APEB JJ Cup 2022 - Day 2

 The Lakes Course at Greetham Valley
2nd April 2022 (10:30am ish tee off)

Before we get into Day 2 there are a few items of administration to not from the previous evening's proceedings. 

Paul Gardner, known for such creative past wonders such as the virtual golf round of the great lockdown, came up with the idea of a sweepstake on the eve of the away weekend. The premise was that each player would receive ticket with the name of a random player from the starting line up for the JJ Cup and the players holding the tickets with the name of the winner or second place in the cup would receive a share (60% for first, 40% for second) of the prize fund for the sweepstake. 

Paul had initially proposed he would pre-draw the tickets but decided that it would be fun for each player to draw their own tickets at the evening dinner on Day 1. 

A typically creative and it would seem confusing concept which attracted the expected barrage of questions and comments at the dinner. We did manage to get through the draw before the group were too befuddled and a new angle was created that everyone had a chance of winning a prize. 

The draw was as follows : Ticket Holder (Player)

• Steve Brewerton (Roger Gibbs)
• Peter Creighton (Martin Lythgoe)
• Paul Gardner (Duncan Miller)
• Brian Geddes (Roger Small)
• Roger Gibbs (Steve Reynolds)
• John James (Andy Simpkin)
• Pete Laurence (Peter Creighton)
• Martin Lythgoe (John James
• Duncan Miller (Steve Brewerton)
• James Miller (Pete Laurence)
• Steve Reynolds (James Miller)
• Keith Rowden (Brian Geddes)
• Andrew Simpkin (Paul Stammers)
• Roger Small (Paul Gardner)
• Paul Stammers (Keith Rowden)

A tricky draw for John James who now held the player that most of us didn't want to win. Andy was already unbearable after three in a row at Greetham, no-one but Andy wanted it to be four! Also, the safest prediction was either that Steve Reynolds would achieve his customary second place giving Roger Gibbs a share of the spoils OR James Miller was destined to miss out on first place due to Steve holding his name in the draw, more on that later.....

         

The evening itself was excellent yet again, great food, great company and a healthy dose of banter. The staff were very patient, friendly and very helpful. Most retired at a reasonable time although there was a pool tournament that started late due to having to wait for the other group to leave the table.

We woke on Saturday morning to clear skies and a frosty course, the winds were much lighter and the forecast was at least less windy than Friday although it was unclear how much hail/sleet/snow there would be.

We gathered for breakfast in the same room as the evening meal the night before. The breakfast was good quality and good quantity and of course the staff were accommodating, dealing with our special requests such as my non dairy latte and Martin's hot chocolate from a sippy cup.

Everyone checked out of their rooms and made their way to the first tee for day 2 on the Lakes Course. 

his course has traditionally been our day 1 challenge, a much longer and flatter course than the Valley Course but with some equally challenging holes. Notable for me were the par 3 holes which were typically longer and offering some slightly different challenges to the undulating Valley course and the Par 5 holes which were much narrower and generally pretty challenging. 

Pace of play was somewhat quicker than the previous day but there was still a bit of waiting around as we caught the groups in front of us fairly early on. 

Groups for Day 2 were as follows

Group 1: Martin Lythgoe, Steve Brewerton, Roger Small

Group 2: Andy Simpkin, Paul Stammers, Paul Gardner, James Miller

Group 3: Brian Geddes, Pete Laurence, Steve Reynolds, Keith Rowden

Group 4: Duncan Miller, Roger Gibbs, Peter Creighton, John James

I received the following report from another group

On hole 2, a long par 5 lined nicely with trees on either side and OOB on the right. Paul Stammers goes left off the tee and hits two trees. Not content with hitting just two trees Paul then hits his second shot across the fairway to hit two more trees. Andy Simpkin meanwhile hits his second shot into the trees on the left then after taking an age to decide on his path out, chooses the Mickleson approach forgetting that he doesn't have the skillset required and duly hits another tree and ends up further back on the 3rd fairway. Andy's ambition never faltered as he tried to reach the 2nd green from the 3rd fairway and hits a large conifer tree. 

This report came from James Miller who said he's never seen so many trees hit on one hole since Roger Gibbs hit the same tree 7 times at Dunston hall back in 2019. 

The golf on the day was far more pleasant with a good deal of sunshine and the odd snow/sleet/hail shower, nothing like the attrition of day 1!

On the turn we had a very tight pack of 8 players between 16 and 18 and Pete Creighton out on his own with 20 points. There were even some birdies being sunk with Duncan Miller and Peter Creighton bagging one each on 8 and 6 respectively. The back 9 broke up the pack a little but it was still a tight finish with 6 players in the 34-36 point range. James Miller bagged the only birdie on the back 9 on hole 12. 

In the end Pete Laurence too the honours with a solid 36 points despite a blob on 8 and several 1 pointers. In second place was James Miller on countback from Keith Rowden, Steve Reynolds and Martin Lythgoe. 

Nearest the pin went to Martin Lythgoe and longest drive went to went to Duncan Miller. The winners all received a rather nice Early Birds towel and a box of premium balls courtesy of Mr James. 

The sweepstake result was therefore James Miller taking top prize as holder of Pete Laurence in the draw and of course Steve Reynolds taking second as holder of James Miller in the Draw. So James doesn't get his name on the trophy but he does take home two prizes! You couldn't write this stuff..... oh, hold on a minute.... 

The winners on day 2 (from left to right) Steve Reynolds (2nd place in Sweepstake) Duncan Miller (longest drive) Pete Laurence (Winner of the 2022 JJ Cup) James Miller (2nd place in JJ Cup, 1st place in sweepstake) and last but not least Martin Lythgoe (Nearest the pin)

... and the icing on the cake - Andy in last place!

A huge thankyou from all of us to John James for organising yet another fantastic weekend at Greetham. 
We all look forward to this event and it was great to get back to normal and take part in this year's event.