Last updated on August 5, 2021
Once again the Ballbashers enjoyed a fantastic trip to Seaford – the course, the weather, the food and most particularly the attitude of the staff who served us were all truly excellent. The quality of the dinner for the 10 of us was just amazing.
Ashley decided to split the 10 of us into 5 pairs which worked really well and got away from debates about the relative fairness or otherwise of the handicaps given to the 3-balls. On the first day Ashley and Nick went out first followed by Stuart/MikeS and Bill/me and we, in turn, were followed by Alan/Rob and Pete/Malcolm.
On neither day were we held up or pressured from behind by any other golfers and the sun shone continuously as we enjoyed those magnificent views of the South Downs behind us and the sea to the south.
On Day 1 Pete and Malcolm established a strong lead with 42 points, followed by Mike/Stuart on 39, Bill/me and Ashley/Nick on 35 and Alan/Rob on 33. Nobody managed to get on the NP green or even the NPin2 green but Stuart did manage to get a drive on the fairway to win the LD competition. We had a small problem trying to determine whether or not Stuart or I had gone further which we resolved in the end by working out who was nearer the pin – that being the only measurement we had. Later debate on this subject seemed to decide that this was the best way of resolving any such problems when it is not clear who has gone furthest, but it should not be the prime method.
After golf we had the traditional putting competition on the practice green -somewhat delayed by someone who shall remain nameless realising that they would need a golf ball as well as their putter. This was won by Pete/Malcolm by one shot from all of the rest of us who finished on par – unsurprisingly, the extra putting practice did not seem to improve the performance out on the course on Day 2.
The aforesaid excellent dinner followed and then, in a break with tradition, most BBs decided to go to bed at about 10:45 rather than face an infinite game of snooker stretching into the small hours. A trio decided that the tradition of drinking into the small hours should be very much upheld with the expected results on the golf course the following day as far as my partner was concerned.
The lead that Pete and Malcolm took into Day 2 proved to be decisive as they added another 32 points to finish 1st with 74,while Mike & Stuart added 30 to have 69, Alan and Rob added a majestic 35 to finish with 68, Bill/me, 32 to total 67, and Ashley/Nick, 30 to total 65.
Once again nobody managed to get on the Par 3 to win the NP despite us choosing a much easier target, Rob easily won the NPin2 on a 200 yard Par 3 and Alan won the LD on the 1st hole despite Stuart hitting his provisional much further having struck his 1 st drive in the direction of Dover.
So congratulations are due to Ashley for organising another great Sand Bucket trip and to Pete and Malcolm for winning the coveted Sand Bucket.
