Swindle News September 23rd - record equalling round!

Like the proverbial London bus, no sooner did one stellar round come along than it was closely followed by another. First up was the Hickmeister with a wonderful gross 73. He only dropped shots to gross par on 2 holes - a bogey somewhere on the front nine, and then an overcooked shot into the wind costing him a double-bogey at the 18th. All the other holes were pars or birdies. A par on the last would have seen Eugene post the first sub-par round in swindle history. In any case, chapeau Monsieur le Hick!

Then... wonder of wonders, in came Ali with a gross 72, the joint lowest gross round ever for a Wednesday swindler. Ali's highlights included 3 straight birdies on 8, 9 and 10. A truly magnificent achievement - well done Ali! An entry on the hall of fame, and a tag on the home page. Immortality!

Ali's 44 points took home £22 and a 1-shot cut to +7. Eugene's 42 points earned him £12 and a 4-week 1-shot cut to +6. In joint 3rd for £3 each with highly creditable 41 pointers were The Boss and David Coutts. Rounding off the prizes were Colin for £4 with 21 on the front nine and Steve Mummery for £4 with 22 on the back nine.

The average score this week was 36.8 which means my best-of-the-season 37 points was no more than a smidge abover average. And I thought the greens were a nightmare - what do I know!

Hall Trophy - Match Report

A heavyweight clash between Steve Mummery and The Don was witnessed by your correspondent, and what a match it was! Steve birdied the first (albeit a traffic cone) to go one up, then promptly handed it back on the 2nd by playing the wrong ball! Steve then won the next 2 holes before being pegged back at the 5th. It was back and forth after that, Don finally nosing into the lead early in the back nine. Steve's customarily doughty play had Don scrambling hard to stay ahead, but he held on, just. Then at the 16th Don had a putt to go dormie 2, but missed! Panic stations on the 17th, as Don drove sideways into the undergrowth - all square going down the last! Don sliced his drive before slicing his approach to somewhere near the water, while Steve serenely played to the edge of the green in 2. I swear Don's ball was hanging on a blade of grass over the pond, but he somehow played a fluff shot and landed about 12 feet from the pin. After Steve made the par, Don needed to make the putt to take the match to sudden death. And he holed it! So off they went, where Don prevailed on the 2nd. Well done to both of them for a great match - Don now goes on to face Tom in the quarter-final, with the winner of that one to play Kelvin.

Parish Notices

Awayday

The next Awayday will be at Whipsnade Golf Club on Monday 2nd November from 10am. The cost is £36 for tea/coffee on arrival and 18 holes. The chef doesn't work on a Monday so there is no food on offer. Get yourselves signed up on the website as normal, if you'd like to play.

Captain's Charity Raffle

For those of you not playing in the Seniors Charity Day on 6 October who would like to be in the draw to win a new TaylorMade Spider TourX Putter, tickets are £10 each with all proceeds going to Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care.

£10 paid into the APGC SENIOR SECTION account: Sort Code 309390  Account Number 00246804 with 'PUTTER' as the reference, and you are in!

And lastly, should you wish to donate towards raffle prizes or items for auction, please contact Jim McGown or Glen or alternatively leave in the Pro Shop and they will collect.

Annual Awards Dinner

More details nearer the time, but Sameer is on the case and has booked the Plough and Harrow in Harpenden for Wednesday December 9th. Get the date in your diaries!

 

Swindle Report September 16th

A novel experience this week involved starting on the 10th hole, aiming at traffic cones on a couple of shortened holes and one hole (the 7th) going AWOL entirely. There was much debate around how to score on the traffic cones, with the final ruling being that if you hit the cone, the ball was deemed holed. An interesting interpretation, given that some players were pinging them in from miles out and bagging big points! Still, rules is rules, and no matter if nearly a quarter of the field birdied the first hole!

