The Vale Golf Resort, Wales – 17th-20th May

Thanks are due once again to Steve for organising this year’s trip which saw us visit a new venue. Weather was as expected given the geography and time of year, but we’ve experienced much worse conditions in previous years in Cornwall. Pictured below are the “Class of 2026”.

Day 1 saw us re-visiting an old favourite (?) format with teams assigned a “Bonus” ball which scored double points for the lucky custodian on each golf hole. Two teams managed to retain their bonus ball for the entire round – no mean feat given the number of water hazards on the aptly named Lakes Course. The result was as follows:

1^st Steve Christie/Paul Needle/Phil Ray/ Reg Brown  –  108 points

2^nd  Rob Austen /  Paul Mead/ Catrina Brown/ Dave Wain – 102 points

3^rd Dave Scott/ Pete Cosford/ Jane Wain  – 78 points

4^th Fay Austen / Nigel Wain/ Martin Sykes – 73 points

5^th Sue Scott / Steve Mulford/ Bruce Mercer – 67 points

Special mention should be made of Steve Christie who decided to use this year’s trip to comprehensively road test his new mode of golfing transport – including, unfortunately, a crash test on the first hole of the day.

The championship was held on the second day, with the competitors facing very wet conditions. Undeterred by such things, Bruce Mercer returned to the winners circle once more with a very respectable 34 points including 23 on the front 9 alone. Runners up were Dave Scott with 31 points and Pete Cosford with 28 points. Bruce is pictured below receiving the trophy from last year’s champion, Nigel.

Tuesday fortunately provided a lull in the damp conditions, with competitors able to enjoy a post round beverage on the clubhouse terrace.