Reg Peacock's County Captains Day at Clays July 9th 2018

County Captains Day 2018 @ Clays Golf Club on 9^th July

County Captain Reg Peacock held his Captains day @ his home club Clays. The day was gloriously sunny and very hot which was a great relief to him as he’d half expected that would be the day the weather broke! Tee times for the main competition ran from 8:30 through to 14:10 with almost 100 people competing and were followed by a DGU junior order of merit competition involving 20 players.

The course obviously showed some effect from the prolonged drought but reflected all the work and money that had been invested since the change of ownership at the end of 2017. Feedback from the players was very positive and all enjoyed the day, as did the Captain who acted as starter and managed to get a photo of each group before they tee’d off.

The combination of 3-balls and 10 minute tee intervals and the adoption of ‘ready golf’ meant that there were few hold-ups with rounds pleasingly taking less than 4 hours.

Reg decided to adopt a different format for the day this year - singles rather than pairs and incorporating the County 6-16 & 17+ Handicap Championships which were not contested last year.

Whilst the overall Captains Day prizes were based on stableford points the 6-16 handicap championships were based on nett strokeplay which produced some interesting anomalies due to the way the stroke indices fall at Clays.

The best stableford score was 37 points which was returned by 5 players as follows in countback order:-

Iwan Bonds (6) - Clays - Captains Day First - £100 American Golf voucher

Tom Pierce (22) - Clays - Captains Day Second - £75 American Golf voucher

Ron Roberts (12) - Clays - Captains Day Third - £50 American Golf voucher

George Smith (5) - Llangollen - overall fourth

Eric Howells (12) - Denbigh - overall fifth

When countback was applied under strokeplay for the 16 and under handicappers (all returning a nett 68) the order was virtually reversed as follows

            Eric Howells (12) - Denbigh - nett 16 and under handicap first - £50 voucher

            George Smith (5) - Llangollen - nett 16 and under second - £25 voucher

            Iwan Bonds (6) - Clays - nett 16 and under third

            Ron Roberts (12) - Clays - nett 16 and under fourth

In the 17+ handicap category (after excluding those already featuring above as voucher winners) prize-winners were

            Peter Davies (18) Moss - 36 points - £50 voucher

            Malcolm Williams - Clays - 34 points - £25 voucher

County Handicap Championship winners were accordingly

            6-16 Handicap - Eric Howells (Denbigh)

17+ Handicap - Tom Pierce (Clays)

The best gross score of 72 was returned by Josh Green – Clays who received a £40 voucher.

6 balls were awarded for each 2 recorded as follows:-

Josh Green (Clays) @ 5th

David Abell (Wrexham) @ 2nd

Peter Davies (Moss) @ 5th

Ian Hall (Plassey) @ 2nd

Paul Wallace Jones (Clays) @ 12th

Wayne Harold (Plassey) @ 17th

Iwan Bonds (Clays) @ 2nd

Nearest the pin on the 12^th was won by Graham Davidson-Clarke (Clays) - 1cm from hole winning a £25 voucher.

A voucher was also given to the 2011 Club Captain (the year Reg was Clays Captain) returning the best score which was Terry Chaplin - Captain of Old Colwyn that year.

American Golf sponsored a nearest the hole in 2 on the 18^th but the player who chipped in for a 2 there was unfortunately disqualified which meant this prize could not be awarded as no distances were recorded.

Clays Captain Chris Jones, in the presence of County President Tony Harcombe, introduced Reg who presented prizes to those present. He thanked Bill Lewis for handing over the course for his event at no cost as well as the greenkeepers for the course, Hayley for the food and Phil and Gaynor for the bar. He also thanked everyone for support the event and wished them safe passage home.

When the junior event was over Reg presented the standard junior order of merit vouchers to the U14 & U18 nett and gross winners and runners-up together with a £10 voucher to nearest junior to the pin on the 12^th and in 2 on the 18^th which concluded a long but enjoyable day.