The main beneficiary was Chris "I'll have you" Butler who scored a quite mind-boggling 47 points. We are not worthy! £21 and a 3-shot cut to 24 was Chris' reward. There was another stellar score for 2nd place with David Coutts scoring 45 points and winning a handsome £12. In 3rd place for £7 with another great score, 42 points, was Mark Thompson. 40 points was crazily only good enough for joint 4th place, with Trevor Hones, David Cheek and Ali all breaking even on the day with their 2 quid each.

Peter Miller blitzed the front nine in 26 for a fiver and PBI shot 22 points to win the back nine fiver.

Leaderboards

The only real change this week was Ali gliding into 3rd place and a podium position on the red leaderboard. Jeff Titman still leads the way but can Ali mount a late charge for the title?

Heads Up - Charity Raffle

Glen Rootman has asked me to tip you all the wink that as part of his charity fund-raising he will be raffling a brand new TaylorMade Spider putter,of the exact type used by both Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. Quite a prize! If you fancy your chances, raffle tickets are a tenner. Just see Glen.

 Swindle Result 9th Sept

The first trial of the 'Wednesday New Starters Stableford' kicked off without any issues. Thanks to Eugene for setting it up and the next outing will be on the 14th Oct.

The Swindle continued as usual although numbers were down to 23. Scoring has dipped with the ball holding on fairways and greens. Dom pinched the back 9 on count back from 5 others - 19pts & £5. More convincingly Paul Matthews was home on his own with 20pts & £5 for the front 9.

Only 2 prizes on offer today for full rounds with Graham Waller and David Reynolds in 2nd place receiving £5 each for their 1 shot cuts.

The biggest surprise came with The Boss winning on 37pts (£20) his first win since the 12th Feb 2025!! A 2 shot cut sees his handicap back to a more respectable 13.

Only 1 change in the Red / Blue Divisions with Eugene jumping up to 5th just ahead of Peter Evans.    

 Swindle results 2nd Sept

With a few exceptions the drizzle dampened the spirits and the scoring today. There was not a single place change in either the Red or Blue Divisions with 17 of the 26 players scoring between 30 - 35 stableford points. 20 points won the front and back 9's with £5 heading to Ali and Peter Evans.

Eugene decided winning £6 for his 3rd place 38pts was better than getting a shot back, but 77 gross equaled his best round on a Wednesday this year.

Dom scored 39 points for 2nd place and collected £12 maintaining a good run of late.

The win and a maiden 2026 one at that went to Rory on 43 points - £22. Alas a 5 shot cut takes him back to his start 2026 handicap of 39, however an excellent round nevertheless - is there more to come?

Don't forget next week to sign in on the PSI for the Wednesday 'New Starters' Swindle Stableford before play - then record your score before handing in your signed & marked card back to the Organiser (no guesses who that is!). 

 

Swindle Team Competition August 26th

The stakes were high coming to the closing 3 holes. The Boss's challenge this time out required someone - anyone - to get an actual par, otherwise no scores counted. If someone got a par, all 4 scores counted. Alas many a challenge faltered at this stage! The winning team of course scored heavily on all 3 of holes 16-18. The results were as follows:-

  Team A - 109 points
  Team C - 99 points
  Team D - 98 points
  Team H - 92 points
  Team F - 91 points
  Team E - 88 points
  Team G - 88 points
  Team B - 86 points

The winning 4 comprised Jimbo, Martin, Chris Manners and Dom, for £12 apiece. Jimbo scored a magnificent 43 points (is there no stopping this man?) but since he was already a prizewinner, the stableford prize of £2.50 each went to Steve Mummery and new boy Simon Barbett with their 42 pointers. The fiver for nearest the pin on hole 3 went to Peter Evans.

Leaderboards

In Red, Jeff's lead was whittled slightly further by Pablo, who is on a charge. The big change this week is in Blue, where we have a new leader. With a gross round of 86, Steve Mummery has stormed to the top. Steve is closely followed by Jimbo who has also overtaken long-time leader Mike Vallance. Well done chaps!

Hall Trophy

One result to report this week with Kelvin beating Andy Wray 2&1 to reach the semi-final, where he will meet one of Don, Steve Mummery or Tom. The other semi-final is between Graham Waller and PBI.

