A fair day for golf

The annual Woolton Group golf competition was held at Woolton Golf Club and for a change the weather was kind, at the start anyway.

Pictured left, the first team to tee-off, from left to right, are: David Hilliard, George Fairclough and Graham Sinden. Pictured right, Team City Lodge from left to right, are: Geoff Johnston, Peter Johnston and Ken Smith.

This year saw a change to normal activities insomuch as there was some intergroup competition with teams from Garston, Warrington and a Tithebarn guest team, together with teams from the Woolton Group comprising Princes Park Lodge No 4769, City Lodge No 2514, Woolton Lodge of Unity No 1086 and Old Lerpoolian Lodge No 9270, taking part along with non-Masonic friends.

The teams were seen off at 1:30pm by Group Vice Chairman Mike Cunliffe and scrutiniser Albert Kirby of City Lodge who also kept a careful eye on the score cards at the end of the day. During the afternoon, the weather held and the first team arrived back in the clubhouse at 5pm, just before the rain started.

After a hot shower and change the teams handed their score cards to Albert and assembled for a quiet drink and reflection on the day’s events. Some golfers reported that the course had been tricky, greens were in good condition but there was a ‘swing’ of 18 inches on the 8th, or was it their imagination?

Once all 40 golfers and non-golfers had assembled they were asked to take their places in the dining room where acting director of ceremonies for the evening Sam Robinson called their attention to the Chairman of the Woolton Group Golf Society Graham Sinden to say a few words. Graham welcomed everyone to the prize giving and hoped that they had enjoyed their golf and thanked those who were attending to support the prize giving and enjoy the meal.

Pictured left: Ian White (left) receives his prize from Kevin Poynton. Pictured right: Geoff Johnston receives the Geoffrey Hirst Trophy from Kevin Poynton.

After grace had been given by Vic Albin the diners enjoyed an excellent meal of pate, roast beef with all the trimmings followed by Eton mess and coffee. Everyone was very pleased to have attending two past group chairmen of the Woolton Group, namely David Hawkes and David Hilliard.

Vic Albin returned thanks and Sam Robinson asked for attention whilst vice-president of the society Andrew Whittle proposed the loyal toast.

Graham Sinden then proposed the toast to the Woolton Golf Club, which was responded to by Geoffrey Johnston, a member of Woolton Golf Club and the Woolton Group. Geoffrey thanked all the golfers for a good competition saying he was pleased that so many had competed and that so many had come to join in the celebrations. The green staff had worked hard over the previous weeks to prepare the course, even though the ‘rough’ was still somewhat tall. He looked forward to another excellent event next year.

Sam Robinson accompanied by Eric Binks explained the rules of the ‘Chorley raffle’. There were no tickets so everyone who bought a number had to remember their own. Once the number 200 had been reached Eric used the randomiser on his phone to generate the winners. The raffle raised £200 which would go into the Woolton Group Golf Society account for disbursement to charity at a later date.

Pictured left: David Hawkes (right) presents the Noel Hawkes Trophy, (in memory of his son Noel), to Matt Wilson of Toxteth Lodge. Pictured right: Andy Whittle (right) presents the PEDs trophy to Kevin Poynton.

The eagerly anticipated announcement of prize winners drew near and Andy Whittle introduced the President of the Woolton Group Golf Society Kevin Poynton. Andy informed the assembled that there was an extra cup to be presented and he hoped it would travel from group to group and come back to Woolton, this was the Vic Albin Intergroup Cup, which this year was won by the Garston Group.

The first prize to be presented was the Nearest to the Pin and was won by Ian White from the Warrington Group. The final prize of the evening was traditionally named PEDs and was presented to the golfer who had walked more miles than anyone else and had taken more shots than anyone else. However, on this occasion the usual recipient had been unable to play so it had been decided by the committee that the PEDs cup (Persistence Endeavour Dedication and Sacrifice) was to be presented to Kevin Poynton who gracefully, with a roguish look in his eye, accepted the trophy from Andy Whittle with great applause from the diners.

Overall, everyone had an excellent day and it is hoped that many more will partake next year and the weather will be kind again.

The full list of winners for the Woolton Group Golf Competition 2017 are as follows;-

Happy diners after a wonderful meal.