3 Ball results and other news from Mike Healey September 12th 2023

Seniors - some notes to begin this missive: Firstly, for those of you that haven't already looked, Don has released the tee times for next week's medal (Thursday 21st) and they are now available for viewing on ig. Secondly, this Thursday is marked as an Individual Stableford kitty competition and Peter has also set it up as a qualifier. Before handing cards to me for prizes, please enter all scores into ig (if you are unable to do this - please ask reception to enter scores for you before returning cards.) Thirdly, you may remember that Neville Bassett and Dave Fergus won our Welsh Greensomes qualifier back in June. Last week they travelled down to Carmarthen Golf Club, where they were able to have a practice round before playing in the Welsh Senior Final. I am pleased to report that they represented Clays GC very well, gaining eighth position overall. Well done to both of them! Today - Tom Pierce took responsibility for the Clays senior team going to Harwarden GC for our return fixture with their seniors. Before play started, there was a problem on the A483, with some late arrivals for the match. Some team members had to be swapped around in order to meet tee times but all matches got away on time. Weatherwise, it was never a great start to the day for any golf and there was a fair amount of rain at Harwarden but the rain eventually lifted. For the final fixture of the season, it was a very close run affair with a number of matches being decided on the eighteenth green. What might have been an equitable draw finished with Harwarden seniors taking the honours 5 games to 3. There were some 2's but not recorded by any of our senior members from Clays. Tom reported that the food was excellent once again and that the opposition was as convivial as ever - all in all a good fixture to maintain. Meanwhile, back on home turf, fifteen further stalwarts braved the weather gods and threw their tallies into the morning draw. Given numbers at Harwarden, this kitty competition was always going to be decided on numbers arriving, so 5 x threeballs set off with the best two scores to count. Damp, blustery conditions, after heavy overnight rain did not lend themselves initially to great scoring. The weather lifted after 10 o'clock, however and shirt sleeves even started to appear across the course. Ultimately, the scores were relatively close with two prizes on offer: Threeball - 2 to Count: First: Les Williams, Brian Beaton and Chris Roseblade - 81 points. Second: Andy Mitchell, Dave Nicholson and Tom Blackshaw - 76 points