Swindle Results October 9th

A slightly reduced field of 22 golfers took to the course for the latest team competition. The team scores were:-

    Team C - 101 points
    Team G - 98 points
    Team F - 97 points
    Team A - 96 points
    Team E - 89 points
    Team D - 88 points

The eagle-eyed among you will note there was no Team B. See The Boss for details.

The winning team was made up of John Barrett, Peter Miller, Dave Robson and Don Dobbs. £8 to each of them for their trouble.

The best stapleford of the day of 38 points (and by a clear 4 shots, no less) went to David Coutts, a more recent recruit to the ranks of the Wednesday Swindlers. David picked up his maiden swindle prize of £4. Likewise Peter Evans, whose 8 point haul across the 3rd, 9th and 18th holes earned him the other £4 on offer. Well done to the pair of them.

Many leaderboard contenders seem to have gone into hibernation, but not so Jimbo, who turns out come rain or shine. Sadly for him it was a bad day at the office on Wednesday, which saw his lead at the top of BLUE trimmed to a mere 0.19 points! No real change on RED, since the Hickmeister was the sole player amongst the top 6.

Final note - we are now up to 17 attendees for the annual Swindle shindig on Monday December 8th at the George in Harpenden. Get your entries in please!

 Swindle Results 20th and 22nd Oct

18 brave golfers ignored the dire weather forecast to brave an Away day at Hertsmere GC. Heavy showers at the start of play and mid round were inter dispersed with light drizzle leaving thoughts of 'we got away with it' - somewhat! 6 teams x 3 players ventured out and the Eugene, Chris Butler and Graham Waller combo with 81pts won by 2 pts (£15 each).

The conditions suited Don Dobbs (sheltering in his buggy and sporting his fisherman's attire) who picked up £5 for the best stableford score of 37pts and Ali's early bid for nearest the pin on the 11th hole never got beaten : £4.

Back to APGC for the 22nd Oct with perfect golf weather, no wind and sunshine but the 2nd lowest stableford average for 2025 of 27.9 confounded expectations. Only 7 players out of 26 who completed their rounds scored more that 30 pts. 

Newbie Gary Fowler won with 37pts (£23) and immediately picked up a 2 shot permanent cut to 12 - well done. In joint 2nd place was Tony Coomber (averaging 36.8 on his last 6 outings and on the leader board 4 times!! - noted) and Eugene who patiently waited 293 days in 2025 for a handicap rise to 6 only to see his £9 second place winnings taking him back to 5 again for the next 4 outings. It lasted all of 3 days - It's tough at the top!

Front and back 9's (£5) were won by Stuart Insall (18pts) and Jeff Titman (19pts).

Jeff has now moved up to 5th position on the Red Division. Clever tactics by non playing David Reynolds and Iain Pritchard see them move up to 2nd and 3rd in the blue division as previous incumbents faltered.

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE XMAS DINNER ON THE 8TH DEC 

 

Swindle Results October 15th

A return to form for Kelvin saw him take the win on 38 points, picking up £22 and a 3-stroke cut in the process. Kelvin will tee it up next time out with a new handicap of 26.

Second with 37 points was Trevor Hones (£11 and a 4-match cut of 1 stroke) whilst 3rd place was shared by Iain, The Boss, Pablo and Terry Cook on 35 points. A handsome £2 to each of them. At least they broke even on the day!

Front nine honours and a fiver went to David Coutts with 18 points. The back nine was won by Malcolm with 20 points.

There was a rare sighting of a certain John McCullen this week. I'm not sure all that Norfolk golf is doing him any good, judging by his performance on a proper course...

No change at all on the leaderboards this week.

Annual Swindle Dinner

So far we have 10 people signed up for the dinner on Dec 8th. We need more! Just a reminder - please put your name down by submitting an entry on the swindle website in the standard way, with 8/12/25 as the date. Thanks!

Wednesday Swindle October 8th

A relatively small field today; 24 golfers. Not sure what the rest of you were doing! Dave Smith and Tony Coomber burned up the course to share the win on 39 points. £18 and a 2-stroke cut to the pair of them. Following close behind on 38 points was Chris Manners - no prize for him (with 24 players there is only a first and second place) but Chris did have the distinction of being the first recorded Swindler to shoot 4 birdies in one round. For the record, the 5th, 9th, 15th (!!!) and 18th. Awesome display Chris!

Crofty took the fiver for the front nine with 21 points, whilst the back nine was won on countback on 19 points by David Cheek.

Yet another good round saw Ali stretch his lead in the RED division. In BLUE Jimbo is still out in front with Robin leap-frogging Kelvin to be Jim's closest challenger. Remember that the league placings are fixed after the last Swindle before the annual dinner, which this year is on Monday December 8th. Speaking of which...

2025 Annual Dinner

This year's dinner will be held at the George in Harpenden on Monday December 8th. If you would like to come, please use the standard webform to enter on that date. I've put my name in there already to start the ball rolling. Please get your name entered by the end of October if you want to come. At that point, everyone who has put their name down will be asked for menu choices - this will be via an online link.

Hall Trophy

A tight battle last week saw Ali edge out Chris Manners in the first semi-final. Ali was just pleased that Chris's birdie blitz came this week and not last! Ali will meet the winner of the second semi-final between Steve Mummery and Kim Nguyen. Once Kim has returned from representing England at football in Japan, that is!

