Seniors Away trip to East Sussex National GC
Wednesday 24th /Thurs 25th August 2022
Given the short time scale available for Captain Dave to get things in place for what has become a ‘Captains must’ away trip each year, the outing to East Sussex National worked very smoothly. Just a hiccup with the weather, which was of course outside anyone’s control.
Although no serious problems were reported by the 24 who travelled down on Day 1, those with rather a lot of past driving experience seemed to have the worst difficulties. Ex Taxi King Dennis got his map book out (remember those?) and wound his way down through lovely Sussex villages, visiting some several times as they were so pretty, before arriving at the club. Mind you he started out so early that he had had breakfast and a nap by the time the next lot arrived. And it was getting pretty close to the start of the tee times when Bill’s absence was noticed. Apparently he went into taxi driver mode dreaming away about bringing down some Japanese tourists and naturally took a very long route.
But all filled with coffee and snacks in the hotel we went off to find the golf club house and tees. A map would have been useful for that rather elongated journey as well. I think it must be one of the longest hotel/golf buildings I’ve been in in the UK. But all very nicely designed.
Captain Dave had already ‘drawn’ the 6 teams of four players and prepared the cards so everything was in place to get off to a fast start on the East course. The randomness of a team of 4 Dave’s raised some eyebrows, but at least there wasn’t a ‘repeat’ planned for the next day!
Dennis started the day as he meant to go on, by losing his first balls before he got anywhere near the 1st tee. He intercepted Gordon rushing to the 1st tee and very kindly pulled out a box of ProV1s to offer as a belated birthday treat. But as he handed them over the box spilt and the balls scattered in the large paved and grassed area, with only one ball being located after a wide ranging search! But a very generous act it was.
The Captain’s Team had of course been advised to dress in team colours (blue) as a mandatory photo would be taken. Dave and Gordon got it right, Kim brought a darker choice to add drama and the GOY god Greg, just brought the blue sky! You’ll notice that Gordon clearly wasn’t prepared to play golf - which was how it would turn out!
Although no serious problems were reported by the 24 who travelled down on Day 1, those with rather a lot of past driving experience seemed to have the worst difficulties. Ex Taxi King Dennis got his map book out (remember those?) and wound his way down through lovely Sussex villages, visiting some several times as they were so pretty, before arriving at the club. Mind you he started out so early that he had had breakfast and a nap by the time the next lot arrived. And it was getting pretty close to the start of the tee times when Bill’s absence was noticed. Apparently he went into taxi driver mode dreaming away about bringing down some Japanese tourists and naturally took a very long route.
But all filled with coffee and snacks in the hotel we went off to find the golf club house and tees. A map would have been useful for that rather elongated journey as well. I think it must be one of the longest hotel/golf buildings I’ve been in in the UK. But all very nicely designed.
Captain Dave had already ‘drawn’ the 6 teams of four players and prepared the cards so everything was in place to get off to a fast start on the East course. The randomness of a team of 4 Dave’s raised some eyebrows, but at least there wasn’t a ‘repeat’ planned for the next day!
Dennis started the day as he meant to go on, by losing his first balls before he got anywhere near the 1st tee. He intercepted Gordon rushing to the 1st tee and very kindly pulled out a box of ProV1s to offer as a belated birthday treat. But as he handed them over the box spilt and the balls scattered in the large paved and grassed area, with only one ball being located after a wide ranging search! But a very generous act it was.
The Captain’s Team had of course been advised to dress in team colours (blue) as a mandatory photo would be taken. Dave and Gordon got it right, Kim brought a darker choice to add drama and the GOY god Greg, just brought the blue sky! You’ll notice that Gordon clearly wasn’t prepared to play golf - which was how it would turn out!
The weather was fantastic, if a little on the too ‘hot hot hot - humid’ side - many said they hadn’t brought enough to drink and many concluded that the golf was perhaps a couple of holes too long because of the heat. But it was a very comfortable course; lots of bunkers, but not too many other hazards. Wonderful country walk in a quiet setting. Those that choose to have buggies were grateful….
As a consequence of the heat the groups arrived back in the clubhouse bar looking a little worse for wear. But a couple of drinks soon sorted that out.
The 1st out Captain’s team had been playing so well that they really didn’t want to cause embarrassment to the other teams by lodging an unassailable score, so one of the team agreed to hold back a little (guess who) - but a mistake on a long par 5 two shot hole, which resulted in a 4 for 5 points, nearly unseated the plan, but that was quickly balanced out by some very poor shot choices, including an inability to give into a penalty drop. But we thought 128 would be just enough to take the honours. And so sitting in the clubhouse waiting, in came teams 2, 3, 4 and then 5 non quite managing to take the top spot. But all the best plans have problems and in came team 6 with a 134! (NB there may be some fictional aspects to this story).
Over the post game drinks some decided that an early morning swim in the hotel’s excellent facilities would be a good plan. As we now know they needn’t have bothered!
As is usual on these days there was limited time to get back to rooms to shower and change ready for drinks and dinner.
Captain Dave had told us that he had put £250 behind the bar to cover drinks (for a while) - it was very generous of him, the slight problems was that he hadn’t actually done it by the time we all arrived in the bar for pre meal drinks! But it was all sorted for drinks over dinner. And a very good three course dinner it was - good menu choices, and well cooked and hot food, nicely served - reminded us of WP. A lively room during dinner but very well behaved - well done guys!
