With Winter Golf now the order of the day, on Tuesday November 7th the ladies played a Tri-Am team event. The scoring format was one score to count holes 1- 4, two to count holes 5,6,7 & 13 and all three players scores to count holes 14 – 18.

This turned out to be a closely fought contest with the top score of 44 points needing a card count to decide the top two places. Carole Whiles, Gerry Callendar and Alison Stratford just edged out the trio of Ladies’ Captain Clare Davies, Julie Smith, and Claire Hutchinson. Just one point behind in third were Sue Wilby, Rebecca Booth and Katie Burke.

Saturday November 11th was the date for a four ball better ball Open Stableford played over 13 holes. 52 pairs entered the competition on wet but fully playable ground with members particularly complimentary about the quality of the greens.
32 points was the nominal par which was achieved by 40 of the competing pairs. It was Phil Stott and David Howes who were home early with an impressive 41 points which was never threatened all day. Second with 39 points were Oliver and Simon Mantle and just one point behind in third were Craig Hunter and Gary Macnair.

On Tuesday October 24th Ladies’ Captain Clare Davies hosted her Captain’s Charity Day raising a fantastic £1587 for vital research into breast and prostate cancer via a donation to Cancer Research UK.

As part of the event the ladies played a Tri-Am Stableford which was won by Rebecca Booth, Amanda Dunn and Katie Burke scoring 47 points. Just one point behind were Vanda Mckenzie, Dee Miller and Sue White who needed a card count to beat Sophie Jacob, Debbie Bruce and Ros Samuels

Clare thanked everyone who had contributed whether it was through donated raffle prizes, cakes and bakes, help on the day, making a donation, bidding in the auction or playing with special thanks to Frank Flaherty for conducting the auction.
The previous week the individual Stableford was won in Division One by Julie Parry with 37 points, comfortably ahead of Jackie Smart and Sophie Jacob who both scored 34 points. Division Two saw in- form Vanda McKenzie romp home with 39 points: Helen Mountford came second on 36 with Natalie York third on 31 points.

Saturday 28th October saw a regular Pro’s Competition which was affected by early morning fog meaning the course was closed to the early starters. When the gloom lifted, 17 pairs competed in a Better Ball Stableford which saw Oliver Hunter and Joshua Chi winning with 36 points. Chris Mathewman and Graham Watson were just one point behind but a countback was needed to confirm their second place. Tony Robinson and Max Davies had to be content with third also on 35

The third stage of the club’s comprehensive drainage programme has been successfully completed over the last 7 days which coupled with green reseeding and fairway verti-draining will ensure the course is well prepared for the winter season with maximum playability during wet periods.

The ladies competed on Tuesday 10th in a three lady team Texas scramble drawn on a low, middle and high handicap basis. The result was a win for the combination of Sandra Taylor, Susan Asquith and Dee Miller whose nett 63 gave them a six shot win over the rest of the field. Second place went to Sophie Jacob, Margaret McNeill and Kate Jesper with a nett 69 but they needed a card count to edge out the trio of Ruth Skaife-Clarke, Susan Taylor and Annie Burke into third.
With major competitions now finished, Saturday 14th was the date for an optional Stableford competed for by 55 players. The changing conditions meant that scoring was clearly difficult with nobody making a level par score of 36 points and only three players scoring a two.

Three players needed to be separated by countbacks to decide the runner-up spots. In third place with 34 points was Phil Stott edged out by Chris Matthewman on the same score. But the competition winner was Tom Hesketh with 35 points. Playing off a plus-4 handicap Tom shot a gross 69 with 10 pars, 4 birdies and an eagle at the par 5 eleventh, seeing him home by just one point.

Finally on Sunday the last of the annual series of Men’s Friendlies took place at home against Moortown GC with a 5-3 win for Pannal. These traditional fixtures of long standing are played alternately home and away each year with the emphasis always on a friendly and convivial contest.

There was a unique event at Pannal last Wednesday 4th October, when the club hosted the annual friendly match versus Yorkshire County Cricket Club. For the first time it became a mixed fixture, with several of Yorkshire’s Diamonds Ladies cricket team combining with former Yorkshire cricketers to face a mixed team from Pannal. It proved to be a most enjoyable event for both clubs and speaking afterwards at the post-match lunch, the former Yorkshire and England off-spinner Geoff Cope outlined how the greater integration of the Diamonds is a key component of YCCC’s vision for the future.

On Tuesday 3rd, the Ladies competed for the Autumn Greensomes and in a field of 14 pairs, Val Smith-Jackman and her partner, Alison Stratford ran out winners with 37 points. Close behind were Ladies’s Vice Captain Lynn Sheldrake and Sue White on 36 points, with Sophie Jacob and Susan Asquith taking third place with 34 points.

