September 9 - 11 2005 - Yorkshire
Winner Mick Parkin at Drighlington Golf Club, Yorkshire
Friday 9th September
Friday's course this year was Bingley St. Ives. With a first tee-off time of 11:00am and bacon sandwiches at 10:30am it was an early start with many people leaving about 6am to arrive on time. Everyone had looked forward to playing this course again as it offers many challenges, especially out on the top of the course with heather in front of the tees, and between fairways. The weather on the journey to the course was pretty miserable, with quite heavy rain. Thankfully the rain cleared somewhat by the time everyone arrived.
It didn't take long for the banter to start, when munching through our bacon butties it was remarked that Mick was a spitting image of the guy on the KFC advert, to which everyone agreed, and much fun was had as Mick also said that many other people had also commented on this!
The golf was good, although many had an iteresting time with the heather. Hitan Patel started very well with an eagle at the first, and continued to have a very good round. Bipin had bet Hitesh £5 that he wouldn't break 100, and on the last hole Hitesh had a double bogey and got exactly 100.
There were only 4 groups of players that went out, but there were big gaps between the groups by the end of the round, so much so that the first group had been in the club house for over an hour and a half by the time the last group came in. This wasn't a problem as the Ashes test match was on the television, and most took advantage of the excellent food provided at the bar such as giant Yorkshire with sausage and mash for just £3.50!
See Friday's scores:
Rob, Mick, Hitan
Darren, Nitin, Hitesh
Matthew, Mark, Tim, Roger
Ken, Dinesh Bipin
After the golf we went to the Premier Travel Inn in Drighlington near Leeds where we were staying for the weekend. Attached to the Travel Inn was a Brewers Fayre pub/restaurant, where we decided to eat and stay for the rest of the night. As usual the pre-competition betting started, and all the usual bets were put in place, some with more discussions than others! The draw for the competition day took place, and as there were 15 players it was decided to have 5 3-balls. Someone suggested that we should have a team stableford competition, as well as the usual individual stableford, and that everyone should put in £2, to which everyone agreed. Roger had the idea of betting on the total number of shots for the 15 players, and that everyone should have a guess and pay £1. He bet 1500 shots, which started the ball rolling, and then everyone was trying to work out what they thought everyone else would get, and then add them all up. Bets ranged from 1450 to 1621. Bipin and Matt took this a bit far in that if the total was 1552 then Matt would give Bipin £5, if Bipin paid Matt's £1 entry fee! (or something like that anyway...)
I think we're all getting a bit old, as Darren went to bed at 10:10pm (although he wasn't feeling well), shortly followed by Hitesh at 10:15pm, and then Mark at 10:30pm, and the rest of us were in bed by midnight.
Saturday 10th September
After a night of heavy rain we were a bit concerned about playing the competition in such bad weather. However, we were lucky again, as the rain cleared as we arrived at the course. Most people found the front 9 holes much easier than the back 9, especially Hitesh who had 20 points on the front 9 and only 12 on the back 9. Back in the club house after the game, the scores were totted up, and Mick had won with 37 points playing off a handicap of 14. Mick, Hitan and Darren won the team stableford with 105 (37, 34 and 34) points. The bets were settled, and it turned out that Matt had won the sweepstake for the total number of shots, but it wasn't 1552, so he didn't have to pay Bipin either!
The results of the main competition can be seen below.
The winners of the prizes were as follows:
See Saturday's scores:
Andy, Nitin, Tim
Ed, Roger, Ken
Bipin, Matt, Mark
Darren, Mick, Hitan
Hitesh, Dinesh, Rob
It was decided that the Saturday evening was curry night, so we ordered taxis to travel the short distance into Leeds city centre. Darren was still not feeling well and decided not to come out. After a couple of drinks we decided to go to Akbars for our curry. We were told that a table wasn't available for another 25 minutes, so we decided to wait at the reception and have a drink. To our surprise in walked Malandra Burrows (Emmerdale) to try to book a table. The Patels somewhat pounced on her and asked to have a photograph taken to which she agreed (she was quite happy about this, honest, despite the "Oh my god what are these people like" expression!). If you look closely Bip is never far away...
The curry was fantastic, and we would recommend Akbars to anyone. See some of the photos below.
Sunday 11th September
Sunday's golf was played at Temple Newsam in Leeds. Darren was still not feeling well, so decided to leave before the golf and bid his farewells. We had heard reports that the Temple Newsam course was a bit rough, and that typically there were burnt out cars littered around the course. However, we had also heard reports that said in the last few years it had really been improved and cleaned up, and that this was all in the past. We did find some evidence to the contrary, but generally the course was very pleasant with some good views of the surrounding area.
Tim hit a splendid iron shot on the 10th hole which ended about 8 feet from the flag, but sadly on the 14th green, then proceeded to take 8 out of a bunker on the par 3 12th hole.
See Sunday's scores:
Roger, Andy, Matthew
Rob, Mark, Tim, Ken
Mick, Don, Bipin, Ed
Hitesh, Nitin, Hitan, Dinesh
