CITCO report round 7 – 18 July 2018 – Junglinster

Posted on 20 July 2018 by jhave

What a beautiful evening it was!

First of all, thanks to our starter Maarten, who clearly knows how to organize things. 22 FROGS members and 4 guests were welcomed with a good layer of “huzarensalade”, which is probably the best of Dutch cuisine you’ll ever experience, followed by a shot of nice old Dutch “jenever” and a draft beer. And on top of that a cold beer for during the round, which I’m sure everyone finished before reaching the tee of the second hole. I like this Burgundy style start of our rounds and challenge every next starter to be as original in their choice of food and drinks on the first tee. Just make sure it contains alcohol…

The whole evening seemed to be dominated by many elements of the Dutch culture. Before going to the first tee, I went to the driving range to warm up, but of course without “jetons” for the ball machine. Fortunately Steve B was there. I went up to him and asked how it works here with getting practice balls. The trick worked: he offered me his card so I could buy balls… without spending a dime… I owe you a beer for that Steve!

The round itself was a dream, the course in good condition… or did I hear complaints about the greens…? Anyway, they worked for me… and for Ayzo (another Dutchman – I think we outnumbered every other nationality yesterday), who sank every putt within 4 meters. Junglinster is in my view a course where you leave your Driver in your bag, except maybe for one or two holes. Nevertheless, I did hear many trees being hit around me, by those who couldn’t resist.

I always like seeing so many staying for dinner, like Wednesday evening, and I also say this as a representative of our sponsor. Drinks and dinner after the round are at least as important, and at least as much fun, as the round itself. It is that combination that makes the FROGS. And as a bonus we were treated bottles of a nice Rosé – thanks Craig, much appreciated, hope you had a nice Birthday evening!

The results:

Bijnens LEARY: Jess
NEARY: Maarten, who also scored well, despite the starter stress
LONGEST DRIVE: Jess too

The Undersigned – 16 points (to which I agreed with mixed feelings….)
Paul G – 15 points
Maarten – 15 points
Andrew – 14 points
Craig – 14 points

And then there is the unavoidable Pink Ball, which surprisingly went to one of our best players: Bottie. And also surprisingly, our leader Steve B, whose goal it was to get rid of his worst round of this season, was also in the race for Pink Ball with the same 9 points as Alan (and Rob), but based on countback (I think?) got away with it. Guest Pink Ball went to Paul Cornet, who hopefully didn’t have too much of a traumatic experience joining us.

AKD Match Play: the Final is known! The semi-finals were close matches: Paul G needed 10 holes to beat Dennis, and Craig beat Jess 1up by winning the 9th hole.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Frogmittee and Jess, on behalf of the players and the sponsor, for all the work they are doing. That sort of work is needed to keep a group like ours going, but these volunteers don’t always feel appreciated, partially caused by unawareness among our members, of the amount of efforts behind the scenes.

Three more rounds to go…..hope to see the same number of players as in the first 7 rounds. We are having a nice season so far, in good spirits…cheers!

Tim

CITCO report round 6 – 4 July 2018 – Junglinster

Posted on 6 July 2018 by jhave

Dear all,

21 Frogs and 5 guests ventured to Junglinster on a rather humid summers evening. The clouds were dark and thunder could be heard way in the distance (way way in the distance) Our starter, Marco, and showing his, as always, sartorial elegance bolstered spirits with fine wine, champagne, beer and some sausage. As Botty said there is nothing like a good bit of Italian sausage.

Play started with a matchplay (NB: please ensure all matchplays are played as per the schedule or risk disqualification) between our very own Lord of Montrose, Dennis, and our Ryder Cup highheedyin, Gregor. They were joined by Neil who had the unfortunate role of running behind the buggy of Lord Montrose.

The groups were tightly packed, each struggling to reach the bar before the rain started. One group, who will remain nameless (Botty, Goes and Mastroddi) saw a flicker of lightning in Belgium and decided on safety first and sprinted walked to the bar.

Colin Cameron teeing off

Dennis and Gregor were closely matched but started to slow up as the pressure mounted. Would the Menace be able to put off our low handicapper enough to secure a victory? Dennis took advantage of his captive audience in the buggy and in his inimitable style managed to get Gregor to agree to:

A lifetime membership of the BCC;

Selling 25 books of raffle tickets for the British Stand;

Establishing a Luxembourg arm of the Montrose Boys FC

Collecting the Merc from the airport car park, do a quick valet and delivering it to his house…

Back in the clubhouse the lightning quick trio had secured ample seating and the stories were, as always, around what could have been… Steve Brown apparently “could have” finished more than just 3 holes but felt the home course advantage was unfair and used his time helping his playing partners. Well done Steve.

Prizes on the night went to:

Longest Drive – Maarten de Groot

Leary – Marco Bus

NTP – Chris Lowe

4th place – 17 points, Rob, where is my fleece, McCorduck

3rd place – 17 points, Jess I Have a fleece

2nd place – 18 points, Luc de fleece is too large Vet

1st place – 18 points. Mark, I still need a fleece, Houston

The Pink Ball was hotly contested but the honours on the night went to Daniel Kaiser [with 6 points, Ed.].

