Whatever you do – don’t lose the yellow ball!
Our 3rd Event of the year was held at Eastbourne Downs GC for the prestige Mad March Jugs Pairs Competition. On a fine day on the downs we had some excellent golf and good food.
A field of 22 competed for the pairs competition with no individual stableford competition. The draw was done in the clubhouse creating some level of excitement at who you would draw. Using a different approach this year with a seeded pot we tried to even the pairings. In essence this worked with some close scores.
This event involves a yellow ball issued to each team to be used on alternate holes with points counting double for the player with the yellow ball. Now the key thing is to keep this ball in play for the whole round to maximise your score. Will Lunn did not follow this and smashed his into the bushes on hole 2. Jerry and James soon followed this by losing theirs on hole 5. Finally, Andrew and Scott lost theirs on Hole 14. The rest of the teams completed the round with their special ball. The keeping of the ball also resulted in many golfers seen rescuing their balls from sheep fields and other very strange places.
The average score for the day was a 32.05 off Eastbourne White Tees (really yellow distances). The course was very dry and played very short with a number of drives on holes going through the greens! We played mostly off tee mats and there were no temporary greens although they were a little patchy and very hard.
There were 3 players who played above handicap and 15 birdies were achieved.
A very tight pairs competition resulted in only 5 points separating the 4 pairs.
Mad March Jugs Pairs Competition
| Position | Pair | Score |
| 1st | Kevan Gill and David Howroyd | 107 |
| 2nd | Andrew Jenner and Keith Townsend (on countback) | 104 |
Nearest Pin 14th Hole (136 Yds)
Alan Bigley
Nearest Pin in Two 5th Hole (271 Yds)
Stuart Bourne
Birdies
| Player | Hole | Score | Yards & Stroke Index |
| Alan Bigley | 4th | 3 on par 4 | 320 Yds SI 15 |
| John Miller | 5th | 3 on par 4 | 271 Yds SI 17 |
| Peter Alfieri | 5th | 3 on par 4 | 271 Yds SI 17 |
| Peter Smith | 5th | 3 on par 4 | 271 Yds SI 17 |
| Andrew Jenner | 5th | 3 on par 4 | 271 Yds SI 17 |
| Graham Meadows | 5th | 3 on par 4 | 271 Yds SI 17 |
| Kevin Lefley | 5th | 3 on par 4 | 271 Yds SI 17 |
| Alan Bigley | 10th | 4 on par 5 | 462 Yds SI 11 |
| Andrew Burnett | 10th | 4 on par 5 | 462 Yds SI 11 |
| Scott Wightman | 10th | 4 on par 5 | 462 Yds SI 11 |
| Kevan Gill | 16th | 3 on par 4 | 278 Yds SI 18 |
| John Miller | 16th | 3 on par 4 | 278 Yds SI 18 |
| Peter Alfieri | 16th | 3 on par 4 | 278 Yds SI 18 |
| Kelvin Patterson | 16th | 3 on par 4 | 278 Yds SI 18 |
| Andrew Burnett | 16th | 3 on par 4 | 278 Yds SI 18 |
The societies next event is on Thursday 24th April at The Dyke GC – an individual stableford and team event.
