The sixth event of this year, Essendon Country Club produced another great day and finally some reasonable weather. Despite being a little cloudy the weather was great and we all stayed dry, albeit very warm. This time out we were on the Old Course, which provided a fair test with some solid scoring on the day.

The team at the club were brilliant as always and also managed to provide us with a decent experience watching England overcome the mighty DR of Congo and advance into what was an absolutely cracking game against Mexico last night. Dare we dream of watching the Three Lions in Ipswich after playing in Felixstowe???

Again, we were well attended with a full complement of 48 players in total, made up of 35 members and 13 guests. Our guests for this event were: Louise Upton, Rod Thorpe, Andrew Mortimer, Darren Bishop, Mark Kerr, Sangdao Jackson, Mick Spina, Bill Samways, Barry Buroughs, David Ball, Luke Gray, Tim Thomson and Ashley Pearce. Guests are always welcome at CBGS events, and once a guest has played one event, they’re eligible to apply for membership the following year if they are so interested.

Scoring on the day was quite good overall, with an average of 30.17. This was made up of 21 birdies, 237 pars, 345 bogeys, 217 double bogeys and 44 pickups.

Commercial Sense were the sponsors for this event and Terry Dean very generously provided some fantastic prizes, regional wines from Hertfordshire sourced from Grape Britannia in Cambridge. Almost Essex but fortunately he learnt how to work a map before the event… Terry also organised a nice little side game of Golf Bingo for everyone, which, along with a small sweepstake organised by Geoff Davies meant that we had a very successful day for CPSL Mind.

On to the prizes;

Skills Prizes

Nearest the pin on hole 9 – Kenny Egan
Nearest the pin in two on hole 10 – Simon Whitmore
Nearest the pin in on hole 13 – Michael Temple

Very well played everyone!

Team Event

3rd place (however no prize) – Team Carey with 114 points beating out Teams Peak and Scally on countback.
2nd place – Team Sponsor with 115 points
1st place – Team Secretary with 117 points

Individual Guests

In third place, taking only glory and no prize, with 33 points, was Rod Thorpe
Taking second place on back 6 countback was Darren Bishop also on 33 points
Taking first place, with an outstanding 42 points was Louise Upton

Individual Members

3rd place, tied with 36 points were Ben Leach, Benjamin Storey and Chris Beaumont, who were all edged on back 9 countback by Dan Cockerton
2nd place, a disappointed Karl Gjertsen with 38 points
1st place, Chris Carey with a very solid 39 points playing from a handicap of 10

Very well done, Chris.

Wooden Spoon

Our wooden spoon winner at Essendon with 22 points was Rob Dean.

Cuts and Shots Back

Karl Gjertsen gets cut another 1 shot
Chris Carey received a 2 shot cut

Order of Merit Table

The race for the Anthony Barnes award continues to simmer… Click here to view the current Order of Merit table.

Fines and Misdemeanours

And now we have the obligatory fines for silly behaviour. I’m very pleased to say that yet again we excelled ourselves in this regard. All in good humour and well received for a great cause. Every penny raised supports CPSL Mind, who do fantastic work and are hugely appreciative of our support. Here are a few of the standout fines from this round:

Ben Leach attending his first event managed to get taken for no profile picture, no details of handicap on his profile and then also chose to leave early to watch the football. Very generous.
Barry Peak who really should have been suspicious when told he had a free place due to a cancellation…. despite booking himself on the event several weeks earlier
Kari Sewell for believing me to be his secretary and asking me to read his emails for him
Terry Dean for suggesting I may go easy on fines because he’d organised some bingo
And finally Luke Molyneux, who not only managed to lock himself out of his car, but also managed to lock his phone in there

And as usual, a special thank you to Jeremy Wager for very kindly photographing the prize-giving and providing an excellent selection of photos from the day.

To Finish

Once again, thank you all so much for your support. I now very much look forward to playing two new courses for myself next week in Felixstowe Ferry and Purdis Heath for my mini-tour on 15th and 16th of July. Unfortunately, they are having delays with their clubhouse renovation, so there will be no changing facilities available. Food will be a rolling Lamb Burger and Chips to allow us to finish as early as possible for those venturing into Ipswich for the evening. We then have our summer break and the next event is at Wellingborough on 10th of September followed by Aspley Guise on the 23rd. Plenty of tickets are still available for these two events however, please don’t forget to book due to the few weeks off, as I’m sure they will sell out as usual!

It continues to be a pleasure to organise these days for everyone and I very much hope you are all enjoying them as much as I am. Thank you all so much for your continued support.

2026 CBGS Captain – Paul French