General Club Noticeboard

On Wednesday, September 25^th the Seniors visited local rivals Stoke Rochford for the penultimate match of the season. Having already won the home fixture, the Belton Park team were keen to make it a clean sweep.

The weather was pretty awful to start with, constant light rain made the greens a little slow and both teams struggled with putting. After a pre-match breakfast, the match was played in good spirits and the weather improved significantly after a few holes and there was even a bit of autumn sunshine.

The final result was a good away win for the Belton Park team by 5 games to 3.

On Sunday 15th September, a lovely early Autumn day at Frilford Heath Golf Club, Jack Diment represented Lincolnshire and Belton Park In the Champion of Champions individual competition. Jack, having won the Lincolnshire Amateur championship was up against 30 other County Champions to see who could become England’s Champion Club golfer for 2019.

The morning round saw Jack hit a very respectable two over par round to leave him six shots off the lead. In the afternoon Jack played some superb golf and posted the second-best round of 69 which put him at one under for the tournament. With the leaders falling back Jack moved into second place with only a couple of groups to finish and Jack can be seen pictured under the leaderboard. 

However the last two groups provided the eventual winner and runner up with both players finishing on 4 under, three shots ahead of Jack.

However, for Jack to finish in fifth place was a tremendous achievement, and Belton Park Golf Club are extremely proud of him.

After reading a golf magazine about injured soldiers, and some careful planning back in April, Belton Park Golf Club arranged a golf day with Battle Back Golfers. Battle Back is a MOD initiative aimed at getting wounded, injured, and sick personnel into sport to aid their rehabilitation.

On Thursday, September 12^th, the full schedule started with the 12.30 pm ceremony of raising the Union flag. 24 players in each team, playing 2 competitions, the first 6 pairs being in a 4bbb, and the second 6 pairs in a match play competition between the civilians and ex forces players. 11 players attended from Battle back and some fabulous golf was on display from the Battle Back team who eagled the 3rd par 4 hole.

The RAF provided a flypast from a “Hurricane “ world war 2 fighter, thanks to the RAF as it shows how well they support this charity.

Organiser Ian Carroll played with club Lady Captain Helen Long with Zeno Gomes, Chairman of Battle Back Golf, and Battle Back Captain Luke Finley in the lead team playing the 4 bbbb. The team actually came in winners with 82 points, winning on count-back!

The match play competition was won by the civilian team, best winners were Kevin Smith and Richard Welbourne. The civilians won the day with a 5.5 to 0.5 win.

Ladies in the halfway hut fed all the players with cakes and drinks and in the evening there was a meal and prize-giving.

Major(Rtd) Bernard Broad gave an inspirational overview of what and why “Battle Back Golf“ was started, to help seriously injured service personnel through the rehabilitation process. Major Bernard Broad also explained how the process helped him personally when he had been seriously injured himself and how the rehab process works. Zeno Gomes, who worked at Headley Court, was co-founder of the Battle Back Golf programme. Each injured person has his own issues to overcome and getting involved with sport and playing against Golf Clubs helps overcome some of those obstacles.

To raise funds, 24 local people/businesses, including Peter Allis (the voice of golf on the BBC) gave donations and raffle prizes, and 14 golf courses donated 4 ball vouchers to be auctioned off. A “tops and tails” game was run by Paul Nash and a £1 toss for a bottle of whisky donated by the Juniper Tap also proved very successful.

A bespoke shield was designed, made, and donated by Belton Park member Andy MacGowan as a trophy for the matchplay event. This trophy will be played for in future years. Next year the golf event will be extended to include all the clubs that donated the 4-ball vouchers, each club being invited to bring 2 players to take part.

We thank everyone who donated, or helped to make this event a success, all proceeds will be going to Battle Back Golf, a very worthy cause. It is an honour to be associated with “Battle Back Golf” and the Belton Park organiser, Ian Carroll, wishes to thank all involved, and the sponsors who helped to make this a most memorable day.

Link to the prize-giving photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TEcGnwFnCEZ5C7Rs7

On Monday, September 9^th the Seniors welcomed Rutland Water Seniors for the return friendly match. After losing the away fixture back in June 4½ - 3½, the Belton team were keen to get their own back. The match was played in soggy wet conditions with light rain, but the greens were in excellent condition.

The final result was a good win for the Belton team by 5½ - 2½. After an excellent post-match lunch, the game of heads and tails was won by Derek Little. Rutland Water Captain Bob Haynes praised the excellent condition of the course and thanked the catering staff and the halfway house volunteers for their efforts.

On Sunday 8th August in wonderful weather, our low handicappers competed for the prestigious Upper Crust Trophy and the Stan Robinson Tankard.

As expected it was an extremely competitive and closely contested event and it was Club Chairman James Wiggins who eventually emerged as the winner of the Upper Crust Trophy with a nett 69. This was a superb achievement coming 25 years after his last victory in the same competition.

Winning the Stan Robinson tankard for the lowest gross score of the day was new member Gareth Williams with a level par round of 71. Mention must also be made of Mike Bown, another of our new members, who finished second in both the nett and gross events. After the event all players enjoyed the traditional four course meal with decanters of port supplied courtesy of the winners. James is pictured below receiving the Trophy from Gents Captain Simon Denton.

On Saturday 7th August on a beautiful Autumn day a good field of members and guests competed for the John Peberdy Trophy in an Am Am competition.

In ideal golfing conditions the scoring was very good and just one point separated the top two teams. Narrowly missing out in second place with 88 points were the team of Graham Watkin, Ian Mason John Cooke and J Davies.

Winning with 89 points was the all Belton Park team of Martin Kelly, Gary Long, Steve Preston and Tom Tyndall. Richard Peberdy and his family joined Gents Captain Simon Denton to say a few words and to present the trophy to the winning team.

Belton Park are very grateful for the support of Richard and his family over many years and Richard and his two daughters can be seen in the photo with the winners.