Fitzwilliam Golf Society

Tour Introduction

I have always thought that Shropshire is a great county to visit. Whilst there a couple of years ago, walking over some of the beautiful Shropshire Hills, I hatched a plan to run a Fitzwilliam golf tour in the area. I definitely wanted to play at Church Stretton, an amazing course, set on the eastern side of the Long Mynd. I knew that Ludlow town is an extremely interesting place and would be a good place to stay. And as I had some contacts in Ludlow, I decided that we’d also play at the nearby golf club, by / inside the racecourse – on the first day of the tour.

And when it came to the day, we had on Tour, 17 Fitz guys plus several partners – and with the assistance and company of several locals, especially on day one of the trip.

Day 1 Ludlow

The golfers arrived at Ludlow golf club at 11.30 am for bacon rolls / coffee – having dropped off Geunor, Penny, Ann and Lynn in the town – ready to join their excellent town tour run by Phil, an old teaching friend of mine, who now lives locally. Fitz old boys, Richard Hughes and George Salmon were also on the town tour – so Phil had his hands full!

And the Fitz golfers were very lucky to have three members, Graham, Dave and John (thank you very much), also playing – and they made us very welcome and helped guide three of our groups around the course. We played a team Better Ball competition off 90% course handicaps, with 2 balls counting on most holes, except the two par fives and four par threes where 3 balls counted and on the 18^th where all 4 balls were needed to score. And we had prizes also for any 2s scored.

The flattish course, largely situated within the racecourse is based on sand and gravel. As such, despite all of the recent rain, it still gave a reasonable playing surface for us to play on. The greens played very well. They were true but generally quite tricky and I’m not sure that most of us fully mastered them. One slight oddity is that the racecourse is mostly ‘in play’. With the rains and the fact that racing was due a week after us playing, the grass was extremely lush on the racecourse – so best avoided! There was also quite a lot of gorse and bracken – again best to keep away from. I particularly remember some interesting par 3s and a number of dogleg holes – and the views to Clee Hill, the highest point in Shropshire. All in all, it is a good Society course and very good value to play.

At the end of the round we enjoyed a quick drink (most on the excellent Ludlow Gold beer) in the nice Clubhouse – and then going off script somewhat – the prizes were awarded, earlier than advised on my schedule!

The team scores were as follows:

1^st – Dave Ward (member), Brian Smith, Alan Wood, Matt Hignell – 94 points

2^nd – Mike Hamment, Austin Jessop, Harry Coe, Martin Dinkele – 93 points

3^rd – Graham Cheshire (member), Graham May, Clive Makin, Richard Newport – 83 points

4^th – John Smallman (member), Ian Rosser, John Uwins, Stuart Lester – 81 points

5^th – Colin Dunkerley, Andy Flint, Paul Staten, David Williams – 75 points

And in the 2s competition there were four winners: Mike Hamment and Brian Smith at the 14^th and Harry Coe and David Williams at the 17^th.

Then it was on to our accommodation. Many were staying in the spacious and luxurious rooms at the Town House in central Ludlow – very up market accommodation for a Hamment Tour! The rest of us were staying at the Mascall Centre – not as luxurious but still quite adequate – especially as all but two of those who had booked as twin roomers, actually had a room on their own.

For the evening meal, I had found there was a Greek Taverna incorporated in part of the Mascall Centre building – the Athena. So, I decided that having a Greek meal would bring back memories for many of us of the Eros and the Whim restaurants at Cambridge. And Dave and Linda and their staff at the Athena did us proud – with some nice Mezze starters and excellent Moussaka and Lemon Chicken as the main course options – washed down with some fine Greek wines. We had the whole place to ourselves. There were 26 of us in all, including Phil and his wife, Jane; and Graham C and his wife Tracy. It was a fine evening meal – just what we needed really.

And a dozen or so of us, did then find time for one last drink at the Rose and Crown pub – another very old and characterful building, back in the centre of Ludlow. And so to bed – after a long day out.