At one point we weren’t even sure this event would take place as at the Whipsnade end of things the
process of booking us in and allocating us the tee-times we needed and renting us buggies seemed to be
going wrong. However thanks to the perseverance and negotiation skills of Jill, we got there in the end
and enjoyed a sunny day, good food and some competitive golf. The balls were running and running and
running out of sight.

Organisationally speaking, this event is perhaps the hardest of all to manage. The tradition of having
both a scratch and a stableford competition, over 36 and 18 holes and trying to balance out those who
want to play in handicap order with those who wish to use buggies and those playing only 18 and those
playing 36 adds a degree of complexity to the draw and a lot of complexity to the results process. Once
again I would like to thank Jill for the former and Dave Gibson for managing his spreadsheet to help
speed up the process as well as making it easier to verify the results and allocations of prizes as we also
have a rule that nobody can win more than one of the major prizes. Even with his particular gifts, we
find that we have misreported the runners up which I will correct below but luckily it has no implications
for the prizes or engraving!

In this our 50th anniversary year it was lovely to see some well-established players as well as new names
amongst the prize winners. And of course, we were delighted to introduce a couple of new prize
categories to “spread the love”.

Our champion golfer of the year winning the John Boulton Rosebowl was Charlie Snelling with a total
scratch score of 166 over 36 holes and runner up with 174 was Jim Moffatt.

The winner of the Newbould Plate with 76 points over 36, was Dave Tarry who narrowly pipped Tony
Coleman, playing in his first Championships, on count back. Apologies but the names were transposed
on the day in the heat and hurry and we announced Brian for this. Sorry for the error.

The Massey Cup awarded for best 18 hole scratch score was Colin Bluck with 83 and runner up Digs
Little with 86.

The Walton Cup went to Debbie Bomyer with a magnificent 40 points over 18 holes just edging out Brian
Bamber.

We also had prizes for longest drive in the morning and afternoon won by Colin (am) and yours truly in
the afternoon. NTP went to Jim Moffatt in the morning and Paul Bamber in the afternoon. Birdie 2’s
were won by Ian Whitely, Colin Bluck and myself.

Special mention goes to the good sports who propped us all up all day and so it was my pleasure to
present the wooden spoons to Gavin and Howard and especially to Dan who played well on the day but
who had reminded me that in fairness, he had been doing that job over a few comps previously!
Finally, it was my pleasure to present a small token to the first members of OUGS in attendance to be
admitted to our Hall of Fame. This is something we have initiated for the anniversary year and hope it
will continue in recognition of those people who made a major contribution to our society since its
inception and remain involved now. We hope to make this something that going forward, current
members can nominate people for, for different reasons. It will eventually make its way on to the
website and we will update it. But for now, we have inducted Jim, Jill and Colin for some very obvious
reasons and sincere gratitude for all they have done and continue to do. I look forward to sharing some
more memories, photos and ditties with you over the rest of the season. Thanks again for your

cooperation in keeping to times, taking photos and ensuring that it was possible for us all to be in a
relatively confined space after a hot day and no showers and remain friends!