Down In One Golf Society
Newsletter Issue 18 - August 2008
Introduction
This issue covers our Christmas Competition, the latest golf break in Norfolk and our walking holiday in Northern Spain.
Christmas Competition
The 2007 Christmas competition was held at Hersham Golf Club on 6th January 2008 with a good turnout of seven players (Ian, Mike and Ray were unable to make the event). The weather was kind to us this time, although it was a little on the chilly side. Hugh came first with 34 points but as Rob came third with 29 points he was awarded the trophy.
After the competition the players headed to the Prince Of Wales in West End for a well earned meal, a few drinks and a bit of light hearted banter.
HELP and his little helper
Spring Golf Break
We returned to Norfolk for this spring’s golf break with the advance party of Andrzej, Rob, David and Ian setting off early on Thursday afternoon (29th May) for a bonding session in the Kings Arms. The evening was fairly uneventful apart from being told to be quiet by the barman and for being told by one female that David’s shirt should really be PINK and not pink. This particular woman, who had a rather large and whiny Alsatian in tow, also expressed her opinion on the shirts worn by the rest of our party and deemed Ian’s as the only acceptable attire.
David tees off first
John did an excellent job of barbequing the food acquired earlier in the day at the butchers in Holt. David generously provided the wine (even though we all ended up paying for it)
Towards the end of the party someone suggested that we should keep the noise down to avoid annoying the neighbours. Andrzej’s response to his was “f*** the neighbours”, to which one of the neighbours responded “we heard that”. With that the party came to an abrupt end.
The competition for the Secretary’s Cup was held at Sheringham and as it was David’s birthday the Secretary let him tee off first. The cup was won by Richard with 30 points. David won the Longest Drive and Andrzej won Nearest The Pin.
In the evening we celebrated David’s 65th birthday in style with a barbeque at Andrzej’s house. We presented David with a talking parrot which was a great success especially as most of the attendees didn’t realise that Rob was controlling its responses remotely.
The parrot
On Saturday morning we returned to Royal Cromer, our 8th visit there, to compete for the Treasurer’s Trophy. David won the competition with 29 points
There were several requests for David to be disqualified as it turned out that he had 17 clubs in his golf bag. However in the end we decided to overlook his error as he was now 65 and prone to be a bit forgetful.
Richard won the Longest Drive and as no-one hit any of the par 3 greens the prize money for Nearest The Pin was carried forward to the next day.
At the barbeque
In the afternoon we played 2 four ball better ball matches over the first 9 holes with Old Order (Andrzej, David, Rob and Rod) taking on New Order (Ian, Richard, Ray and John). In the first match, after a nip and tuck start, Old Order triumphed by winning the last 2 holes. The other match was halved and so the Frog was awarded to the captain of the Old Order. In the evening we went for our traditional curry in Holt.
On Sunday we drove to Richmond Park Golf Club to play for the President’s Putter and to decide the winners of the remaining trophies. The Putter was won by Rod with 31 points (the highest stableford score in any of the competitions). Rod also won the Longest Drive and Richard won Nearest The Pin on both of the first two par 3s.
Richard also won the DIOGS Bowl with a total of 85 points and, contrary to everyone’s expectations, although Rob also scored 85 points he did not award himself the prize (the competition rules stated that in the event of a tie the player who scored the highest number of points in any of the competitions should be the winner).
Rod chipping in for victory
However Rob did win the Tous Trois Trophie with 22 points beating Ian, who also scored 22 points, as he was the only player to score 4 points on a par 3. Richard and Rob were also awarded a bottle of red wine each as we had failed to finish off all 8 bottles supplied by David for the party.
Presentation of the Secretary’s Cup
Presentation of the Treasurer’s Trophy
Presentation of the President’s Putter
Presentation of the DIOGS Bowl
Walking Holiday In Spain
Following the success of last years holiday in Poland, six of us (Andrzej, David, Hugh, Ian, Rob and Rod) travelled to northern Spain on 9th July to undertake a few more walks. Our visit coincided with the San Fermin festival and it was the intention of some of us to run the bulls in Pamplona.
We arrived around 10.30 in the evening and picked up our two rental cars for the one hour drive to Vitoria Gasteiz. David had the advantage that Andrzej had remembered to bring his Tom Tom whereas Rob had to rely on a map and a set of dodgy directions which left us a few blocks away from our hotel. In the end Rod was able to talk us in with the aid of the hotel free map.
The following morning we drove to Orozko to start a 12 km circular walk in the surrounding hills. We completed the walk by lunch time even though the directions and lack of sign posts made the route unclear.
Resting on the First walk
After lunch everyone except David and Ian were keen to tackle another walk. Rob had had not expected this and so without a prepared walk in mind we headed off in the general direction of the hills.
After climbing for over an hour we struggled to the top of the hill and paused by a group of houses. As we rested we were approached by a man who invited us to look at his farmhouse. He explained that he and his brother were restoring the building which was about 400 years old. The house was on three floors and had magnificent views across the valley.
Admiring the view
On the next day we drove to Zeanuri and despite better instructions still managed to go the wrong way round our 12 km circular walk.
On the Saturday we left for Pamplona but on the way took a detour to Trespeuntos to visit the site of the Battle of Vitoria which took place during the peninsular wars. Rod gave us a very informative description of the battle as we toured the site.
Then we continued on our drive, stopping at Salvatierra for coffee. Using the Tom Tom in an attempt to avoid the toll roads we ended up on a narrow country lane.
Unfortunately the lead car struck a pot hole which necessitated a change of wheel and ultimately a costly charge from the car hire company.
We eventually arrived at our hotel and after negotiating the replacement of the damaged car at the airport we all squeezed in to the other car for our first visit to the city of Pamplona.
Car repair man in action
Our first impressions were that it was crowded, smelly and difficult to find anywhere to eat or drink. The average age of the people in the city must have been about 22 and as most were dressed in red and white we bought red scarves and sashes so we wouldn’t look totally out of place.
With the next bull run starting at 8 am we decided to have an early night as we had to be up again at 5 am so we could survey the route before the start of the run. After walking the route, only Andrzej, Hugh and David felt brave enough to attempt the run.
Dressed to be killed
They never did get to run the bulls as the police moved them on and out of harms way. Meanwhile Ian, Rob, and Rod found themselves a vantage point from which they could watch the run in safety (although in reality the crowds prevented them from having much of a view).
After the run we made our way to the bull ring to buy tickets for that evenings bull fight before heading off for breakfast at our hotel. Before returning to the city we drove to Sanguesa for coffee followed by a pleasant and very reasonably priced lunch.
That evening, sitting in the back row of the ring, we witnessed six bull fights – which was an informative if not exactly a politically correct thing to do.
On the last day we drove a scenic route to Bilbao via San Sebastian. After about an hours drive, finding the road blocked, we had to turn around and find an even more scenic route through the Aiako Harria Parke Naturala. After a short stop in San Sebastain we arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our flight home, which of course was an hour late leaving.