What a golf day! Enjoy scores, photos, video and more...
Our 5th annual event was a roaring success... and yes, the rain stayed away!
Another year, another golf tournament! Well, a fund raiser actually for our dear local cricket club, Nuthurst CC - aka The Nutters.
The Nuthurst CC Annual Golf Day is now in its fifth year and has become quite a date in many a golfer’s calendar. The Waterfall Course at Mannings Heath Golf and Wine Estate is one of the finest in the South East and was the location for pitched battle after the noon shotgun start.
Prior to teeing off, the 21 four balls, gathered in the club house for the traditional coffee and bacon bap, catching up with old friends, the purchasing of raffle tickets and the all-important mulligans. Our organising team of Kevin and Jan Barnes, John Gleaves, Eileen le Rossignol and Ben Hewson set about snaring every participant at the registration desk to entice cash out of wallets! After all, this day is about raising money for the cricket club’s new pavilion project, now into it’s fifth year.
The Head Pro of MHGC, Andy Hailes, gathered everyone for a briefing at 11.30am. Of note were the ‘beat the pro’ (himself actually at the signature 10th hole!), the longest drive (the 13th) and the nearest the pin, on the stunning Punchbowl, 5th hole. The competition format was simple – the two best stableford scores counted for each four ball, off full handicaps. And the horses were away...
Click on the following link for the photos of the day – action shots galore! Check out the video too by clicking here…
The golf concluded just before 5pm, with cheerful but weary sports men and women sat on the new terrace quaffing rehydrating sherbet and debriefing on the high and low lights of the day.
At 6.45pm the now lubricated and spritely crew skipped up to the Latilla Campbell Suite for a super two course meal. Of course, NCC cannot waste an opportunity to hold a competition so a ‘Heads and Tails’ was held, which was won by Jan Barnes. Once the meal had been scoffed, Kevin Barnes, NCC Club Chairman, gave a short speech and introduced the awards. The splendid news from Kevin is that we now have over £120k in committed funds and that, should we be lucky with some grant applications, it is our full intention to build the new pavilion in 2018.
Stage left, enter John Gleaves, a man with a string of offices to his name… not only is he past captain of MHGC but also past club captain of Nuthurst Cricket Club and sometime top 20 post war wicket taker for the club! I digress…
John presented the team awards to:
Winning team: Simon Cripps, Bill Bissett, Jonathan Bissett and Barry Peate
Second place: Matt Scott, James Service, Jason Knott and Richard Grubb
Third place: Jonny Willis, Steve Wright, Ben Rowley and John Gleaves
Both the individual winner and nearest the pin were awarded to Tim Emens with 44 stableford points to his name. Well worth the journey from Switzerland to play in our esteemed event. [Ed: It must be noted that Tim was aided by a number of man made object… image ricochets out of old fashioned cowboy movies… the mind boggles.]
The longest drive went to Steve Wright with a mighty boomer of a shot, just pipping Dan Burstow, adjacent to the far left hand bunker on the 13th. Not sure about the bacon for breakfast, rather a can of spinach with those hits.
Please click on this link for the list of individual results and this link for the team results.
The final event before the wind down of the evening was our traditional auction, run by club Deputy Chairman, Jonny Willis. What a generous lot you golfers are! With lots covering 4 balls at MHGC and Royal Eastbourne and a signed Atherton print, there was, for the first time, a mini-fine wine auction. A short but enjoyable and noisy affair.
The day wound down just before 11pm and can only be judged to be a huge success. We raised close to £3700 which will take our aggregate funds raised from this event over the last five years to £20,000. Sensational stuff. Every Nutter is hugely grateful for this wonderful support.
Kevin Barnes has been the principal organiser of this event since day dot and 2017’s day has continued Kevin's run of marked successes. Our sincere thanks are extended to Kevin for his hard work and commitment to this important fund raiser for NCC. John Gleaves, Eileen le Rossignol, Jan Barnes and Ben Hewson also carried out valuable roles during the day and in the run up – thanks to you all, we could not do it without you.
Our final note of thanks is extended to Adam Streeter and the entire team at MHGC. The staff were superb and looked after our every need. If you were not aware dear reader, this is our first year for MHGC as the club's Lead Sponsor and we are delighted to partner with them to make this day such a success.
One final thing, get those diaries ready... Friday 12th October 2018 will see the 6th Annual Golf Day once again take place at MHGC on the Waterfall Course... get ready to confirm your places!