I'll be up mountains for the next 2 weeks, so those reports will come to you from The Boss. Good luck all!

5th Robert Andlaw Trophy - Sommelier's Report

The slightly cooler weather saw a field of around 34 Swindlers participating in this year’s Robert Andlaw Trophy event.

Music from West Side Story played over the club PA System as the Jets and the Sharks assembled for the morning Greensomes.  Fancy dress was in evidence although a minor miscommunication between the organisers resulted in some confusion over team colours. It was The Jets who finished the morning ahead by 4.5 to 2.5.

All the players took advantage of the break to enjoy some lunch and a fair bit of liquid refreshment, something that may have contributed to a somewhat sluggish singles competition in the afternoon.

As the afternoon results came in, it looked like The Jets were running away with it. However, The sharks came back to level the singles competition 8.0 to 8.0, a decent effort but not enough to overturn the morning rout.

Kelvin accepted the trophy on behalf of The Jets as their Vice-Captain.

 

Most importantly, Swindlers managed to smash last year’s charity tally, raising an impressive £853 for the chosen charities, Pancreatic Cancer uk and Rennie Grove Hospice.

The prize giving saw Stuart ”Chino” Insall take the top prize for fancy dress, two jars of honey from Richard Tavener’s hives! Bryn, Kelvin, PBI and Richard picked up a sleeve of balls each for their efforts.

Nearest the pin wine prizes were awarded to Tony Coomber (3rd) Mike Crofts (7th) Don Dobbs (14th) and Bryn Jones (17th). Congratulations!

A massive thank you to everyone who took part on the day, everyone who donated including those who were unable to participate, and those who put up the prizes. To quote from emails received in the wake of announcing the sum we raised…..

“Wow! Many thanks to all The Wednesday Swindlers, they are a great bunch of guys” Glen Rootman, Seniors Captain

“That’s a fantastic amount raised by The Wednesday Swindlers. With very many thanks to you” Mark Quigley, Club Captain

Report by David Reynolds

 Swindle results 12th Aug

Another day of unrelenting sunshine didn't deter the now hardened swindlers who again scored well. A first win of the year saw Stuart pocket £23 for his 43pts, the 3 shot cut takes him back to his start year handicap of 18. Closely followed in 2nd place on 41pts (£13) and a 1 shot cut was Richard Tavener who now heads the scoring averages on 36.67 after 6 rounds. The Sharks captain was less than pleased to see 2 of his players now off lower handicaps next week. 

PBI continue his good form just avoiding another cut on 40pts (£8) coming in 3rd spot.

Cleverly picking up fivers for front & back 9's comes as no surprise to Jeff & Jim the top money earners in the winners circle again. 2027 not that far away now - the handicap committee are calling an EGM!!

Everything is set up for the Robert Andlaw Trophy next Wednesday. the pairings for the afternoon singles match play ties are on the blog spreadsheet. A big thanks to David R for doing a great job in getting everything organised. Next year we are looking for a new organizer to step up.

 Robert Andlaw Trophy -19 August 2026

The draw for the morning Greensomes, tee times and rules was shown on the previous Blog. Check your entries and notify David Reynolds of any errors, omissions or anomalies, by email, to david@novatum.co.uk

Generally, the team colours will be JETS-BLUE and SHARKS- RED. Prizes will be awarded for interesting fancy dress.

For charity donations payment by bank transfer is encouraged. David has set up an account dedicated to the charitable donations, details as follows

Mr D N Reynolds

40-47-70

42561565

Reference – Your Surname

The alternative is to donate cash on the day.

Do not feel obliged to donate any more than that with which you feel comfortable. However, as requested, guidelines are as follows, Morning Greensomes £5, Afternoon Singles £10, Nearest the Pin £4 (£1 per hole), for which there will be more prizes.

Please try to arrive in good time for your tee-off times and sign in with the organisers on arrival so we know you are present.

The bar will be accepting advanced orders for food if you would like your lunch to be ready once you have finished the morning greensomes.