Seniors’ Captain Peter Macdonald Pearce held his Away Day at Beeston Fields in Nottingham this week on a day of mixed wind and rain. Everybody was caught out with the slickness of the greens which also seemed to have lots of hidden slopes. Last year’s winner of the Joe Ball Bowl, David Aldred, seemed to cope with them better than most. Reflecting the difficulty of the course for a visitor, the scores were very low and David won with a score of 33 points. Second placed Dave Lucas seemed to get to grips with the course in the back nine and came in with 31 points. David also won the longest drive and nearest the pin. Joe Ball was third with 30 points. Seventy two was the winning score for the top team of Peter Macdonald Pearce, Martin Hope and David Aldred.
Peter thanked the former Captains for their support this year with a special mention to Club Secretary Dennis Millington, who was a special guest on the day, for his considerable help this year.
The Greetham Valley Ladies’ Scratch team have won the Lincolnshire Scratch League for the second year in succession! They qualified for the final by winning the South Lincolnshire title and faced the winners of the Northern league, Elsham Golf Club. Greetham Valley fielded the same team as last year in the final but Scratch team Captain Gilly Grant said that she would like to pay tribute to all the members of the team who helped get them to the final. Sophie Beardsall lost the first match two down but Kay Ropson won hers two up. This meant that it was all down to Emma Tipping in the final game and she did not disappoint! Emma won her game three and two.
The Greetham Valley Men’s Invitation took place last weekend on what was probably the last really hot day of the year. With little in the way of breeze to keep the players cool it was quite a tiring day for all competitors. The competition, a stableford, was played off white tees on the Lakes course and off three quarters handicap. With the weather conditions, the scores were expected to be quite high, however, that wasn’t the case. To make up for the “easy” conditions, the flags had been placed in some of the most difficult places on the greens which meant that all approach shots had to be really thought out well in advance. 
Greetham Valley’s gentlemen members with a handicap between 19 and 28 were eligible to play for the Rabbits Trophy at the weekend. The competition was played on the Lakes course in warm conditions with the odd sprinkling of rain. James Ablett, who won the 19 to 28 Club Championship in May, shot another fine round to post a score of 75 to win the trophy and a brilliant double. He said that he was delighted with the win and was pleased that all of the practice that he has been doing recently seems to be paying off.
The Valley course was the venue for the Seniors’ Stableford qualifier this week; warm sunshine with a slight breeze blessed Rutland and came as a pleasant surprise to players who have got used to the wet and windy conditions that seem to have been the norm this year. In division one, Peter Giblett, who has had an excellent five or six weeks in seniors’ competitions, took full advantage of the balmy weather to win both division one and the overall competition. After parring the first, Peter dropped a shot on the second hole but got it straight back when he birdied the third; this was followed by a par on the next and a good round seemed to be in prospect when a couple of silly mistakes caused him to blob the fifth. After a little regroup, Peter went on to drop only one more shot in the next nine holes which included two more birdies. The weather turned very muggy as the breeze disappeared, tiredness led to a drop in concentration and three bogies followed one after the other. Peter managed to birdie the par three eighteenth to give himself a chance with forty points. As it turned out, the birdie on the last was to be very important, as another player also came in with forty points; however, Peter took the win on count back. 
The South Lincolnshire Junior League finals took place at Boston Golf Club this week. Greetham Valley has beaten all of their local rivals to make it to the final along with Spalding, Tydd St Giles and Belton Woods. This is the culmination of League matches held throughout the South Lincolnshire area over the past four months.
