoever got those extra points on count-back !! The result was as follows:-
| Place | Player | Score |
| Winner | Graham Smith, Graham Meadows, John Miller & Rob Montagu | 121 (B9CB 64) |
| Second | Alan Bigley, David Howroyd, Martin Erxleben & Micky Mann | 121 (B9CB 61) |
| Third | Jerry Watkiss, Andrew Jenner, Stuart Bourne & John Collingwood | 117 |
Nearest the Pin in ONE (12th Hole 170 yards).
- Mark Hughes hitting this green with a nicely measured effort!
Nearest the pin in ONE (14th Hole 136 yards).
- This has not happened for a while but from 20 shots not one stayed on the green so saving a bottle of wine in terms of prizes allocated !! We must do better is the school report from this one.
Eagles & Birdies
2023 Eagles, Birdies and Two’s count:
| Eagles | Birdies | Of which the following was a two:- |
| 1 | 9 | 1 (David Howroyd) |
One eagle and 9 birdies on the day as follows: –
| Player | Hole | Score | Yards & Stroke index |
| Alan Bigley | 2nd | 4 on the par 5 | 438 yard (SI 7) |
| Micky Mann | 5th | 3 on the par 4 | 271 yard (SI 17) |
| David Howroyd | 5th | 2 on the par 4 | 271 yard (SI 17) |
| Tony Willmott | 5th | 3 on the par 4 | 271 yard (SI 17) |
| Andy Williams | 5th | 3 on the par 4 | 271 yard (SI 17) |
| Mark Hughes | 7th | 4 on the par 5 | 557 yard (SI 1) |
| Alan Bigley | 7th | 4 on the par 5 | 557 yard (SI 1) |
| John Miller | 11th | 3 on the par 4 | 404 yard (SI 2) |
| Alan Bigley | 16th | 3 on the par 4 | 278 yard (SI 18) |
| David Howroyd | 16th | 3 on the par 4 | 278 yard (SI 18) |
The societies next event is at East Brighton on the 17th February. Details will be out nearer the time so keep a keen eye out for them.
