Tales From Afar ......
It's not that you travel to get away from things but you do expect to see different things. This week we have had a short trip to Budapest in Hungary.
So first up we're boarding an aeroplane from Manchester to Budapest and we're met with "Buzz". Now I thought Buzz was happily settled in downtown Alexandra, who knew he had an airline operating across Europe.
Then we have landed in Budapest and making our way around and we came across this ...
Now I thought Bolty had finished driving Miss Daisy around. Maybe not. If Buzz has an airline business then it looks like Bolty has a taxi business going on in Hungary.
Then was wandering aimlessly around a supermarket paying attention to nothing in particular. Now if you have ever driven around Blenheim and have driven down the Wairau Valley towards Murchison, you might have wondered what happens to all the fruit from the vines which are everywhere. We all know Marlborough produces more wine than the rest of New Zealand put together. Then I spied the following.
Now this might be a decent drop but at 2,400 Hungarian Florints which equates to about 12 bucks New Zealand, it's maybe not up there with the Cloudy Bays of this world. For the record I didn't buy any. I looked for who might have made it on the back of the bottle but couldn't see any evidence of a producer making a claim to this particular wine. Somebody told me you can't buy decent lamb in New Zealand because all of the good stuff is exported. Maybe it's the opposite with wine. New Zealand keeps the good stuff and the cheap nasty plonk gets delivered to Hungarian and a whole bunch of other global supermarkets.
Off to Scotland next week and will be dusting off the golf clubs. But with rain forecast and a top temperature of 9 degrees, it might be a bit of a delay before getting out on the course.
Good luck to all the Smeatonians.
Meanwhile Back in Dunedin Town
Last Week
First an oversight from last week. We have often spoken of achieving the Holy Grail. Well last week someone came close.
Thanks to Hamish for picking this up. Richard Freeman got 4 out of 5 elements which equals the record and is as close as anyone has ever come. Well done Richard.
A Waggler First
We had a first ever celebration in the Waggler's group of the birth of a daughter to one of our members. Congratulations to Duncan and Hannah on the arrival of Bobbi May and of course Kallum as a proud Grandparent. Thank you Duncan for the whisky and the food. We sang a hearty "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" tune to the family on behalf of the Wagglers.
Meanwhile .....
Another good turn out this week with 32 players initially thought to be in the draw. However, this turned out to be 30 players on the day, as firstly a misunderstanding on my part with Tony Brown, who should have been an apology this week, rather than next week. He had arranged to fly over to New York on a shopping trip with his wife. Very understandable given the next round of SA trainings and world cup rugby.
Secondly Farmer MacKay who had his normal preferential tee time in place, looked at the weather forecast and sent a text to his playing partner Murray Edgar to say: " I am very busy today and I don't want to get wet." Great that he did turn up for a beer later and take the flak from his team mates.
Sadly this cost him $25 in the raffle as his number 29 came up first on the draw. ( Hurray !! )
The other topic of interest this week is that we are getting more demand from our less mobile members to use carts for their golf. This has to be factored into our programme going forward and we need to be mindful and flexible in this regard if we want to retain all members in our group. Please let Eddie know if you need a cart and we will endeavour to match groups accordingly.
Unlike Jamie, before sending my last email regarding the draw, I tapped the barometer and saw that there would be just light showers for the afternoon, which turned out to be the case. The conditions were mainly pleasant and this reflected in some good golf for the day.
Slow play has been a topic of conversation over recent months and we were very conscious after teeing off on the 13th hole that we were getting behind the group in front. We had only made the 14th hole before Bruce Carvell had the dreaded misdemeanour ( what is it about that hole ?? ) and our first whisky was confirmed. This was also apparently repeated by Nick Nicolson who committed the same sin on his favourite MagLashan hole.
Our foursome group contained three people with dodgy eyes, being Eddie, Bruce C and Hamish, as well as Murray C with a dodgy leg, We spent plenty of time looking for balls and had to revert to ready golf by 18th hole when the first of the 10th hole players caught us up. Another delay occurred on the first tee when Murray pushed his ball into some trees on the right rough and at the same time released his driver to fly about 10 metres down the left side of the fairway requiring another search. After all of that ......
John Marsh was appointed as the banker and he collected the $150 pool for each tranche.
Anyway to the first 6 holes it was group Cameron, Adam, Richard Ellis and Egen who prevailed with an impressive 34 points, noting that Cameron and Egen were in the top two spaces in the competition with 37 points each.
The second 6 holes was shared between two teams, each with a less than impressive 37 points. This included our first group winners Cameron, Adam, Ellis and Egen, as well as team Bolt, Broughton, Marsh and Henderson.
The third 6 holes was won in convincing fashion by team Nicolson, Cutler, Keenan and Todd who amassed a solid 49 points from all reasonably performing golfers on the day.
The Blue Jacket saw a contest between three players Egen, Cameron and Peart who all scored 37 points on the day. However it was David Peart who prevailed with a 3 pointer on his final hole of the day to claim the jacket.
The Swingers trophy saw a competition between Derek Todd and Mike Henderson who each had 3 birdies. The trip to Balclutha went to Mike for the superior 36 stableford points scored against 33 points by Todd.
The Waggler's raffle went to Richard Ellis with number 19.
With regards to the Smeaton Cup Calcutta, I ( Eddie ) have collected $250 from 25 Wagglers and have three other members who want to be included and are still to pay. Let me know by this weekend if any more want to contribute, happy to do an IOU till then.