DDGC narrowly lost in a tightly contested return match against Woburn. Despite atrocious conditions (the picture below was taken at the beginning of the day) the match was played in the best of spirits and enjoyed by all.

Highlights include Ryan Smith & Brandon Black who emphatically beat their Woburn counterparts and to Toby Bunyan. Playing on his own for the last 9 holes after his playing partner retired early, Toby won the 14th, 15th & 16th holes to find himself only 1 hole behind with 2 to play. The numbers were stacked against him at the end but it was a creditable performance on his club debut. Well played Toby

Chris Aherne rounded off the days events and thanked his opponents for an enjoyable days golf

Team

Ryan Smith & Brandon Black

Tom Howson & Chris Aherne

Alex Winter & Luke Bissett

Toby Bunyan & Freya Daniels

Latchwood Trophy (Ladies’ Medal Final) Played Sunday 19 September 2010

Winner Alison Hayward – net 73
Runner Up Ann Alston – net 75

Grandma Trophy Played Tuesday 21 September 2010

Winner Margaret Pead – 36 pts ocb
Runner up Chris Jameson – 36 pts

Please note this event is now SOLD OUT sorry.

Would members who have ordered tickets please pay for these by 24 September 2010.

Missed out on this event next Theme Evening is on 22 October 2010 which is a Curry Night, watch out for details.

The Junior Presentation night will be held on Thursday 28th October at 1730 PM. It will follow a 10 hole stableford competition where juniors can invite a friend or a member of their family to join them for a fun competition beforehand. The presentation night should only last about 30 minutes. There will be a quick review of the year, the announcement of the new junior vice captain followed by prize giving. Full details are now on the junior notice board so get your name down now.

“The Ladies had a great day at their Autumn Meeting in spite of  the very strong wind. Well done to Jill Latch who scored a fantastic 39 points in these conditions.”

Full Results
1st Silver am Jill Latch 39pts
2nd Silver am Anita Booth 35pts
3rd Silver am Ann Brinklow 32 pts

1st Bronze am Pat Bennett 34pts
2nd Bronze am Chris Jameson 32pts
3rd Bronze am Pat Beedle 31pts
4th Bronze am Carol Whittingham o.c.b from Maureen Taylor

Best Front Nine Silver Adrienne Lane 16pts
Best Front Nine Bronze June Budgen 19pts
Best Back Nine Silver Ann Alston 16pts o.c.b from Alison Hayward
Best Back Nine Bronze Anita Moroney 15pts o.c.b from Sue Walkerdine

PM Greensomes
1st Anita Booth & Jill Latch 29pts
2nd Claudine Tate & Chris Jameson 26pts
3rd Cath Samsa & Maureen Tickner 25pts o.c.b from Melenie Fortune & Helen Hughes

TUESDAY 14^th SEPTEMBER 2010

RESULTS

1st Graham Sheldon Dunstable Downs & Les Brown East Herts 43pts

2nd Roger Bender Dunstable Downs & Joe Oliver Knebworth 40pts

3rd Barry Potter Dunstable Downs & Robert Winch Hertswood 39pts

Best Front Nine
Graham Tate Dunstable Downs & Ken Lyons Brocket Hall 21pts

Best Back Nine
Peter Mooney Dunstable Downs & David Podmore Brockenhurst Manor 20pts

Longest Drive on 17th David Price Dunstable Downs

Nearest the pin on 18th Jim Cockburn Aldwickbury Park

(Longest drive and nearest the pin prizes donated by the Senior Section)

It is understood that a challenge to face the juniors in a 4 ball better ball competition during the October half term has been laid down by the junior section.

At the time of writing it is still not sure whether the ladies have accepted the challenge…unless of course you know differently

Elliott Roch is the new junior club champion after scoring a gross 167 yesterday afternoon beating his closest rival by 9 shots. Elliott only joined DDGC last month but has been up at the club, what appears to be every night since, getting himself acquainted with the course and practicing for this event. The club is determined to strengthen the club’s junior section and there is clearly strength in depth through the divisions. Chris Aherne will have attracted the handicap committee’s eye with a superb score of 92 to win the 2nd division championship. Jonathan Wylie is obviously following his father’s footsteps to win the 3rd division in the closest finish of the day by 1 from Brad Howard
Well done to all competitors. Full results are as follows

Division 1 36 hole medal

1st         Elliott Roch (12)          Gross 167
2nd        Ryan Smith (8)             Gross 176
3rd         Brandon Black (9)       Gross 180

Division 2 18 hole medal

1st        Chris Aherne  (27)       Nett 65
2nd        Alexander Winter (28)   Nett 69
3rd        Alex Tipping  (26)         Nett 70   

Division 3   18 Hole Stableford

1st        Jonathan Wyllie         29 points
2nd       Brad Howard              28 points
3rd        Ryan Craig                 27 points

Roger Gray of Thorndon Park, a great supporter of pro-ams in the PGA East Region, was rewarded with his first win of the year with a three-under-par round of 67 at Dunstable Downs.

He started at the 11th and two of his six birdies came towards the end of his round.

