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. 

    

 Swindle Results Wednesday 3rd Sept

Everyone got up on Wednesday morning to check the weather forecast and work on an acceptable excuse not to play. Several drop outs got it wrong on this occasion as the weather defied expectation and rain only appeared as the last group came off the 18th green.

The recent rain has transformed the fairways - they are now green! 

Joint winners this week were a pair of T's with Tony and Tom scoring 39 points in breezy conditions. £14 each for the coffers. The front 9 was won on count back by Colin with 20pts (£5). Sameer edged it on the back 9 with 22pts (£5) and has an impressive 36.7 stapleford average for the last 6 outings - it has not gone unnoticed! 

No change in the Red Division as Ali Robertson just ticking along nicely to maintain his long established lead. The tactics in the Blue Division appear to be the leaders are waiting for conditions to improve before venturing out!

Chris Manners made a welcome return after a 9 weeks absence with an EAGLE on the 12th hole.  

                                                                        Nice Work!

Team Swindle on August 27th - Results

Despite being warned that 5 holes would be closed, it transpired all holes were playable albeit there were 2 temporary greens. The team competition was therefore played over 16 holes, with individual scores counting towards the team prizes but not for the leaderboard averages. Which was just as well for some!

First things first - congratulations to Iain Pritchard, who joined the Hole-in-One club by sinking his tee-shot on the 7th. That makes him the 8th Wednesday Swindler to achieve the feat.

In the main event, the overwhelming winner was Team H, comprising Tony Coomber, Dave Smith and Iain Pritchard, with Chris Butler as score helper. A fiver each for the four of them. The team scores were:-

Team H - 96
Team A - 86
Team D - 85
Team B - 84
Team C - 83
Team G - 77
Team F - 76
Team E - 75

Not even close! Jimbo scooped a fiver for another fine 40 point score for the stapleford prize, with Colin Stickland winning £4 for nearest-the-pin-in-2 on the 18th green. Colin tells me he even hit the flag. Ever the lucky one our Colin - we're assuming it would have otherwise ended up in the water...

Hall Trophy

With Kim defeating Dave Clarke by a comfortable margin, the semi-final lineup is now complete. Kim will play Steve Mummmery, while Ali will play Chris Manners. A great couple of match-ups!

Stop Press - upcoming Swindle on Wednesday August 27th

The club has announced that the 5 holes with the fancy new bunkers will be out of play completely next Wednesday to allow the concrete bunker liners to cure properly.

We will still play a team swindle on Wednesday, albeit over only 13 holes. The Boss will confirm on the day but most likely it will be only £1 to play and the scores won't count against averages. So just a bit of fun, and the 19th will be an extended affair!

Wednesday Swindle Results for August 20th

Another high-scoring day, with an average of over 35 points, saw Jeff Titman take the honours with a splendid 44 points, giving him £20 and a 3-stroke cut. Jeff was closely followed by Paul Berendt and Colin Stickland on 42 points for £5 each and a 4-week cut of 1 stroke. All 3 rounds were notable for their somewhat lopsided nature - Jeff and Paul both scored 25 points on the back nine, while Colin got 24. That is some serious scoring!

Fresh from his Andlaw Trophy glory as skipper of the Grands Crus, Dave The Sommelier blasted 22 points on the back nine for a fiver. The front nine was won on 20 points after a count-back, Dave Robson just easing out the Brynmeister.

Temporary greens on the 14th (where Bryn very nearly managed to nail one of the diggers) and on the 16th (where there was no work at all going on - hmm...) added an extra dimension to the round. Some took it in their stride - there were birdies for both Daves, Smith and Reynolds, on the 16th. For others, let's just say there were some choice words uttered about the state of the temporary "greens". Nuff said.

The leaderboards have now been updated, with little change at the very top. Ali is still way out in front in RED, whilst in BLUE the battle royale between Robin Bull and Jimbo continues unabated. Robin currently has the lead by a hundredth of a stroke! Dave Reynolds' recent run of form has seen him surge up the BLUE leaderboard to be hot on the heels of Kelvin who retains 3rd place, but only just.

One Hall Trophy result to report was a 2-up victory for Chris Manners over Dave Reynolds. Chris becomes the second confirmed semi-finalist.

Finally, the day also saw us welcome 5 potential new swindlers. We trust they enjoyed their day, and will be back!

 Robert Andlaw Trophy - Wed 13th Aug

The annual trophy was up for grabs again on this occasion contested between the vintage Grand Cru and the unrefined Plonkers! Although a welcome attendee JC (Irn Cru) had passed the corkscrew to the Sommelier for 2025 and what a fine job he made of it. The organisation was great and £450 was collected toward the nominated charities - thanks to everyone for your contributions and to Kelvin for donating the wine for the 'nearest the pin' on the 3rd and 17th holes won by Eugene and Kim respectively. 

The golf was split into 9 hole Greensomes in the morning then singles match play (90%) in the afternoon. Some of the highlights for the day were:

Greensomes: Grand Cru 1 Plonkers 4

The Grand Cru teams were poorly blended and bottled it badly.

Singles Match Play: Grand Cru 8, Halved matches 2, Plonkers 3.  

The Hick-meister defends a 20 shot difference against Iain.

Kelvin scores 46 stapleford pts to ease past PBI.

David Cheek defeats Peter Miller in mystery game.

Colin Stickland 7 up after 9 holes against JC (maybe 27 HC was right!!), game over after 11th hole!

Bribery with Hobnobs just doesn't work! The Boss nips in on the 18th despite DD's 2 net 1 on the 14th. 

Bob Bright (17 HC) plays a blinder but loses out to Jeff winning his 5 shot holes. 

The overall result went the way of Grand Cru by 10-8 leaving the Plonkers well and truly corked.

Fancy dress outfits were rewarded with new golf balls with the usual contenders Bob B, Iain P, Kelvin S putting on a good show. An enjoyable day attended by 26 Swindlers.

 

 Eugene, has been tasked with organising a Swindle challenge between the Monday and Wednesday swindle groups. A date will be advised asap, likely a Tues or Thurs in Sept. 

 

 Swindle Results Wednesday 6th Aug

Firstly well done to Steve Mummery who beat Tony Coomber on the 18th hole to be the first player through to the Qtr Finals of the Hall Trophy.

In the Swindle the day was dominated by our resident Sommelier cruising home with a mighty 46 points!! The disappointment of blobbing the easy 12th hole was made up by birdies on the 17th and 18th holes. Well done Mr Reynolds, £22 - another entry in the Hall of Fame.

Sameer nipped in with 39 pts for 2nd place and £14 - it's been a long wait to get on the rostrum. He was so excited he nearly bought a drink with the winnings! The third placers Steve Mummery and Jim Morrison just missed out on 38pts but were happy with the ' more money and no cut approach'.

The front 9 was won with 21pts (Robin) and the back 9 with 22pts (Jeff T) his 5th front or back 9 win this year.

Next week we have our annual Robert Andlaw Trophy day. All the matches are loaded on the Swindle spreadsheet so tee times and opponents can be seen. The first Greensomes match starts at 10.36. Well done to David for organizing the event and we look forward to a visit from JC. Don't forget to empty out your piggy banks so we can try and beat last year's charity fund raising.