Tenby Seniors golf articles sometimes tend to be like London Buses - nothing for a week, then two come along together! This is precisely the case today. Last week’s Observer was devoid of fascinating and stimulating news about the section, while this week I shall bombard you, dear reader, with all the low-down on a match and an Away Day.

Cast your mind back to Thursday, May 12, a delightfully sunny day with little or no breeze, on which 18 golfers of the mature variety set out for the South Pembrokeshire Golf Club for the first meeting of the year. Old acquaintances were renewed, new faces were encountered, and soon the course was the scene of nine fourball matches, all being played in the best possible spirit of the game, with no quarter neither asked nor given.

When the tournament was over and both teams had enjoyed a spicy match meal, the traditional raffle draw was held - and the highlight was that Tenby won seven of the 11 prizes - Huzzah! Next our captain Peter and the home team’s captain Mike Bradney addressed the teams - and the lowlight was that Tenby was very narrowly pipped at the post by the slender margin of 2.5 games to 6.5 - Boo! Sad though the Tenby lads were at being defeated, all agreed that they had thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Monday, May 16, was the day for the section’s long planned and much anticipated Away Day at the Pyle and Kenfig Golf Club. Twenty-two keen and eager Seniors gathered at Kilgetty to board the coach hired for the occasion, while three more of the chaps were making their own travel arrangements. The competition for the day was between three teams of three and four teams of four, and since only a few of the Seniors had played the course before, it promised to be an interesting confrontation - but before play could commence, guess what was on offer for breakfast?

After the bracing coffee and bacon baps - the teams took to studying the course planner, and actually asking the way to the first tee! Then, geographically prepared, the horde hit the fairways. Pyle and Kenfig is an interesting (polite speak for confusing) course, difficult and very demanding - but great fun! We were lucky to be playing on a fine sunny day with a chilly wind that was just strong enough to cause the odd problem, but to attempt the course in bad weather would be really daunting.

Whatever, everybody made it back to the clubhouse for a pre-dinner drink or five, while Derek Cole collected, collated, calculated and categorised the cards in preparation for a post dinner prize-giving. After a wee burst of confusion concerning what was on the club menu, 25 bums hit 25 chairs and nothing was heard but the clatter of cutlery and the smacking of lips as a fairly fierce curry was devoured.

And then! - the prize-giving. It is never a good sign when captain Peter makes a wee speech containing the news that the treasurer, Stan Hudson - who just happened to be absent on the day! - had only allocated 24 golf balls for prizes. I think the old ‘deep pockets, short arms’ sarcasm could be applied here - but morale was high and just the merest ‘Boo!’ greeted this announcement. The distribution of the meagre prize fund went like this:

Individual - 1. Jeff Banfield 34 pts; 2. Alan Jones 33; 3. Brian Waters, also with 33 points, but lost fewer balls!

Winning team - Martin Neilan, Terry Martin, Brian Waters and Derek (Bubbles) Bath.

Nearest the Pin - Well actually the only ball to actually land on the green at the super-difficult par 3 - Jeff Banfield.

Twos - none - few 3s, several 4s, a smattering of 5s and the odd 6 or 7!

The Best Endeavour Prize - Roger Scholfield.

And that was that - a quick gathering to take the group photograph - almost got everybody, but Tony Morgan and Terry Martin slipped through the net! - and it was back to Tenby The next time we all congregate is to face the challenge of Fairwood Park Seniors here on our home links on Tuesday, May 24..

See you there!

M.F.