Nomads Golf Society 2025

Archive for the ‘2013’ Category

THE 2013 ORDER OF MERIT

Final Positions

(Best 6 scores counting)

Finals Day

Vice-Captain’s Ramblings:

6th December 2013

https://www.facebook.com/groups/117975841592650/

High above the cities of Bristol and Bath, the latest round of the 2013 Nomads Tour saw twenty-seven members take-on the tight tree-lined fairways of Lansdown which runs alongside Bath Racecourse. The rain came and fortunately it went just as the last group teed-it up on the 1st, and the weather turned into a nice late summers day.

This competition is named Links Pairs and is usually played on the seashore, but with good eyesight the Bristol Channel could be seen from some holes. Taking the Pairs spoils was the ever consistent pair of John Essom and Adie Shilston whose 72 points put them four ahead of second placed Guy Greening and Darren Williams with Bob Hale and James Farley a further shot back.

On the individual front it was Bob’s score of 41 points giving him the money, whilst the other competitions; Nearest the Pin went to Stuart Perry, Longest Drive to Manny Virdi and the Par 3 prize also went to Bob.

Following the excellent meal of Steak and Ale Pie, with Apple Pie for dessert it was the traditional presentation and Captain’s speech with the monthly Raffle of a four-ball at the course won by Jitesh Mistry.

An earlier in the year visit than usual to the tree-lined fairways of the championship Old Course, host of many previous European Tour events and graced by some of the world’s top players including Ian Woosnam, Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer; all previous winners here.

None of those names however have  managed to emulate the feat of Phil Robbins who has retained the Nomads St. Pierre Trophy, a framed print of the famous 18th hole. Phil’s score of 37 points saw him beat Adie Shilston on count-back with Tony Burris in 3rd place.

The other competitions saw Guy Greening take the nearest the pin, Michael Griffiths the longest drive and Phil also won the par 3 prize. Divisional competitions were won by Derek Freeman-Jones (1), Mark Willicott (2), Ged Wrench (3) and Guy Greening (4).

Stand-in skipper, vice-captain Jon Ager done the honours for the presentation and the day was rounded off with a meal of sausage and mash and a raffle for a prize of a four-ball on the Old Course, kindly presented by the club which was won by Tony Griffiths. There was a special presentation of red Nomads caps to Ged, Mark and Darren Williams on reaching 50 appearances for the society, and as always, a warm welcome to our newest member Ian King, hope you enjoyed the day.

Scores:

Scores

 July 19th 2013

Home member Jitesh Mistry made the most of his course knowledge with an excellent score of 42 points over the Bristol course on a blistering summers day just beating Adie Shilston on countback. Third place went to the consistent and OOM leader Damian Orton with 40 points.

Nearest the Pin was won by Wayne Stewart, Longest Drive by Darren Williams and the Par 3 competition by Damian.

The divisional prizes were won by Darren (Div 1), James Farley (Div 2), Ged Wrench (Div 3) and John Essom (Div 4).

The top 5 in the Order of Merit following this round are:

Scores:

Friday, 21st June 2013

The latest round of the 2013 Nomads Tour was played over the watery fairways of the Lakes Course at the Vale of Glamorgan.

A fantastic performance by Damian Orton saw him take the spoils with a great score of 42 points, ahead of Tony Burris on 39 and Guy Greening with 37.

Nearest the Pin was won by captain, Gary O’Connell, Longest Drive by Darren Williams and the Par 3 competition by Damian.

The divisional winners were: Steve Graham (Div 1), Wayne Stewart (Div 2), Ged Wrench (Div 3) and Mark Gardiner (Div 4).

Scores:

Friday, 24th May 2013

Another great day-out with the Nomads Golf Society on the Montgomerie Course at the fabulous Celtic Manor Resort. The weather, heavy winds and occasional showers and otherwise sunny spells affected the scoring and made this a difficult day.

As this event replaced the scheduled visit to the Celtic Manor in January, the Captain’s Drive was won by Adrian Shilston.

