Fitzwilliam Golf Society

Our last event of 2023 was held at Blackmoor Golf Club, near Bordon in Hampshire. Once again, the weather was perfect, with sun and light winds (we have had good weather for all our events this year), and we avoided the heavy overnight rain both before and after we played.

Blackmoor is a very attractive golf course, not the longest, but lots of interesting holes, usually played to some very slopey but true greens and with five difficult par 3s.

Sixteen Fitz golfers and eight from St Catherine’s (including a guest from Downing) played a pairs competition, and within this, four pairs from Fitz and Catz played a mini-match. The Match result was a win for Fitz 2.5 to 1.5.

Pairs competition results:

1^st David Coombs and Martin Breddy with 42 points

2^nd Colin Dunkerley and Bob Barltrop with 41 points

3^rd  Gordon Wood and Tony Kilbourn (Downing/Catz) with 40 points – on countback

There were four other pairs on 40 points namely Pete Bennett & Graham May, Brian Smith & Jon Wood, Stuart Lester & Matt Hignell and Chris Cowan & Tim Russell (Catz).

There was a Nearest the Pin competition on all the par 3s. The winners were

6^th   Huw Stevenson (Catz)

9^th   Colin Dunkerley

12^th Jon Wood

15^th Richard Dodds (Catz)

17^th Simon Blackler

18^th Nearest the Pin in 3 – Paul Parker (Catz) – with a birdie!

Following the golf, there was a delicious roast carvery, followed by crumble and custard. In addition to overseeing the prizegiving, outgoing captain Brian Smith reflected briefly on his season as Captain – eleven very successful events and an undefeated season in our matches The high point was Fitz winning for the first time the Inter-College Alumni Golf Competition in April, played at Gog Magog GC.

He thanked the Society for the opportunity to serve as captain, a role he had thoroughly enjoyed and he wished next year’s Captain, Stuart Lester, a similarly enjoyable and successful year.

Brian Smith, Captain and Match Organiser