PW_3_2019

Sports

Section UK: National Golf Competition Yvonne McGregor , VP Social This year’s National Golf Competition was at the Belton Woods Hotel, Grantham, near Lincoln.

A beautiful setting in several acres of grounds. O ur 25 players, from across seven Regions, were joined by one guest from IPA Sweden. This is the 4th year that Britt Hermansson and her partner Kaj Lethavaaro have joined us, showing true friendship. We were also joined by several partners of our players and a couple who joined us for the social aspects of the event. Region 6 recruited several new members following the email I circulated, advertising the competition and the attractive deal I negotiated. There are two challenging courses at the resort. We first got to play on the Championship Lakes course, which has previously hosted the Midlands PGA Championships, the oldest PGA tournament in the world. It has long holes, narrow fairways and, as the name suggests, plenty of water hazards. This is a challenging course for any golfer. The weather was overcast for our practice round, and I expected to hear comments like “if it rains, I’m off”. But everyone battled on, returning soaked and weary. A beer or coffee to discuss their round, followed by a quick shower, and we all met up for a lovely dinner in our private dining room. A very good evening with new and old friends. Next morning we had a bit of leisure time for swimming, saunas, squash and the gym, while others took some time out to relax. When we were joined by our final three players, our 25 members went out to play the Lakes Course on what was now a warm cloudy day. When the score cards came in, there were smiles and frustration on some faces. Scores were checked and the top three were: Martin D’eath leading with Gary Haley and Ben Page joint second. Once again we enjoyed an excellent meal and social evening.

On Thursday morning, with our cases packed, we began the second day of our competition - this time on the picturesque Woods course with its gentle undulating fairways, which run alongside many of the wooded areas around the resort. The weather was warm and sunny, ideal golfing conditions. I was waiting to check the scores and update the leader board as the competitors returned. After soup and sandwiches the winners were announced. There were 3 Regions who entered Teams: 1st Region - Scotland (1), Andy Mather, Doug Ogilvie, Brian Henderson and Dougie Milton with 266 points. 2nd Region - North of England (3) including the Isle of Man, Karel Simpson, Alison Green, Dave Wilkins and Gary Haley with 247 points. 3rd Region - Central and West London (6), Steve Boswell, Dave Ellis, Ben Page and Martin Roche with 223 points. The Ladies winner was Alison Green, (Region 3) with 63 points. The Individual Competition winners were: 1st Martin D’eath, (Region 10), with 72 points 2nd Gary Haley, (Region 3) with 71 points 3rd Dougie Milton, (Region 1) with 68 points. Longest Drives were Dickie Clinch and Steve Boswell Nearest the Pin winners were Gary Haley and Tony Pickering Doug Ogilvie had an Eagle on the 4th on the Lakes Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their time at Belton Woods and they look forward to next year, wherever it may be within Region 5.

36th Annual Stanley Hanna Golf Competition Yvonne McGregor , Section UK VP The Kingdom of Fife was the venue for this year’s Stanley Hanna Golf Competition between No 1 and No 2 Region. Team captains were Andy Mather and Steve Brown. The Ladybank course has a reputation as one of the finest inland courses in Scotland. It has a variety of challenges, including classic heathland. It is on the Fife Open Championship qualifying trail and has hosted final qualifying on seven occasions. O ur IPA golfers met in the clubhouse for bacon rolls and tea or coffee. No 2 Region brought 10 players from The results were: Ulster Cup , Stableford Competition, was won by Andy Mather, 1 Region, 2nd Mark Robinson with Steve Brown 3rd, both 2 Region. Montgomery, Tommy Gilmore, Mark Robinson and Richard Simpson. They all received engraved Waterford Crystal wine glasses. A very enjoyable day where the craic was

Northern Ireland, while the Hosts, No 1 Region, disappointingly only managed four. Our Region were struggling before a golf ball was struck. Everyone set out onto the course and enjoyed their round of golf, despite the deep heather and persistent rain. It was a relief returning to the warm Clubhouse, where an excellent meal was waiting, and score cards were checked and verified.

excellent and a lot of catching up was achieved. It was nice to welcome new faces to this event. Hopefully next year No 1 Region can pull their socks up and field sufficient numbers to play towards getting the Trophy back as it’s been a wee while since our last win.

The Scottish Cup , Strokeplay, was won by Gary Canavan 2nd Gary Montgomery with 3rd place going to Tommy Gilmore, all from 2 Region. Nearest the Pin were both won by Andy Mather while Jim Westwood had the Longest Drive, both from 1 Region. Stanley Hanna Trophy was retained by No 2 Region. Their Team was Steve Brown, Gary

POLICE WORLD Vol 64 No.3, 2019

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