Thirty-seven gentlemen of 'a certain age' congregated at the club on Tuesday, December 16, to play in a Texas Scramble, sit down to lunch and later find out about the state of play in several ongoing competitions. The weather was very kind to the players, little or no wind, not too cold - and no sun in the eyes on the lemf!

The Stableford scramble was played with teams of three and four - and no matter what the R and A may say about the compensating handicap formula, Newman Vincent (a renowned and highly qualified teacher of mathematics) will demonstrate clearly that the team of four have a definite advantage! Suffice it to say that the top three places went to teams of four, while both Newman and I were in a team of three - I rest my case!

The FOUR winners were Alan Jones, Steve Sutcliffe, Jim Martin and Bart Youll with a great score of 40 points. The FOUR in second place were Robin Hagley, Peter Williams, Brian Diment and Dudley Williams, also scoring 40 points, but losing out on countback. Third place went to this FOUR, Mel Neale, Paul Bradley, Derek Cole and John Charnock.

You will see the beaming faces of most of these QUARTETS among the plethora of photographs that adorn this article.

I am, however, getting ahead of myself, as we only learned of this result after dining on a very acceptable lunch of haute cuisine sausages, mash and onion gravy - devoured to the last scrap by an appreciative clientele. Jim Martin had been coaxing results out of the computer, primarily the scramble, but also the sort of 'half term' standings - so here they are:

Winter Eclectic Nett competition - 1. Derek Cole, 2. Bob Howse, 3. Bill Davies.

Winter Eclectic Gross competition - 1. Jim Moffatt, 2. Allen Watts, 3. Bob Howse.

The Colin Griffiths Trophy - 1. Peter Woodhouse, 2. Dudley Williams, 3. Mike Fox

Seniors Order of Merit - 1. Bill Davies, 2. Jim Moffatt, 3. Martin Neilan

The Ken Goldsbrough Rose Bowl - 1. Peter Woodhouse, 2. Dudley Williams, 3. Ron Murphy.

These competitions, along with the eclectic, continue in the New Year, when I shall return from a continental holiday keen to fight my way up the tables and even keener to progress in the press! See you then!

M.F.