Cirencester Golf Club

Seniors’ section

Seniors’ Texas Scramble and Annual Dinner

THERE IS no better time for the popular racing syndicate within Cirencester Golf Club to come into form than on the run-up to the Cheltenham Festival – and their golf has peaked too, it seems, writes Danny Hall.

The texas scramble which preceded the seniors’ annual dinner was won by four members of the bookie-bashing syndicate: Malcolm Bevan, Rod Smith, Graham Clarke and Ben Marsh.

With three of four scores to count on each hole, they knocked it around in a gross three-under par 68 despite miserable wet conditions for a nett score total of 58.2.

The quartet of Bob Allen, Dave Allen, Mike Brown and John Morris also signed for a 68 off exactly the same handicap allowance of 9.8, but had to settle for the runner-up spot on countback.

In third place was a team of super seniors – Ken Anderson, Graham Morgan and Mike Kirman – who accommodated club and A-team captain Steve Bishop as their guest. But in his witty speech at the subsequent dinner, ‘Bish’ was happy to acknowledge that their nett score of 60.3 owed a lot to Graham holing ‘80 yards of putts’.

Our chef Demi presided over her first dinner at the club following the departure of long-serving Steve Maddock-Lyon and received rave reviews from members.

Seniors’ captain Andy Ponting warmly congratulated Demi and what appeared to be most of her family in coping so well with more than 60 guests.

RESULTS

1st: Graham Clarke, Malcolm Bevan, Rod Smith & Ben Marsh (68 – 9.8) 58.2 points; 2nd: Bob Allen, Dave Allen, Mike Brown & John Morris (68 – 9.8) 58.2; 3rd: Ken Anderson, Graham Morgan, Steve Bishop & Mike Kirman (72 – 11.7) 60.3; 4th: Gerry Bruton, David Soar, Paul Stephens & Graham Wolstencroft (70 – 9.2) 60.8; 5th: Chris Watson, Steve Scott-Smith, James Gore & Stewart Osborn (72 – 11.1) 60.9; 6th: Keith Miller, Andrew Tunnicliffe, Simon Byrne & Clive Bennett (71 – 9.5) 61.5.

80th birthday celebrations

TWO long-serving stalwarts of Cirencester Golf Club – Robert Evans and Brian Sheffield – have been honoured with 80th birthday celebrations at the clubhouse.

Robert Evans

ROBERT EVANS was a ‘Blitz baby’ – born on March 6, 1940.

When it came to choosing a career, after leaving St Paul’s School in Westminster, he opted for law over medicine and after training in London he came to Cirencester as a solicitor with wife Julie in 1967. He joined Davey Son and Jones (now Davey Law) and eventually retired as a senior partner in 2002.

A one-time secretary of Cirencester RFC, he has been a season ticket holder at Kingsholm for many years and also enjoys singing with Cirencester Community Choir.

Golf has been his main sporting passion, however. He joined Cirencester Golf Club in 1978 and at one stage his handicap was as low as 9.

He chaired the club’s Centenary Committee in 1993 and was elected club captain the following year.

Robert served the club honourably as president for three years from 2011, during which time the clubhouse was renovated.

Golf has been very kind to Robert and given him the chance of playing many wonderful courses throughout Great Britain, Europe and beyond.

He also represented the club on three memorable visits supporting the Solheim Cup teams in the USA and Scotland. If it hadn't been for Cirencester Golf Club none of this might have happened.

Brian Sheffield

BRIAN SHEFFIELD was born in Beckenham, Kent on February 17, 1940 and was promptly evacuated to Staffordshire with his mother and two brothers.

At the age of five the family returned to live in South London an Ed in later years he played for the local Wickham Park Sports Club in youth and men’s football teams for several seasons.

At 16, he started a five-year apprenticeship with a precision engineering company and continued working in that field for the remainder of his working life.

He emigrated to Ontario, Canada in 1962 and among his jobs while in North America was trouble-shooting tooling problems at the Ford and General Motors car plants in Detroit, Michigan.

Returning to England in 1967, he married Liz the following year in Cirencester Parish Church and since then they have moved 10 times, four of them being in Cirencester.

In 1968, he began work with Spectrol Reliance, a manufacturing company in Swindon, eventually managing a staff of 70 employees for 20 years.

His final two posts before retirement were for two Cheltenham-based companies in the field of precision engineering, one in telecommunications and the other in aircraft replacement parts, where he managed to keep a number of Spitfires airborne.

When Brian joined Cirencester Golf Club in November 1973, his first ‘subs’ were £27.50.

He has enjoyed countless happy memories on the course in social golf and when representing the club’s B teams and in seniors matches.

He is still an active participant in the roll-ups on Tuesdays and Thursdays – ‘the highlight of my week’, he calls them – and also plays at least twice a week at the local snooker club.

Ladies’ section

Ladies’ Stablefords

JESS BROWN, our Gloucestershire county player, powered to victory on Saturday in the ladies' stableford competition, scoring 40 points in a round which included six birdies.

Jess's handicap has now been cut to 2.5. Her victory tops off a very successful week as she passed her driving test at the first attempt on Tuesday.

On a less positive note, Annie Fisher capped her round off by locking her keys in the car as she put her clubs away. Grateful thanks go to Irena for giving her a lift home.

Second, third and fourth places went to Kate Dymoke, Paddy Challens and Irena Windslow who all had 35 points.

On Thursday, there was a wonderful turnout of 34 ladies for the 18-hole stableford competition.

Sheila Lowbridge took first place with 35 points, Brenda Taylor came second on 34 points and Jayne Worthington finished third with 32 points.

Daily Mail Foursomes

ON Monday, Cirencester was represented in the Daily Mail Foursomes competition by Fiona Fyfe and Paula Lester-Powell. The Cirencester duo had been drawn away to Lilley Brook in Cheltenham and had to give four shots to their opposition.

The course at Lilley Brook was not truly fit for competition but the match went ahead.

Paula and Fiona battled against deep mud, a fallen tree across a fairway and dangerously slippery conditions – Paula fell over twice during the game – and they were two down after nine holes.

However, they battled hard and by the 15th, Fiona and Paula had levelled the match, which is all the more impressive because Fiona had never played at Lilley Brook before.

The ladies fought on until the match finally slipped away from them on the third extra hole! Paula and Fiona are to be congratulated for representing Cirencester in such very difficult circumstances.

TGI Team Golf Challenge

GOOD LUCK to the three teams of Cirencester members, led by professionals Ed Goodwin, James Harraway and Mark Plummer who are flying the flag for the club at the 11th TGI Golf Team Challenge in Turkey this week, one of the biggest events of its kind.

Cirencester were the winners of the prestigious European tournament in 2018, so fingers crossed.