Darren Williams came out on top just beating Mark Willicott on count-back with newcomer Andy Alexander in third place. Nearest the Pin was won by Jitesh Mistry, the Longest Drive by Andy Alexander and the Par 3 competition was shared by Mark Willicott and Simon Howlett.

The divisional winners were; Derek Freeman-Jones (Div 1), James Farley (Div 2), Stuart Perry (Div 3) and John Essom (Div 4).

The day was ended with a lovely 3-course meal of Carrot and Coriander Soup, Chicken and vegetables and a Lemon Parfait to finish.

Here are the scores:

Friday, 27th April 2013

Cottrell Park, Cardiff

Celts 11.5 – Saxons 9.5

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151658594252664&set=oa.516476118409285&type=1&theater

The Captain’s Write-up

Arriving just after 8am and turning onto the course, it was an impressive 0.7 miles to the clubhouse, it was all very picturesque  with the course either side of the long drive looking in very impressive and very nicely maintained. We were not to be disappointed as the day progressed.

I had quite a busy start to begin with – as normally Simon appears with all the scores ready to go and proceeds to get the scorecards updated etc. But today we had a phone call from Simon at 8.45 am with which he termed a ‘sat nav’ malfunction – which had taken him to a similar named course the wrong side of Bath (especially for getting to Cardiff) !! Well I think he had enough stick on the day,  to mention this much more here and all I can say it that Lewis Hamilton would have been proud of his driving skills as he arrived just in time to join his group on the tee as they were ready to go! (having switched that grouping to last) . One final mention is that I think he used the same sat nav  during his  round, given some of the positions I saw him looking for his ball on the course!

Anyway we were very lucky with the weather, just 3 minutes of hail (well just enough time for Surj to get his wet gear on, before it stopped!)  Excellent result for golfing in Wales, the strong wind that seemed to be mostly in your face for much of both the rounds  and temperatures in the shade of the wind was almost spring like, but when the sun temporarily disappeared behind a cloud and the wind blew it brought back memories of Forest Hills!

Highlights from the day were:

–          Rowland chipping in from 100yds – well we heard Ged his partner shouting and assumed it had to be his partner Rowland and it was!

–          Some very tight games which changed momentum almost hole by hole and the most amazing being Mark Graham who was 4 down after 10 holes, then making a comeback against Surj such that he was 1 up after the 16^th – only for Mark to fluff the last 2 holes and Surj coming away with the afternoon points.

–          There were also some major turnarounds in form between the morning and afternoon games and well done for Steve Morgan and Horace Denny for warming up to the task and only just missing out on points in the afternoon on the 17^th and 18^th greens respectively and a very good win for Andrew Gardiner (Rich Allen you knew it would have to be mentioned).

–          The sh*ttiest shot of the day has to be vice captain JonAger  in the morning Greensomes (who spared us some relief by not wearing the lime green trousers), when Damien his partner managed to catch the ball with the bottom of the club on a short  chip to the green –s o the ball ended up about 30 yards behind the green in the rough on what could only be termed a massive pile of cow sh*t; Jon didn’t want to let his partner down by taking a drop (excuse the pun), so took on the shot (which he said afterwards had to be taken quickly as he was sinking as he stood ready to take the shot); well the only other thing to add to a good shot (all things considered) was the after-effect of playing such a shot when there is a strong wind in your face ( I think Matt Bond my partner, is still laughing now).

Anyway after the morning session, which I had been told by John and Damian looked like it was 4- 3 to the Celts. Only to find at the end that it was in fact 4-3 to the Saxons.

After lunch of sandwiches and chips, the Mackintosh beckoned and we were away just after 2pm the wind had become slightly stronger and because we were having a staggered lunch we didn’t have to tee off in front of the full gallery of players.

Anyway the course made it a real challenge with lots of blind doglegs for the 2^nd shots and Damian Orton was continuing to play well with “4 putts to get a net par” on one green. His game with Matt Bond was a real roller coaster ride, which went all the way to the 18^th with a massive slice of luck for Damian on the last after bouncing of the wall on the road back to the club house to within 10 yds of the pin! I managed a good finish to just sneak ahead of John with win of the 17^th.