Last Saturday it was a Two Ball Texas Scramble, played to a Medal format. For third place there were three pairings tied on 66, with John Jones and Nigel Wright edging Tim Considine and Nigel Brown and the Jonas brothers, Callum and Jordan, via a back nine countback. It was also close for first and second place, with two pairs scoring a highly creditable 64. After a back nine countback, Graham Watson and Simon Stalker won the competition, with Ian Douglas and Oli Hunter taking second place.

Monday September 18th saw an exciting 36-hole duel in the Men’s Handicap Trophy Final between Roger Emmett and David Smith. Begun back in April this individual knockout matchplay competition is a perennial favourite with the final being the 127th match of the series, won two up by Roger.

Roger made a poor start with two double bogies going two down but came back strongly to be only two over par gross for the rest of the first round finishing two up at lunch. David made a fast start again in the afternoon turning the score around to two up by the ninth and looking good. The turning point of the match was Roger getting up and down from the short sided bunker at 11 for the second time in the day. He then went on to win five of the last eight holes to finish two up including knocking a 100 foot putt to around six inches from the hole on the 18th for a par.

Tuesday 18th was the date for the Ladies Annual Medal played by six ladies from Division 1 and the winner of the Medal and Annual Medal was Gail Witcomb (13) with a nett 81 well ahead of Ros Samuels (11) on nett 87 and Vicky Eyre (10) nett 91.

The Freda Rhodes Trophy for veteran ladies was played on Thursday 20th. Contested over 13 holes of the Green course in Stableford format by those aged 65 or over, the winner was Margaret Kershaw with 21 points closely followed by Betsy Haldon on 21 and Gill Roberts on 18.

As previously reported the annual Tiger Trophy was won by Will Eardley beating Carl Bushby 4&3. Talking after the match. Will felt that the turning point of the day was his chip in from the back of the 26th hole for birdie, followed by another birdie at the next to take him three up.

Men’s Captain Martin Boyle took a large contingent of members to Hessle Golf Club for his second Exchange day on Friday 21st. The winning team on the day were Kevin Lynch, Lindsay Mckenzie, Ian McNeill, and Ken Winkle.

On Saturday 22nd 58 pairs teed off in the Cooper Brown Greensomes. Despite white tees set well back and holding fairways following overnight rain, players performed well. There were no less than five pairs on nett 69 needing a card count to decide third place which went to Phil O’Connor and Simon Darbyshire, the latter showing a welcome return to form. A countback was also needed to separate the top two, both with nett 67’s. Second place went to Oliver and Simon Mantle but the Trophy was awarded to Mark Henderson and Nick Tipling with their better back nine.

On Sunday 23rd an Open Stableford was the competition of the day which turned into a father and son one two. Peter Bowerman took the honours with 33 points followed in by son Hector on 30, just one point ahead of Richard Finney on 29 in third place.

Golfers across Europe were delighted to see the ladies retain the Solheim Cup following the superb birdie two at the 17th by Carlota Ciganda. Pannal members were among the first in the UK to be aware of her potential when she won the Girls Under 14’s prize at the North of England Under 14’s championship here in 2003.

With the continuing weather problems the only competitive golf possible at Pannal in recent days was on Saturday November 25th. Men’s Captain Martin Boyle and Chair of Golf Julian Graham-Rack decided to try a different approach by pairing players who would not normally play together. Everyone selected their preferred playing window in one hour segments and the pairs were drawn from everyone entered in that segment. This created a Fourball Better Ball field with some very interesting and competitive pairings.

27 pairs battled it out over 13 holes with the greens once again proving to be in excellent shape despite the prevailing conditions. With everyone hoping at least to make the par standard of 26 points, 70% of the field were able to claim this standard.

Graham Hindmarsh and Derek Christmas were out early and posted what looked like a winning total of 31 points: while no pairs bettered their points score two other pairs had a superior back nine so Graham and Derek had to be content with third place.

There was however a mighty battle for top spot as the contending pairs were playing together. Frank Flaherty and Andrew Asquith were confident that they had edged themselves into a winning position when Frank’s 120 yard 9 iron into a blinding sun finished one foot from the pin to secure three points. But Jon Clayton and Chris Matthewman were not to be outdone: Jon’s 3-wood at 17 finished two feet from the hole for four points. Andrew then holed a 15 footer for par to save a two point swing but in the end it was a back six count-back which secured victory on the day for Jon and Chris with 31 points