JJ Cup 2024 - Day 1 (Swindle day)

I don't think the last group were quite ready for the photo!

Day 1 of the 2024 JJ Cup saw us teeing off on a new course to the group, The Nottinghamshire Signature Course. Having decided that the Belfry and similar courses are not for us and having the Greetham Valley management decide that 2 days was not enough to allow us to stay, we relocated to a new venue with two golf courses and the on site facilities we've become accustomed to.

The weather was a bit sketchy at the start with a heavy rain shower setting in as the first group finished the first hole. Thankfully wind wasn't an issue allowing the use of umbrellas for those that did remember to bring them. 

The course was mostly straight forward but as the course had been extended to a 18 hole course, the various sections of the course had an extraordinary amount of OB boundaries at the perimeters of the course and internal OB around the driving range area. This made for some interesting misses and near misses during the day. 

Usual swindle win-adjusted handicaps applied for day 1 with usual prizes (1st, 2nd, F9, B9) up for grabs. 

16 players started the round on day 1, only 15 finished as buggies were not available due to the recent very wet conditions on the course which had prevented some maintenance on the course until the days immediately prior to our visit. The course was in reasonable condition although there were some holes which were clearly suffering from too much rain in the area. 

There were of course a few controversies on the day and on the round. Firstly, JJ employed the "myspace" feature of his slightly oversized car as he parked it on top of Duncan's normal sized car. JJ declared that there was no-one behind him when he parked which probably is due to the silencing of the polite but increasingly concerned German gentleman shouting Achtung! as he reversed.  

Next there was the attempt to employ the "it's only just out of bounds" rule by James on the 12th hole where he'd wondered out of bounds on the right trying to avoid the out of bounds everywhere else. Of course this was only tongue-in-cheek, I think!

Finally, and I only found this out later in the evening, Roger Small had interpreted the rule about being able to re-tee having hit the ball off the tee but within the teeing area to apply to a teeing area that included the entire course. Roger was duly corrected in the bar late in the evening and thankfully no harm was done to the results for the day. 

Our average stableford and gross scrores for the day, 93.7 and 28.87 respectively, were not at all bad given the lack of knowledge of the course. 

There were 8 birdies on the day: Duncan (12) Coenraad (14,18) Steve Reynolds (8,16) Pete Laurence (5) Tony (10) James (1)  Well done gents

Our winner on the first day with 38 points (and many missed points) was Duncan Miller. Well done Duncan, a great score on a new course. 

In second place on countback from Martin Lythgoe is Coenraad Fourie with 33 points. Well done Coenraad. 

The front 9 went to Martin Deery on countback from Steve Reynolds with 18 points. Well done Martin, you also managed to ensure that Steve had a second place for the day which is comforting.

The back 9 went to Martin Lythgoe with 17 points. Well done Martin.

We retired to the hotel for a few beers followed by check-in and dinner followed by the 2023 end of year presentation presented to the group by Duncan following 15 minutes of effort to get power to Roger Small's projector. A fun presentation as usual with plenty of heckling from a well oiled group.

Paul Gardner conducted the now customary draw for the sweepstake at dinner to add a little extra interest for the also-rans in the main event on Saturday. 

A small group remained in the bar at the insistence of Martin Lythgoe who was determined to take out anyone other than Steve Reynolds who he'd drawn in the sweepstake. Of course we willingly obliged enjoying the company and the drinks on offer. Steve was sent off to bed nice and early to increase Martin's chances of success in the sweep. 

The rooms were excellent quality and the food was pretty good so the first day was considered a success.