Senior Captain's Away Trip : 13th/14th September : Weald of Kent
After months of planning in the Capt Kev Sandford household, and an unsuccessful last min search for a replacement for the unfortunate Les, who became unwell at the last minute, the remaining 30 Warley Seniors set off for a couple of days of golf and fun at the Weald of Kent GC.
There was some trepidation about encountering the Dartford vortex where speed mysteriously turns in to more time. But all was good and times were short. On arrival there was much discussion about the narrowness of views in Kent - not as in closed minds, but as seen from the sometimes seemly less than one car width lanes during the last part of the journey!
The welcome was good and the breakfast food was just what we would very much like at Warley!
Kev came around with brown envelopes and we naturally thought ‘wow he’s buying us off - what’s he done” ? But he actually just wanted a fiver from us all to put in the envelope for a charity draw to occur later.
A fiver worse off we gathered at the 1st tee with high expectations of success, particularly as the weather was good and the forecasts suggested that it would continue over the two days.
NB Don't blame me for the last 4 photos! Just can't get the staff!
The lower course index suggested that the challenge might be a little easier than Warley. Although that might have been true the course still presented plenty of problems to keep us on our toes. Perhaps not the best maintained course, but some interesting holes. Particularly the par 3 16th. It certainly seemed that on day 2 the water level in the pond had, strangely as there’d been no rain, increased. But I suppose Archimedes had that worked out!
We played, as as you can see above, mainly in teams of 4. That wasn’t the case with the team of Skinner, Hansen and Allen whose 4th party member was at home getting to know his bathroom intimately. But we tried hard to keep Les full involved as his score could be counted (sort of) as one of our best 3 from 4. So we sent him the odd WhatsApp during the round when he did well to give him some praise for his endurance, although there was one occasion when we had to be quite honest and let him know he had put us in ‘deep s…t’ ! Not that any of that helped our final score.
Strangely though Capt Kev had the only other 3 ball team and we can only assume that he had signed up an invisible scratch player as his team did rather better than us all!
Anyway, the days golf done, all were ready for drinks before a good wash up and a filling meal.
We played, as as you can see above, mainly in teams of 4. That wasn’t the case with the team of Skinner, Hansen and Allen whose 4th party member was at home getting to know his bathroom intimately. But we tried hard to keep Les full involved as his score could be counted (sort of) as one of our best 3 from 4. So we sent him the odd WhatsApp during the round when he did well to give him some praise for his endurance, although there was one occasion when we had to be quite honest and let him know he had put us in ‘deep s…t’ ! Not that any of that helped our final score.
Strangely though Capt Kev had the only other 3 ball team and we can only assume that he had signed up an invisible scratch player as his team did rather better than us all!
Anyway, the days golf done, all were ready for drinks before a good wash up and a filling meal.
A nice comfortable room set aside for us, with a good menu choice and excellent, if simple, food, served by friendly staff. Sound familiar?
Capt Kev started off the dinner drinks with a cash donation to the table whip-round. I think one or two people had high expectations of the amount of wine they hoped to win from their golfing performances, as they certainly downed enough wine and beer to both refill the pond and ensure the loo doors were in full swinging use that evening.
But they appeared to be a happy lot!
Capt Kev started off the dinner drinks with a cash donation to the table whip-round. I think one or two people had high expectations of the amount of wine they hoped to win from their golfing performances, as they certainly downed enough wine and beer to both refill the pond and ensure the loo doors were in full swinging use that evening.
But they appeared to be a happy lot!
The retreat to the bar after the meal was not a hurried affair. Two large seated groups formed. Don seemed at times to be providing some kind of train service between the two - from where I sat it certainly looked a bit like the Little Eva - Loco-Motion dance routine. He was also the key messenger between the group without the Captain and the group with the Captain. Some felt that the days results should have been shared with an appropriate Captain’s speech. Kev obviously gave it some thought because it took him a while to tell him to ‘F… ..off’. I only mention this as it could have had an impact on Don’s health the next day.
Chairman Steve on the other hand found all the train motion rather tiring and settled down to drift off zzzzzzzz until the journey was over (Sorry Steve - the only photo I got in that session!).
Unusually, Dennis was also present throughout the evening and enjoyed a shady or two - he offered to do some magic - how he managed to get everyone out of the bar and off for a relatively early night so quickly was indeed magic.
Chairman Steve on the other hand found all the train motion rather tiring and settled down to drift off zzzzzzzz until the journey was over (Sorry Steve - the only photo I got in that session!).
Unusually, Dennis was also present throughout the evening and enjoyed a shady or two - he offered to do some magic - how he managed to get everyone out of the bar and off for a relatively early night so quickly was indeed magic.
Breakfast next morning was good, a menu with personal service and freshly cooked food - excellent. Most arrived bright and fit - but there are always some.....
And so day 2 golf was on the agenda. Still no Les of course, so two 3 ball groups amongst the 8 teams.
The weather held good and we now knew the shape of the course, so we should have all done better. Yes? Well its seem as if things were very mixed. No much higher scores at the top, some did a bit better, some did less well. I suspect the evenings fun and a large, heavy breakfast, did some of us no good whatsoever. All too much for Don as , coming across to the 10th tee, we noticed him getting into his car. Bad back he said, holding his head!
And so we all arrived back in to sit in the sun and hear from Capt Kev on who had mastered the course, the drink and the eating best, to put in the highest scores. Well the majority of us remained - some had caught the Dartford tunnel fear again and couldn’t face waiting to hear the results.
Just for you guys a review that agrees with you:
Meanwhile in the background beavering away magnificently, getting cards sorted, analysed, tabled and checked was good old Chris Vander - our results hero. We are all bated breath, ready waiting for the big presentation. Well, I paraphrase, but it felt a little like - “OK I won everything guys, thanks for coming’ ! Not really, but Capt Kev has had the habit this year of breaking the Captains’ performance model, by putting in some very good golf results whilst managing all the responsibilities and worries of his role - someone did tell him he has responsibilities and worries didn’t they??
I won’t re-list all the winners here as they are in the tables below.
But just to be serious for a moment it was an excellent performance by Capt Kev over two days, and it was very good to see old favourites like Winesy and Joe playing well away from home and getting in the prizes, along with one or two more recent ‘seniors’.
Many thought that Dennis was a certainty for Kev’s blind pairs comp, but stand in Joe got that.
It was good that Capt Kev’s enforced charity contribution raised £150 and resulted in £75 being donated to one of our group in need of much charity.
And also of course there was Sir Simon's 4 pointer competition, which saw over 1 third of players getting 4 point birdies, or 4 point 2 shot holes. (Shown in table below).
And so the rush for home. For some quicker than others - most had , yes, as you’d all worried about - a Dartford experience, but poor old Ray had car trouble which hindered his journey home.
But that didn’t spoil a lovely couple of days, playing golf, sharing time and banter with pals, and getting looked after and fed. Our thanks to Capt Kev and those that helped him with the organisation (I’m sure Mrs Sandford had a bouquet of flowers along the way) which ensured we had a great time.
Hopefully, Magic Mike Vice Tringham is already planning the 2024 trip!