A beautiful day greeted us at Temple today. Bright blue skies and glistening white slopes reminded us of those halcyon days of long ago when our knees were in one piece and such conditions would have found us at the top of the Saulire in Courchevel contemplating the piste down to Meribel. The closest we get to being on the piste these days in when we have overdone the medicinal brandy.
Eleven Ballbashers turned out to compete for the first Frostbite League game. Eleven! A few years ago we would have been lucky to have three. It must be because they have moved Countdown from the morning TV schedules. Anyway the balls were thrown and Roger, Bill and I were the 3-ball leading off, followed by Mikes/Stuart with Pete/RobM who were followed in turn by Alan/JohnT with Nick/RobA.
I would like to claim that the reason for our dismal score compared with the rest of the teams is that, in going out first, we had the worst of the conditions but given that we were only 5 minutes ahead of the next group, I will probably have to find another reason.
We started OK with 3 points on the 1st hole but subsequent team scores of 1, 1, and 0 really did nothing to further our cause. By now we had got stuck into a very interesting conversation in which we were comparing notes about our sundry medical conditions – these days this sort of conversation can last 7 holes quite easily without any fear of repetition other than to shout Snap! occasionally when you get a precise match.
Bill had started with 4 straight blobs and I expect him to quite surprised to find that his handicap has gone down. This is due to the calculus on which the BHS is based. I suggest that, before he fires off another “Angry of the Thicket” email to our newly relaxed Handicapping Secretary, he should first consult with the good Dr JohnS who has much experience of this strange phenomen and who will be able to forward to Bill many pages of A4 in which the Handicapping Secretary has “explained” how this has come to pass.
As a team we realised, quite correctly as it turned out, that 16 points on the front 9 would be insufficient to gain us many BashCoins and set out on the back 9 with the intention of remedying that. By now though we had moved off medical matters to trying to work out which of Johnson and Djokovic has the feebler powers of recall. They are probably interchangeable and though Boris might struggle against Federer, Djokovic could probably give Angela Rayner a run for her money.
Our attempts to improve our score on the back 9 foundered in a miasma of could have, should have, would have been better to have taken any other club than the one selected and we struggled to 18 points. Roger took immediate action and went straight from the 18th green to the Pro’s Shop to book himself into the winter offer of 4 lessons for the price of 3. The first lesson will probably be spent persuading him not to take the 3-wood in bunkers but we shall see.
The denouement revealed that the classy field behind us had had no trouble scoring at all. Their team scores were:
MikeS and Stuart 20 + 21 = 41, Alan and JohnT 21 + 19 = 40, PeteF and RobM 21 + 15 = 36, RobA and Nick 18 + 18 = 36, and Roger, Bill and me 16 + 18 = 34.
Individual scores were: Alan and MikeS 37, RobA and Stuart 33, Richard 29, JohnT 28, PeteF and RobM 27, Roger 21, Bill 20 and Nick 18.
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