Swindle Results October 1st

Conditions were very good - bright with very little wind. The recent damp weather also meant the greens were holding nicely. Jimbo took full advantage with an impressive haul of 42 points to take the £23 first prize, and a 4-stroke cut to boot. Jim's round was all the more impressive considering his gearbox packed up halfway up the 13th hole. Anyone who's ever had to push their motorised trolley up cardiac hill without the motor will have a good deal of respect for Jim's exertions!

Ali, Kelvin and Tony shared the runners up spot with 41 points, for £6 each and a 4-round cut of 1 stroke. Front nine honours and a fiver went to Trevor Hones with 21 points. Gus took the prize for the back nine with 20 points.

On the RED leaderboard, Ali has consolidated his lead and is now looking very hard to catch. In BLUE, Kelvin's stellar round this week sees him leapfrog long-time contender Robin to take 2nd spot. Jimbo remains the man to catch though, especially after his win this week.

Parish Notices

Awayday at Hertsmere on October 20th - we currently have 14 names. I think the Boss said we need 18 to be viable, so lets have a few more takers please!

Next Wednesday is a cards-in round, so don't forget to register before you play.

And finally...

How good was the Ryder Cup? Some absolutely unbelievable golf played, and the right result in the end though it was a nervous watch at times!

Team Swindle Results - Wednesday September 24th

It was a case of quadruple-jeopardy on the par 3 holes yesterday. The Boss's latest fiendish scoring system for the team competition meant at least one of each fourball had to get their ball on the green, otherwise - nul points! This caught out many a team, although in the end the range of scores was actually quite tight:-

    Team F - 98 points
    Team B - 97 points
    Team E - 94 points
    Team D - 89 points
    Team C - 88 points
    Team A - 87 points
    Team G - 86 points

The winners for £11 each were Trevor Hones, Ali, Sameer and Kim. Well done to them all.

Highest individual stapleford scorers were Martin Davies and Tony Coomber, with splendid tallies of 42 points for the princely prize of £3.50 each. For both Martin and Tony this was a season's best score - great stuff.

Finally instead of nearest-the-pin, another quirk of imagination from the Boss saw £5 awarded to the swindler with the best aggregate points total for holes 5, 14 and 18. This prize was blitzed by Dom Johnson with a superb tally of 9 points. Pretty nigh unbeatable I would say!

Awayday

Get your entries submitted in the usual way for Monday October 20th if you fancy playing an Awayday at Hertsmere GC, which is in Radlett. A nice course and worth an outing, I'm told. £50 will cover your round, bacon butties and prize money for the day. 

Last but not least our very best wishes go to Alex Hall, who is currently having a tough time of things. We're all thinking of you Alex - all the best.

 Wednesday Swindle Results 17th Sept

A mizzly day didn't deter 26 players heading out for a challenge on the hollow-tined greens although putting proved somewhat tricky.  Kim blitzed the back 9 with 22 pts likewise Jim on the front 9 with 21 pts both picking up the prescribed £5 winnings.

A trio of 37 pointers just missed out on a share of 3rd place spoils leaving Ali and The Boss claiming £3 each for their 38pts. Second place not too surprisingly went to Kelvin playing off !!!??! for £11 and a 1 shot cut for the next 4 weeks. Top dog for the 1st time this year was Sameer with a 2 blob 41pts. His £21 winnings did at least go towards a round of drinks - we toast your 4 shot cut to 29 next time out!

No change to the top 3 in the Red Division although Eugene has moved up to 4th place.

New leader in the Blue Division is now Jim Morrison with 2nd to 4th places closely bunched up.

Couple of dates for the diary to be confirmed hopefully next week:

Xmas dinner Monday 8th Dec at the George in Harpenden.

Golf Away Day at Hertsmere GC Monday 20th Oct. £51 for 18 holes + Bacon Roll / Coffee.

The Challenge match between the Monday and Wednesday Swindles was lost 5.5 to 1.5 without any Wed pairing winning! Tks to Eugene for helping to organise the event that was despite the scoreline very enjoyable. 

 Wednesday Swindle Results 10th Sept

Once again the forecast was totally wrong with only a 10 minute shower troubling the 30 players who braved the weather. Peter Miller secured his 2nd win this year with 39 pts and bagged £22 in the process, now playing off 16; 6 shots lower than his start 2025 handicap. The unflappable Ali Robertson came in second place with 37 pts (£12) and looks pretty unbeatable for the the Red Division averages. 

A trio of 36 pointers in 3rd place ; Stuart, Colin and Iain were just grateful for £3 and no cut. 

Chris Manners picked up £5 for the back 9 (19 pts on count back) and Martin Davies won the front 9 convincingly with 22 pts (£5) and will no doubt feel aggrieved that his back injury curtailed a potential winning chance.

A mention to Eugene for his 3 birdies (5,10,12) and a reminder if any other players want to participate in the Monday v Wednesday Swindle challenge on Tues 16th Sept to let Eugene know.

A significant event took place this week with Jim Morrison reaching 80 - years that is and not his 18 hole score! 2 extra shots await Jim in 2026!

Sameer would like you to put a date in your diaries for this year's Xmas Dinner - Monday 8th Dec. More news to follow on the venue and costs in due course.