High temperatures but no High Sheriffs at Hertfordshire
It was a long trek for many across the Dartford Crossing on route past Mark Bignell's homeland of Essex on a beautiful sunny day, towards the lush lands of Hertfordshire Golf Club for the Spring LEGS match on 25 April.
With a grand clubhouse that was once Broxbournebury Mansion owned by the Order of Knights of St John and the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire amongst others, it was an impressive backdrop to the day. Well, there were no Sheriffs around but more than a few bandits on show on the day!
Walking into the clubhouse, there was more than a whiff of perm solution and hair spray coming out of the Hair Salon strangely positioned just inside the foyer, which must've generated a bit of the ol' green mist of envy from some of our more folically challenged LEGS members! Worse was to come when it transpired that the club were not aware that they had to provide a full English breakfast for us! Fortunately, this was soon sorted out, Terry Portway was ridiculed and angry stomachs were calmed...
Some of the new LEGS t-shirts were also on show - with the notible exception of Mark who not ony wasn't wearing his but helpfully had left others' t-shirts in a box under his desk back in the office... <sigh>
The course itself was in good condition, providing some very good, impressive and well-designed holes for LEGS members to do battle on.
In addition to the strokeplay, there were also three Matchplay matches taking place... In these Ian Bowden beat Terry Portway, Derek Ball beat newcomer Winn Faria and Peter Mcbride beat Nigel Halliwell - the last of which went right down to the final hole. Nigel admitted that he 'had to go for it' on the 18th... but sadly 'went for it' three times into the lake - as this hi-tech diagram shows...
On the Strokeplay, Mark Bignell didn't have the best of games by his own high standards but still managed to cream off 3 of the 4 Nearest the Pins - the best of which came at the 15th Par 3 across the lake, landing the ball a few feet away from the hole.
John Capstick hit some cracking shots, winning the NTP on 6th and pipping Ian Bowden on countback, to win the Front nine with 19 points. Peter McBride played tidily enough, winning the back 9 holes with 20 points. Overall winner of the day however on countback from John Capstick and Declan McGinn, was Derek Ball who posted an impressive 36 points.
At the end of the day, on the clubhouse veranda under the blazing sun, final scores were read out and money changed hands - all present agreed that it had been an excellent Spring LEGS event...
Results
Next stop - the Red LEGS match at Redlibbets on 16 May.