Three players were snapping at Gray’s heels at two-under-par. They were Daniel Coughlan of Wyke Green, Kevin Harrison of A1 Driving Range and Daniel Poulter of Bedford Golf Club.

Five more players finished at one-under-par. They were Noel Quinn (Whipsnade Park), Glen Kemble (Mount Pleasant), Phillip Abbott (John O’Gaunt), Ian Ellis (Costessey Park) and Chris Cutchie (Colchester).

Host professional Darren Charlton was two-under after three but could not keep up the good work. He dropped a shot at the 10th and finished with a double bogey at the 164-yard par three 18th to finish one over.

Murray White of Penfold Park, winner at Chesfield Down the previous week, had a hole in one at the 123-yard ninth hole.

“I hit a wedge but it was a blind hole so I did not see the ball drop in. The first I knew of it was that people were jumping up and down behind the green.

“It was my sixth hole in one as a professional. My first was at Halesowen in a pro-am following the Midland Open in 1976. On that occasion, I won a car which was handed over to me Henry Cooper. There was no car this time,” said White.

Daniel Poulter brought home the winning amateur team of Graham Danby, Rob Sutton & Mark Smith at 16-under-par. And the difference between the winning team and the 3 runners up on 15 under? “I chipped in at the 8^th and had a shot too” Mark said. “We started on the 11^th so we didn’t realize just how important that shot was until we came into the clubhouse”

For the full professional results

The Friday started with the Senior’s Stableford and Bob Coleman ended up as the winner from Brian Barfoot.

In the afternoon there was a hotly contested Texas Scramble where Combinations of male, females andjuniors made it a bit of Bank Holiday fun. With three opportunities for every shot the scores were bound  to be low and Adrienne Lane, Chris Jones and Alan Jones led the way with a brilliant Gross 65 however this was won only on count back from Steve Barclay, Captain Phil Delafield and David Wyllie.

David Frost, Alexander Winter and John Winter won the nett prize with runners up Paul Roberts, Andy Chapman and Andy Liddiard.

Friday nights entertainment was superb with Gavin’s quiz being well  attended with 13 teams competing. Jerry Lynch’s team proved to be the brain boxes by winning the pot.

The £50 roll up which had reached £250 was won by Colin Jackson. Colin was generous enough to subscribe significantly to the Vice Captains Charity.

Competition golf was again the order of the day with a stableford Competition on Saturday when over 140 people competed. The winner was David Wyllie, who seems to make a habit of winning nowadays, (Handicap chairman take note) with 41 points from Phil Murphy on 39. Gary Marsh on 38 was 4th beating Fred Alsopp on count back. 

In the evening there was a real fun night. Firstly we had ball throwing from the balcony to a specially prepared hole close to the 17th. This got the evening going andMark Smith managed to get the ball to within 2 inches of the hole-he generously subscribed his winnings to the Charity. Then we had  Melvis- He was in superb form wiggling his hips to the delight of his audience and his singing and ‘all round’ entertainment was excellent. Elvis or his re-incarnation was definitely ‘in the Building’ ask- Enid Bulcock. Most people(members and Guests) were still dancing until well after Midnight-nobody seemed to want to go home!

An Auction was also conducted by John Hill and a further £870 was made for Charity.

The Charity Car Parking Winner was announced and the winner is -Jeremy Cope. Congratulations to Jeremy -he will have use of the space for a year and will have his name shown on the space itself

Monday started with a singles stableford and Adrian Yule ran out the winner with39 points- Ashley Adams was relegated to second on Count Back and he is still complaining that he wanted a recount!

 The last Competition of the weekend was a rumble which is where 1 person out of the 4 counts on the first 5 holes and then 2 on the next 5 holes, 3 on the next 5 holes and then all 4 count on the final three holes. Those last three holes can make all the difference and did destroy many cards. The winning team however by 4 shots was Bill & Melanie Fortune and David & Martine Frost. Graham & Barbara Sheldon and Debbie & Doug Chalmers came 2nd were runners up with third place going to Arthur Sadowski & Jane Filmer and Maureen & Steve Tickner.

The final presentation of the cheque to our nominated Charity (Hospice at Home Volunteers) was made in the evening together with the competition prize presentation-another Auction was also run to add to the ever increasing amount collected.

Ian Coulter and Maureen Kerr, on behalf of Hospice at Home Volunteers,  were absolutely overwhelmed by £8000 raised. This will help them operate for the whole of next year which helps to explain Ian’s delight, disbelief and gratitude at the sums collected.

The cheque itself was beautifully prepared  by Ralph Woolhead who is an ex Captain and Ex member but he came along particularly to add his artistic influence to the cheque -our grateful thanks go to him as well as to all the other members andGuests who contributed so generously to the Weekend.

The overall impression was that everyone had a most enjoyable weekend made even more so by the fact that the monies contributed will make a considerable difference to a lot of unfortunate people who have very limited futures to look forward to. The fact that it will make such a difference so close to Home(the Dunstable Area) makes it even more satisfying.

Graham Tate & Kate Price