The only other brief point of mention of Jon again taking his 5 wood on the 165 yd downhill par 3 – which would have been spot on if the wind hadn’t stopped blowing the exact point he made the shot – he managed to fire his ball to land on the road between 2 cars travelling at speed to the clubhouse who were no more than 10 feet apart much to the relief of Jon.

Anyway the scores were counted and the end result was a win for the Celts 11.5 – 9.5 – very close in the end –  think of all those matched that had all the twists and turns – one of those going the other way for the Saxons then it would have been a draw!!

So overall since its inception in 2000 the score now stand at Celts 6.5 – Saxons 6.5!!

The evening meal was a bit later than we had hoped – but well worth the wait with Wayne adequately finishing off all the spare meals – he must need all the energy for all those runs he does.

So points of note for the day are:

–          Thanks to James and his two mates Andy and Darren for coming along at the last minute to ensure we had full strength teams. After the event they said that we were the friendliest Society that they have played with.

–          Get the event on Calendar for future years – everybody was impressed by the courses (both golf and food!)

–          The official photographer (Jitesh) had to leave early, surprisingly there was nobody volunteered to fill the void in his absence. So he needs a appoint a deputy!

–          As Matt pointed out that one of the best shots of the day was paying for buggies as it was a long really long walk, especially between some of the holes.

–          Have a thought for Andy (James’ friend), who had told his other half that he was off to play 9 holes of golf – so explaining why he was arriving home after 11pm was going to be an interesting conversation.

–          It was pointed out that there seems to be a very high correlation between when the Celts win and when Tony doesn’t play! We will have to save up to send him for a golf holiday next year!

Also thanks to the staff of CottrellPark who were very accommodating and made the whole event very enjoyable.

Finally, hope all is well with Manny – hope to see you back as part of the Society very soon.

A long but very enjoyable day that started just before 7 am and finished on arrival home just before 11 pm!

Scores:

The greensome scores were:

Jon Ager & Damian Orton vs Gary O’Connell & Matt Bond – Celts won by 2&1

Rowland Joyce and Ged Wrench vs Darren Williams & Adrian Jones – Celts won by 4&3

Tony Burris & Mark Graham vs Jitesh Mistry & Surjit Halaith – Saxons won by 2&1

Mike Woodman & Darren Collier vs James Farley & Andy Alexander – Celts won by 4&3

John Essom & Rich Allen vs Wayne Stewart & Andrew Gardiner – Saxons won by 4&3

Guy Greening & Mark Willicott vs Steve Morgan & Horace Denny – Saxons won by 6&5

Simon Howlett & Stuart Perry vs Derek Freeman-Jones & John Thomas – Saxons won 3&2

The singles scores were:

Jon Ager vs Gary O’Connell – Celts won 2&1

Damian Orton vs Matt Bond – Saxons won 1 hole

Rowland Joyce vs Darren Williams – Celts won 2&1

Ged Wrench vs Adrian Jones – Saxons won 1 hole

Tony Burris vs Jitesh Mistry – Match halved

Mark Graham vs Surjit Halaith – Celts won 1 hole

Mike Woodman vs James Farley – Celts won 4&2

Darren Collier vs Andy Alexander – Celts won 3&2

John Essom vs Wayne Stewart – Saxons won 3&2

Rich Allen vs Andrew Gardiner – Celts won 5&3

Guy Greening vs Steve Morgan – Saxons won 2&1

Mark Willicott vs Horace Denny – Saxons won 1 hole

Simon Howlett vs Derek Freeman Jones – Celts won 5&4

Stuart Perry vs John Thomas – Celts won 3&1

Winners of the nearest the pin competitions were: Damian Orton (x2), Darren Williams (x2), Matt Bond, Jitesh Mistry, Rowland Joyce & Mike Woodman. Rich Allen won the star prize of £25 golf tee vouchers for nearest the pin with the second shot on the 18th hole in the morning course.