Friday 18th August was the date and Tarland the location for the 27th outing for Banchory Veterans' Football Group. It was only the second time we'd been to Tarland, the last occasion as long ago as 2004. That was also the first time the famous Filofax was awarded as the booby prize. (Prior to that the car wheel cleaning kit was awarded but that disappeared in mysterious circumstances).
Our numbers dwindled a little - from the initial 12 who had booked, there were 3 cancellations (for various reasons) so we went out in three 3-balls. As last year's winner, I was first to tee off and I was joined by Dave Williamson and the legend that is Andy Gore, who had again made the long journey up from the North of England for the occasion.
Ian Sharp led the second team, with Ken Black and Steve Paterson (in his first game of golf for 4 years). Last but not least was Team 3 led by form man Gerry Mullins, whose handicap has come crashing down to 12 this season. He was supported by Nigel Meany and Jeb Tyrie.
A multitude ot prizes - all donated by the participants - were on offer for the first 5 individual stableford scores, team (best two scores) plus two nearest the pins and the longest drive.
The portents were not good - the morning weather forecasts had all warned of violent thunderstorms for North East Scotland and it was with some trepidation that we all gathered for pre-match bacon butties. Nonetheless, it was dry when we teed off and, in the end, apart from a couple of fairly light showers we got round 18 holes OK.
Scoring, however, was modest to say the least - with one exception. Dave Willamson scored a respectable 33 points to win comfortably, thus going from last year's zero to this year's hero. Jeb Tyrie came in second with 29 points and there were four players who all finished with 26 points, necessitating some complicated calculations to sort out the order. Eventually, Ian Sharp was declared 3rd with me 4th, Ken Black 5th and Gerry Mullins 6th.
Andy Gore bagged 7th place with 23 points and it was a very close battle for the booby with Nigel Meany just pipping Steve Paterson by one point. The team prize was equally close with only one point separating the 3 teams. The first team of Dave, Andy and I came out on top after a countback.
Dave got the longest drive and Ken and Gerry (the latter slightly controversially) the nearest the pins. Afterwards we posed outside the clubhouse for the traditional team photo:
Not for the first time, I forgot to bring along the winner's shield and famous "green" jacket - and Dave also forgot the dreaded Filofax. However, I redeemed matters slightly by presenting the winner with his keepsakes later on that evening at the Headbangers' gathering at Steve Paterson's house:
(Photographer's finger courtesy of Andy Marshall).
There remain just 11 names on the trophy. I've won 6 times and John McDonald and Gary Grant 4 times each. Dave now joins Ian McRae with 3 wins, John McWhinnie 2, and Brian Fitzpatrick, Ian Sharp, Rob Dunnachie, Andy Gore and Geordie Ziegler once each.
We've played on 16 different courses from Brechin to Braemar. Over to Dave now to organise next year's outing - oh, and there's also the small matter of digging out the Filofax and making the presentation to Steve.
