When there’s a cold nor-easter blowing there is nowhere more exposed than the putting green at Temple but despite this 6 BBs managed to assemble and set off for the next round of the Autumn League re-assuring ourselves that once we were down in the valley it would be positively temperate. And until we found ourselves taking the wind in our faces (on the 9th, 11th, 17th and 18th) that was almost the case. We were pleased to reach the clubhouse at the end.
The balls fell so that Peter, Rob and I formed one team and Bill, Mike and Robert the other. We wished them well as we set off and that was the last time we saw them until they turned up in the clubhouse. In the meantime we enjoyed millionaire’s golf with only a distant 2-ball in front of us as evidence that there was anyone else on the course at all – some would-be golfers had obviously read the forecast.
I had spent a few minutes practising chipping before we set off and I cannot recommend this highly enough – unlike my normal collection of slightly thinned to extremely thinned chip shots, I only did that once and I luckily managed to recover from that one OK. But the highlight of our front 9 was a team score of 7 points on the 7th hole (admittedly downwind) comprising Rob’s 4 for 4 points and a choice of Peter’s and my 3-pointers which contributed to what we thought would be a competitive team score of 42 (2 best per hole) at the halfway point.
We didn’t reach those heights on the back 9 – while I, by-and-large, trundled up the middle, my partners in their buggy travelled many miles as they zigzagged their way to the greens and we finished with 37 points.
Stuart joined us in the clubhouse and showed us his latest injury gained when he slid on wet leaves on his bike, fell off and removed most of the skin on top of his right hand. He had spent some considerable time removing gravel and trying to replace the skin in the right places before heading to the walk-in centre at Henley for which he has the highest praise.
This led to a more-than-normally prolonged discussion about medical matters and the state of the NHS during which Bill gave us a graphic description of the delights of catheters used for the administration of chemicals to difficult-to-reach parts of the body during which process he was educating the two nurses on South-Pacific history. He has to go back another 5 times which should give him time to reach Pearl Harbor. There was a short discussion on whether or not the manipulation involved could cause one to become over-excited but we quickly decided that if that was achieved, the culprit has missed their vocation and could be making a small fortune in Amsterdam’s red light district.
The team scores:
Peter, Richard & Rob: 42 + 37 = 79 (winning all of the BashCoins)
Bill, Mike & Robert: 36 + 36 = 72 (very consistent but no BashCoins)
The League scores:
Richard (40), Mike (33) – gradually working his way out of the problems caused by having a lesson, Robert (29), Peter (28), Rob (25) and Bill (22).
Next week it’s the first of the 2026/27 Tankard Series run by Ashley – always a treat!
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