The Swindlers vs. The Ladies

2024

The third Swindlers vs. The Ladies match took place during the afternoon of Thursday 29 August with twelve players from each team..

A prefect day for golf allowed for no excuses and some very close matches ensued. The format this year was men playing off the blue tees and ladies off the red with 85% course handicap. 4BBB Stableford points counted for each team with the sum of the Stableford points being the winner.

Match 1.

Annette Kinge & Yvonne Chubb vs. Colin Reardon & Bryn Owen

What a lovely day. Yvonne & I had the pleasure of playing Colin & Bryn.   A very close match, not much in it all the way.  Pleased to say Colin missed the final putt so we won by 1 - great fun.  The cake was pretty good too!

(Annette)

Annette drained a long putt on the 1st for 3 points and we thought we were in for a tough day! However, the scores remained very close until Bryn & Colin both decided to screw up the 9th to give the ladies the lead at the half-way point - a lead they never relinquished!

Yvonne put on a golfing masterclass over the closing holes (4 consecutive pars!) to post 37 points. Colin had a 10' putt on the 18th to tie the scores but missed!

Colin had some amazing luck during the round hitting lots of trees and bouncing into the fairway (if you can't be good, be lucky!)

A fun round with lots of banter and helped by Bryn's running commentary!

(Colin)

The opening match paired Colin and Bryn against the formidable duo of Annette and Yvonne, who established an early lead only for the men to take a small one point advantage playing up the 9th, which of course the ladies overturned due to our blob, resulting in a halfway advantage to the ladies of 19 points v 18. The tightness of the match continued throughout a tense back nine only for the ladies to take a deserved 37 to 36 point advantage due in no small part to Yvonne parring the final 4 holes.

Stand out moments included Colin's sublime approach shot that skirted the trees into the 11th, though the ladies thought it 'lucky'. Yvonne's pitch and 4 footer  on the 16th for a par, Annette's steady play throughout and Bryn's commentary throughout all 18 holes! Despite much mirth at Colin's tee shot on 18 (which hit the yelllow tee markers, shot into the trees on the right and 'luckily' bounced back into the middle of the fairway - he had a 5 footer (it was 10 ft - Ed) to tie the match for a par. Unluckily he missed!

The result of the fourball did not at all detract from the enjoyment of all of us in playing in such a tight match and we look forward to doing battle again next year, as defending champions!!!

(Bryn)

Match 2.

Carol Hudson & Sue Vincent vs. Tim Horan & Phil Nathan

Phil and I had great round with Carol and Sue who were great fun as always. They were unfortunate as had they not been missing their putts often by a whisker the match would have been much closer.

I felt sorry for Phil at one point as he felt that he did not figure much on the back nine. Looking back at the card he supported and dove-tailed very well providing backup with his handicap allowance when I screwed up (succumbed to the ladies charm) score 41 to 32

(Tim)

Match 3.

Robbie Chambers & Alison Gatford vs. Colin Price & Roger Keen

Roger and I had a very enjoyable round with Robyn and Alison.

The scoring was close with Robyn and I generally matching each other with 2 points a hole. However, the best putt of the day was Alison's wonderfully judged putt from the front of the 14th green which shaved the hole on the high side, stopped at the back of the hole for half a second before dropping back in for a well-deserved par. This was followed on the 15th by Roger chipping in from the rough short right of the green.

(Colin)

Match 4.

Debs Sparham & Barbara Owen vs. Brad Bygrave & Paul Sims

What a lovely afternoon!   Barbara and I had the pleasure of playing against Paul and Brad who kept us on our toes with us being neck and neck for the first 8 holes.  However, they blamed the short stop at the halfway hut, which seemed to have affected their rhythm on the back nine and therefore we managed to widen the points gap.

I do have to comment that Barbara Owen was on fire, having recently returned to the golf course after knee surgery and we dove-tailed well.

Our opponents were very courteous, generous and a delight to spend the afternoon with.  We look forward to next year!

(Debs)

I'm not going to mention the golf too much as me and Simmo could not cope with Debs' and Barbara's consistent quality golf. We eventually lost 41/35 but I'd like to add it was one of the best games I've had whilst being a member at Puttenham. The game was played in great spirits with both teams willing their opponents on.

It was so enjoyable, I don't believe I swore once!

(Brad)

Match 5.

Sue Price & Gill Wallace vs. Nick Hayward & Simon Lloyd

We had a lovely match with the Swindlers represented by Simon Lloyd and Nick Hayward they were very friendly and a lot of banter and laughing. We might not have won but we had a great game really nice blokes Nick putting in from anywhere didn’t help our game. Can’t wait for next time!

(Sue)

Nick and I had a really wonderful game with Gill and Sue. After the first 3 holes and a storming 30 foot putt by Gill on the 3rd, we knew we were in for a great game. But Nick and I dovetailed really well and Nick sunk some terrific long distance putts. We won 40 - 33, but the score does not reflect the fabulous game and most of all the fun that we all had together.

(Simon)

Match 6.

Carolyn Rickwood & Val Horan vs. Andy Vittery & Trevor Vincent

Sorry - no match reports for this one!

Final results:

Ladies	Points	Swindlers	Points
Annette Kinge & Yvonne Chubb	37	Colin Reardon & Bryn Owen	36
Carol Hudson & Sue Vincent	32	Tim Horan & Phil Nathan	41
Robbie Chambers & Alison Gatford	36	Colin Price & Roger Keen	38
Debs Sparham & Barbara Owen	41	Brad Bygrave & Paul Sims	35
Sue Price & Gill Wallace	33	Nick Hayward & Simon Lloyd	40
Carolyn Rickwood & Val Horan	40	Andy Vittery & Trevor Vincent	35
	219		225

Congratulations to the Swindlers on their first win.