Swindle Results 29th April

No news from Gus in the Baltic so assume his Cohones are bearing up!

A brisk easterly wind made life tricky for the 9 teams on show - 3 of which tied for first place on a score of 89. 12 players all received winnings of £5, nearly enough to buy a pint! I'll leave you to decode the winners : EH, TW, KS, CH, TC, PM, SI, DC1, PM, IP, DC2, MP. 

The winning stableford score was Andy Wyatt on 36pts (£4) maintaining his recent good form after taking advice from our new resident coach Stuart Insall. It's all about the 9 iron. Special mention however to David Coutts who scored 44pts, 25 on the front 9 but team winning honours prevailed.

Graham Waller brought his own nearest the pin marked with his name pre-printed on it and sure enough picked up £3 on the 18th hole. 

Good news is that pick & place on the fairways is now extended until the 17th May.

We will be entering a team in the Swindle Challenge on Sat 6th June - please let the Boss know if you would like to be included. No green fee charges now for this weekend outing.

Don has done a great job gathering all the names for this years Alex Hall trophy comp. There are 36 entries so 4 prelim round matches before 16 matches in the first round proper. £2 entry. 

Can Kim retain his crown?

   

Swindling in the Sun

A beautiful sunny day, albeit windy, and Andy Wyatt took full advantage with 39 points for the win and a £22 purse. In hot pursuit were Don-Don (38 points, £13) and a trio of 37-pointers who each took home the princely sum of £4. Don't knock it, it's a profit. That was Iain Pritchard, Martin Davies and the Boss.

Andy gets a 3-stroke cut and will play the rest of the season on a maximum handicap of 20. Don gets a temporary cut to 23. PBI wasn't playing this week, leaving the field clear for Rory to hoover up the 2 shots back.

The £5 prizes went to Jeff - again - with 20 on the front nine, and Pablo for 18 on the back nine in his first outing this year. That's Jeff's 7th prize so far in 2026 in 11 matches. No wonder he's still at the top of the red leaderboard!

Next week is a team competition - check the website for details of the scoring system.

Finally, a shout out to Don who has taken on the mantle of organising this year's Hall Trophy. He will shortly make the draw, so if you want to enter and haven't got your name in yet, just speak to Don.

I'll be away for the next 2 week's freezing my cohones off on a boat in Estonia and Finland, so watch out for updates from the Boss.

Normal Service Resumed

After last week's low-scoring shenanigans it was back to business this week, with the average score of 31.6 being a full 5 points higher than last week and no fewer than 16 players scoring 30 points or more. That's more like it! Out in front on 40 points was Dave Robson, 2 clear of Tony Coomber and Andy Wray in joint second with 38 points. Dave pocketed £21 and a 5-shot cut while the other 2 scallies got away with a 1-shot cut and £9 each. 

Hot on the heels of last week's cut, Steve Mummery continued his happy knack of hoovering up some cash whilst avoiding a cut by coming joint third with Michael Vallance on 36 points. OK, to be fair they only won £1.50 each and thereby made a loss of the day, but that's beside the point!

The Brynmeister made it 2 prizes in 3 outings so far this year with 21 points on the front nine for a fiver, while the back nine prize went to Peter Evans with 20 points.

No real changes at the top of the leaderboards this week, though Jeff's lead in the red league has been trimmed somewhat by Tony who is on a good run of form, averaging over 36 points on his last 3 outings. Must be that magic chipper of his!

Thanks to everyone who put a card in this week - if you forgot, please do one next week. Remember if you're doing a card, then no gimmies.

A final reminder that we're now following club rules regarding preferred lies, which is pick-and-place on fairways and close-mown areas only, until the end of April.

Tales of the Unexpected

With the Clutch Tour in town, the Wednesday Swindlers decamped to Redbourn for the day. A slightly later than usual start meant the sun was up and the day was set fair for a lovely day of golf. Not only that, there was little or no wind, the fairways were in good nick (who needs pick and place!) and the greens were holding nicely.

All set for some great scoring, right?

How wrong can you be.

The result? Only 4 players scored 30 points or more. The average score was 26.13 points, which as far as I can tell is an all-time record low. I hate to think how many balls were left behind on the course. There was one bright spot - the winner, Steve Mummery, scored 35 points and scooped the £22 prize by a handsome 3 shots. That left Gus and Kelvin trailing behind in second place with 32 points each for £5.50. Has there ever been a shot cut for a lower score? Answers on a postcard please!

Dave Smith bagged the fiver for 18 points on the front nine, and Colin Stickland the same for his 19 points on the back nine. At least those were respectable tallies!

Next week we're back at Aldwickbury, and it's a card-in day so don't forget to register in advance. Especially since the Howdy Doody app is playing silly buggers at the moment, so don't rely on being able to be a last-minute Charlie on the first tee.

