Sheerness - Wed 19th Nov 2025

Report

Only a handful of times in the past 15 years of Broadstairs Golf Society outings have we faced weather anything like as bad as what faced us on the Isle of Sheppey today... Following a heart breakfast, the draw was made and 27 golfers & 1 caddy made their way to the 1st Tee... well, actually most of us hid under the clubhouse canopy or loitered in the warmth of the clubhouse until the very last minute... It really wasn't the day to be drawn in the early groups with the rain forecasted to persist for the 1st hour of our round...  There was some concern when Rhod didn't appear with the 1st group on the 1st Tee however, Westgate 'Tough guy', Steve Faulkner, who had been drawn in the final group, had swapped with him apparently wanting to go & tame the 'Norse Gale'... although Rhod did remind us that Jesus had taught us that the 1st shall be last and the last 1st...

By the time this last group began, the worst of the rain was gone & it was just the wind to battle with... although by then Andy Miller had already been seen speeding out of the car park having completed just the first hole... this was a hole more than Bob as he failed to get his ball to stay on the 1st Tee, whilst his umbrella was being turned inside out by the 'Norse Gale' that Steve still hadn't tamed!!  Evacuation scenes like this hadn't been experienced since Feb '22 when we had 4 evacuees driving through the torrential rain away from Walmer & Kingsdown whilst the 14 who stayed faced thunder, lightning, huge gusts & some Thunder snow...

Fair to say, scores weren't going to be great today... in fact only 2 of the 25 who finished scored in the 30s, whilst 14 scored 23 or less...  Bouncy Castle Dave was in buoyant mood as he claimed the first 'nearest the pin' on the 3rd... whilst we had an inkling that Ken Tinklin was having a good round as he claimed the next Par3 on the 9th.  Team 6 then bagged the last two 'Nearest the Pins' as Terry claimed the 14th & Steve Bailey the 17th.  Although it was getting pretty dark by now as this penultimate group had lost 2 holes on the groups in front of them... spare a thought for the last group who not only had Bouncy Dave recounting his 'nearest the pin' win for the final 15 holes, but also had to reassure the Society behind us that they would get in before it was too dark!

Time to announce the winners: 3rd place by countback: Gary Fairhall with 28pts. 2nd place: Bouncy Castle Dave with 30pts. 1st place, for the 2nd year in a row, Ken Tinklin with 31pts.  The Team Game was won by the final group with an impressive 83pts, so £7 each for Dave, Ricky, Ed & Rhod. Oh & I probably should mention that I got the only 2 of the day... I may have forgotten to mention that whilst we did the after game round up... which unsurprisingly only had a handful of us stay around for, as everyone tried to get home quickly for a hot bath & a rueful reflection on what could have been...

Next month: Westgate 5 club Christmas Challenge & presentation: Thursday 11th December, 9.30am breakfast.

For the 'Player of the Year' comp it's basically as you were before this round... (will give more details on the run-up to Westgate... basically it's between Ant, Pete, Alan, Carl & Ady).

For the 'King Pin' comp: Ken is ahead with 4, followed by Alan, Carl, Bob, Dave, Mick Beale & Steve Bailey on 3...