Friday 19th August was a fine day for playing golf. It is fair to say that the golf played on that day at Oaklands Park Golf Club by the members of the Chiltern Welsh was rather less than fine, but it was enjoyable nevertheless.
Nine players arrived in good time to enjoy coffee and a bacon roll, and to be allocated into three teams of three for a competition over the 18 holes. As the last team holed out on the 9th green before moving on to the 10th tee, we were joined by Gwyneth Herrington who completed the last nine holes at Oaklands for the first time. Gwyneth managed to outscore two of our team over the back nine, but we were unable to count those points unfortunately. Not that it would have made a difference to the overall team results.
The first team home, of Jane Morris, Brian Evans and Rob Britton, were the clear winners recording 93 points. The other teams, of Pam Britton, Eryl Morris and Alan Longshaw, and of Alun McCarthy, Rob Brett and Gwyndaf John, scored much the same with 80 and 82 points respectively.
Individual honours fell to Rob Britton for the longest drive, and to Alan Longshaw for nearest the pin.
Alun recorded the day’s highest individual points score, with Eryl also recording an above par individual score of 37 points.
This was Alun’s first round of 18 holes on a full-size course. He only started playing the game upon his retirement last year, and had only played on a short “par 3” course previously. But his high score ensures that he will not enjoy such a generous handicap at our next Golf Day!
After the playing exertions, 18 gathered for the lunch afterwards and tucked into a main course of salmon followed by dessert of lemon tart. It was a particular pleasure to see Helen Hall there, on a trip out from the Care Home she has recently moved into at Chorleywood. She was brought along by Ann Lawrence, who was herself looking remarkably well after her recent operation.
The winning team were congratulated on their triumph and presented with a prize of three bottles of wine. Rob thanked Gwyndaf for organising the event, though Gwyndaf pointed out that Rob himself had been the key contact with the Golf Club.
Gwyndaf John
No-one was absolutely sure whether our 2021 drinks party would go ahead, due to rising numbers of Covid.
Bright blue matching chairs and, cheerful garden flowers adorned the crisp white tablecloths. At this juncture, our thanks to the ‘flower girls’ as they were referred to. The guests had come laden with their own wine, fruit juice, beer and fizzy water and people on the tables introduced themselves. I maintain that Welsh is my first language and, was fortunate enough to be educated through the medium of Welsh from the age of 3 to 21. I was especially pleased to catch up with a few people who spoke Welsh and spent a while chatting to Bill Jones about the delights of Amlwch and Anglesey in particular!
Table by table, we were invited to the serving area, where the To Dine For ladies had set up a veritable spread. Our food had been pre-ordered, I had salmon, others had chicken and there was a vegetarian option, all adorned by a variety of salads, I have to say it was very tasty. We had olive and chilli bread, which you could wash down with the drink of your choice. Extra food was available if you wanted a top up. Chatter, covering a multiple of varied subjects, was constant. David Powell managed to pop round each group to photograph everybody deep in conversation. For dessert there was fruit salad, tiramisu, chocolate tart with lashings of cream, should you want it. To round off the meal tea and coffee were served with some lovely chocolate mints. All in all, I would say the afternoon was a massive success, everybody was pleased to catch up, after such a long time of being at home.
I would like to give a special mention to Ernest Morris, whose delightful garden we enjoyed and for the loan of the gazebos by Alan Longshaw. Thanks too to David, Gwyndaf, Alan, Peter Johnston and Colin Thomas for erecting these and, getting the furniture in situ; hopefully it was dismantled a bit quicker than it went up. Thank you very much to Kay for her organisational skills and making the afternoon such a success, we all know that these events, don’t ‘just’ happen.