Looking forward to the next Swindle, I was feeling inspired by Rory's heroics in the first two rounds at Augusta but at the time of writing he has thrown away his 6-shot lead and now has a host of stellar players snapping at his heels. But I still have faith - c'mon Rory!

Swindle Results - Wednesday April 1st

It may have been April the 1st but there was no fooling around by Dom, who scored a superb 40 points to cruise home by a couple of shots. £22 and a 3-shot cut was his reward. There was a tie for second place, Tom and Eugene sharing the spoils (£7.50 each to be exact - scant reward for a 1-shot cut!) with 38 points apiece. Eugene will now be playing off a handicap of 6, extending his margin as the lowest handicapper among regular Wednesday Swindlers.

The front nine fiver went to Chris Butler with 21, while Chris Hunt took the back nine prize with 20 points.

Posts and ropes have finally disappeared and the course is improving week on week, with the greens getting faster and a bit more roll on the fairways - great to see.

Just a reminder that next week is the Clutch Tour event at Aldwickbury, so we'll be playing at Redbourn instead, with slightly later tee-times. The roster is currently full, but if you'd like to play please enter your name on the website and if anyone drops out between now and then you may get a chance to pick up a spot as a reserve.

 

Stop Press - Birdie Controversy

In his match report for last Wednesday the Boss reported on an unwitnessed birdie by Andy on the 11th. We now have photographic evidence which proves Andy's claim beyond any reasonable doubt. There was definitely hail on the green.

 Results from Wednesday 25th March

A lovely day for golf, cold, gale force winds, hailstones and sunshine. A team event was the order for the day but good scores were hard to come by - 25 players averaged a meagre 28.4 stableford points. A welcome return to form by Kelvin (39pts) and an excellent 35pts from Ali helped their team to a convincing 3 shot winning margin. Andy Wyatt and Graham Waller were grateful beneficiaries all receiving £9.50. Andy also claims to have got a birdie on the 11th in the height of the hail storm - alas visibility was so poor and no witnesses have come forward!

The first 3 groups failed to put a nearest the pin marker down on the 3rd hole leaving the door open for Gary Fowler to scoop up £5 and Tom Walters snuck in with 34pts to win the best individual stableford score - £5 too.

Well done to everyone for completing their rounds even though averages took a pasting.

We say goodbye to APGC's Professional - Robin Turley is moving to new pastures at the Shropshire Golf Centre near Telford and we wish him well. 

   

A Pair of Swindles

A double header this week, with an Awayday outing to Brickendon Grange on March 16th, followed by the regular Wednesday Swindle on March 18th.

I didn't play at Brickendon myself but I'm told it's a nice parkland course, with some similarities to APGC but with fewer trees and a bit less trouble when straying off the fairway. This wasn't fully in tune with the scoring however, with the highest score being 34 points by Gary Fowler. Gary was in the winning team with Dave Robson and Stuart Insall - they each took home £11. Crofty picked up the fiver for his stapleford score of 33 points and our favourite Irishman Eugene collected his customary prize for nearest-the-pin on the 6th. Well done sir!

A reminder to our newer playing members - there are no cuts nor shots back in team competitions, though individual scores do count for the leaderboard averages, and this includes Awaydays.

Wednesday Swindle

At last, a glorious sunny day! The temperature reached 17 degrees by mid-afternoon, fully justifying the sight of a few knobbly knees as some pairs of shorts made their seasonal debuts. Conditions were very good - a little breezy, but the greens were fast and true and there was a little carry to be had on the fairways. Michael Vallance certainly took advantage, with a superb score of 41 points to take the honours along with £22. Michael will now be playing off a maximum of 23 for the rest of the season. Tony took 2nd and £10 with his 38 points whilst the evergreen Brynmeister, making his bow for this season, looked like he'd never been away with a lovely 37 points for £6. A splendid effort and great to see him back.

Crofty shot 20 on the front nine for a fiver and Al Wright also shot 20 points to take the back nine. Al's round was not without controversy amid dark mutterings from the Boss about balls being thrown in bunkers but it was all tongue-in-cheek and harmony was restored! At least one swindler commented that it was better then clubs being thrown!

Next week is a team game - have a look on the website for the scoring system and let's hope for more of the same glorious weather.

Parish Notice - April 8th

We won't be playing at APGC on this date owing to the Pro Tour event at Aldwickbury. The Boss has managed to nab 5 tee-times at Redbourn which may not be enough to go around. The first tee is at 11.40 though, so if that's too late for you then please enter a "no" on the website via the player entry form. If we still have too many players, bank account details will be provided for greasing the Boss's palm!