Dave had enjoyed his wine, but was quite able to rise without difficulty to announce the results.
As a consequence of the heat the groups arrived back in the clubhouse bar looking a little worse for wear. But a couple of drinks soon sorted that out.
The 1st out Captain’s team had been playing so well that they really didn’t want to cause embarrassment to the other teams by lodging an unassailable score, so one of the team agreed to hold back a little (guess who) - but a mistake on a long par 5 two shot hole, which resulted in a 4 for 5 points, nearly unseated the plan, but that was quickly balanced out by some very poor shot choices, including an inability to give into a penalty drop. But we thought 128 would be just enough to take the honours. And so sitting in the clubhouse waiting, in came teams 2, 3, 4 and then 5 non quite managing to take the top spot. But all the best plans have problems and in came team 6 with a 134! (NB there may be some fictional aspects to this story).
Over the post game drinks some decided that an early morning swim in the hotel’s excellent facilities would be a good plan. As we now know they needn’t have bothered!
As is usual on these days there was limited time to get back to rooms to shower and change ready for drinks and dinner.
Captain Dave had told us that he had put £250 behind the bar to cover drinks (for a while) - it was very generous of him, the slight problems was that he hadn’t actually done it by the time we all arrived in the bar for pre meal drinks! But it was all sorted for drinks over dinner. And a very good three course dinner it was - good menu choices, and well cooked and hot food, nicely served - reminded us of WP. A lively room during dinner but very well behaved - well done guys!
Dave had enjoyed his wine, but was quite able to rise without difficulty to announce the results.
The full results for Day 1 are set out below, with photos, but Team 6 of Chris V, Spiggy, Winesy and Steve Benton took the top spot with an excellent 134 points.
Captains Dave’s team with Kim, Gordon and Greg were a full 6 points behind on 128.
Spiggy took the best individual score top spot with 43, with Bill in 2nd with 41, just edging out Winesy (excellent score) and John Powell on BB9.
Club Ambassador Dave Datson is never far from his phone pin number, but today was also nearest the pin on the green - I think Club Captain Dave Handley said that most of the Daves were on the green!
Dave S handed out the cuts for the next day - winning team one shot each.
Spiggy 1 shot cut for team, 3 shot cut for individual win and another one as score over 40 - so 5 in all! We think Spiggy went back to his room and prayed for rain!
Bill was given a 2 shot cut.
I think we’d all lost the plot by then anyway,.
A few lengthened the evening by departing for the bar and tried to relive past glories of drinking festivities! In reality most were in bed by midnight!
All up bright and cheerful for breakfast (which was very good), determined to go out and brave the rain and eat up the West Course. But all hopes were to be washed away by the news that the West course was closed (flooded underpass tunnel etc) and with a fully booked East course there was no realistic golf option. Very disappointing for Captain Dave and the guys, but there were some quiet mutterings of perhaps that’s not unhelpful given the extremely wet conditions.
A couple of rounds of negotiations and we were offered 4 ball vouchers for use in the next 12 months to come back and play the missed golf. The plan is for Captain Dave to try and get a date next year when all 24 can gather again to complete the original plan.
So the 2nd Day certainly ended up as a bit of a damp squid, but it didn’t spoil the overall feeling that we had all had a very good time, albeit a briefer one than planned.
Our thanks to Captain Dave for arranging and managing the trip so brilliantly and for his generosity.
Captains Dave’s team with Kim, Gordon and Greg were a full 6 points behind on 128.
Spiggy took the best individual score top spot with 43, with Bill in 2nd with 41, just edging out Winesy (excellent score) and John Powell on BB9.
Club Ambassador Dave Datson is never far from his phone pin number, but today was also nearest the pin on the green - I think Club Captain Dave Handley said that most of the Daves were on the green!
Dave S handed out the cuts for the next day - winning team one shot each.
Spiggy 1 shot cut for team, 3 shot cut for individual win and another one as score over 40 - so 5 in all! We think Spiggy went back to his room and prayed for rain!
Bill was given a 2 shot cut.
I think we’d all lost the plot by then anyway,.
A few lengthened the evening by departing for the bar and tried to relive past glories of drinking festivities! In reality most were in bed by midnight!
All up bright and cheerful for breakfast (which was very good), determined to go out and brave the rain and eat up the West Course. But all hopes were to be washed away by the news that the West course was closed (flooded underpass tunnel etc) and with a fully booked East course there was no realistic golf option. Very disappointing for Captain Dave and the guys, but there were some quiet mutterings of perhaps that’s not unhelpful given the extremely wet conditions.
A couple of rounds of negotiations and we were offered 4 ball vouchers for use in the next 12 months to come back and play the missed golf. The plan is for Captain Dave to try and get a date next year when all 24 can gather again to complete the original plan.
So the 2nd Day certainly ended up as a bit of a damp squid, but it didn’t spoil the overall feeling that we had all had a very good time, albeit a briefer one than planned.
Our thanks to Captain Dave for arranging and managing the trip so brilliantly and for his generosity.
Results for Day One