The TT Roll-up annual Xmas Lunch was held on Sunday 18th December 2016 at Frilford Heath Golf Club.
Following an excellent carvery lunch with festive accompaniments, including a Christmas quiz, the party of 27* TT Roll-up regulars and their partners repaired to the upstairs lounge for coffee and mince pies. [ * Originally 29, but unfortunately Bob Headon and Geraldine were unable to attend at the last moment because Bob was unwell - needless to say, all present wished him a speedy recovery. ]
Once all were sitting comfortably (to coin a phrase), MC and organiser Mike Whitwell wished everyone merry Christmas and invited Nigel French to give his report on the year’s activities and announce the results of the Hugh Chamberlain Trophy competition for 2016.
Nigel echoed Mike’s Christmas wishes and extended a special welcome to Hugh Chamberlain, who was attending the lunch as the TT Roll-up’s guest in honour of his achieving his centenary in November. He then thanked all those who had played with the TT Roll-up in 2016 for another excellent year’s golf. He also invited all present to express their thanks to Stewart and the catering staff for the usual excellent Christmas fare - general applause.
Nigel said that participation in the TT Roll-up had been good all year, with turnouts often as high as 18 players. A total of 21 Regulars had played at least 20 times with the roll-up, thereby qualifying for the Hugh Chamberlain Trophy. A further 18 members had played at least once with the roll-up and of those 8 had played more than 10 times. The TT Roll-up appeared therefore still to be in a healthy state.
Nigel then mentioned the various special competitions held during the year, namely :
the inaugural friendly match between teams from the TT Roll-up and the EGGS in May - won by the TT Roll-up team;
the TT Roll-up 3-Club Challenge in November - won by Mike Moulding; and
the TT Roll-up Turkey Trot held earlier in December - won by Bryan Claringbold.
He added that it was planned also to arrange a fun Texas Scramble competition during the holiday period, probably on Thursday 29th December.
Moving on to the Hugh Chamberlain Trophy, Nigel recalled that the competition was held on an on-going basis throughout the year based on average Stableford scores playing off TT Roll-up handicaps. This year’s scoring was again generally excellent, with 16 of those qualifying averaging 30 pts or better. The results were:
Winner Ian McDougall 34.06 pts (51 outings)
Second Peter Clarke 33.86 pts (22 outings)
Third Ken Morris 33.48 pts (20 outings)
Fourth Rob Kennedy 33.28 pts (40 outings)
Fifth Tony Tompkins 33.06 pts (32 outings)
Sixth Dave Parker 32.83 pts (42 outings)
Nigel then invited Hugh Chamberlain to present his trophy to Ian McDougall.
Following Ian’s gracious acceptance speech, Nigel concluded by noting that all of us as members enjoy excellent golfing facilities at Frilford Heath, with three top quality courses maintained to very high standards. He invited all to join him in expressing their appreciation to the Club and particularly Sid Arrowsmith and the greenkeeping staff for their hard work in this regard - general applause.
On the management front, things were perhaps occasionally less than ideal, but Nigel expressed the hope that we might look forward to some improvement in this regard with the arrival of the new General Manager and the appointment of a Golf Manager in the new year.
Finally Nigel reiterated his thanks to all who had participated in the TT Roll-up during the year for their excellent camaraderie and good humour, both on and off the course, and relayed greetings from Bangalore from Paul Hagemann, a former TT Roll-up Regular now living in India. He then wished everyone and their families a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
To conclude proceedings Mike Whitwell drew the raffle and presented various humorous prizes.