Best guest went to Jarvis Smith.

Finally our Ryder Cup Captain, Gregor, announced the team for the 14th July, the full list I’m sure will be on the website in due course. There was some consternation as no one seemed to know the location of the actual trophy itself. Who had it last? Did it ever get engraved? I’m sure we will hear more on that later…..or perhaps Confucius will have the answer.

The requested dress code for the 14th shows a Scottish hint with the Blue Frogs top and white trousers/shorts being order of the day. Anyone wishing to complete the ensemble with Braveheart facepaint are welcome.

Well done to all who finished the round in such dangerous conditions and thanks again to Marco for starter duties.

I almost forgot, the matchplay on the night was won by The Menace, well done Dennis! [Jess beat Arnaud to move to the semis as well, Ed.]

Look forward to seeing everyone on the 14th!

CITCO report round 5 – 20 June 2018 – Kikuoka

Posted on 21 June 2018 by jhave

Tree golf by Rupert Birch

Bonjour mes copains!

Yesterday evening +/- 30 FROGS gathered at Kikuoka CC to demonstrate their golfing skills in round 5 of the CITCO Grand Prix. With the mercury heading towards 29C our starter’s cool box full of chilled beer was greatly appreciated – thank’s Martin!

What did we learn?

1) It’s not how you start it’s how you finish!
2) Luminous green FROGS shirts are not recommended attire when there’s a plague of flies of biblical proportions on the course – ask Roby!
3) 6 points is more than enough to progress from the group stage of the World Cup but sadly not sufficient to avoid the ‘pink ball’!

So to the golf…

As usual there was a mixture of the good,the bad and the ugly! As for the golf shots played these followed along the same lines. A topped,low and left tee shot on the 1st tee from yours truly found the the first bunker. 5 hacks and a couple of club slamming tantrums later and a scratch was safely in the bag! Meanwhile my 2 playing partners (Stevie B & Steph) placed 2 great drives straight down the middle.

From there on in things improved or deteriorated depending on your perspective.

Hole 6 – longest drive…Myself and Stevie B decided to lay up short of Jessica’s LD marker in order to leave our favourite approach distance to the pin – 225 metres! Mr B creaming a 3 wood to within 8M below the pin and myself hitting an even more impressive 5 wood pin high. Unfortunately Steve walked off with a par 🙁 but fortunately for me I sank my put for an eagle!

The half-way house was a welcome sight after 9 holes in the sweltering heat and the vending machine rapidly sold out of ice-cold beers so after sharing each others stories of missed putts, swarming flies,eagle putts, scoring 21pts the previous day, we adjourned proceedings to the terrace for food and drinks.

The aftermath

The atmosphere on the terrace was great with the beer & wine flowing but the usual chaos with ordering continued however everyone eventually getting what they ordered….. I think?!!

A gusto rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ was belted out for Denis’s birthday and his generous offering of Rose wine for everyone was much appreciated – Cheers Dennis!

So to the important stuff (for some of us anyway!)

First of all a big thank you again to our starter Martin!

Standard Scratch on the day was 15.

1. Nick 18
2. Chris McKenzie 17
3. Franco 17
4. Dennis 16

Longest Jessica
Nearest: Nick – prize went to 5th place (Chris Juste) under the ‘1 prize/person’ rule
Bijnens Leary: Dave Winters
Pink Ball: Colin Cameron 6

Other results:
Ronaldo beat Morocco 1-0
Scotland 161/3 – Netherlands 160/6
England 481/6 – Australia 239 all out!

Matchplays:
Paul won against Botty
Craig won against Delboy
Gregor won against Colin

Dennis to play Gregor winner to play Paul in the semis!
Joost or Arnaud to play against Jess with the winner to play Craig in the semis!

Matchplay – message from committee:
Players are responsible to play their match before the deadline. If you cannot play your match by the deadline, you must give your opponent a bye.

Round 6 takes place on 4th July @ Junglinster. Your starter Marco will no doubt be in touch nearer the date.

Cheers!
Nick

CITCO report round 4 – 29 May 2018 – Preisch (Luxembourg)

Posted on 31 May 2018 by jhave

On a stunning summer (yes, I have now officially jinxed us for the rest of the year) day, 23 FROGS members and 0 guests (that’s more like it!) crossed the border to the land of “le strike” to strike unsuspecting little white orbs into strange places (except Gerry on the 5th tee: am sure that I heard his Pinnacle giggle: thanks for the (unsolicited) G&T, it seems that there is only one golf playing Irishman in the entire world who hasn’t heard of this little tradition – for avoidance of doubt, I am not referring to Gerry but if you don’t know yet, a subtle clue lies below).

Steph was mistaken for a 70s “low budget” San Fran movie producer (grow it back) but shot a respectable score. Craig was mistaken for Calamity Sam after an unfortunate backfiring incident (shave it off) and didn’t score so well… The rest of the mob looked and played pretty much as expected. Standard scratch was a pretty decent 14 points.

A big thank you to our starter, Neil, not only for the cold Norwegian beer [The beer was Danish, not Norwegian, Ed.], even if it wasn’t Aass (look it up) and for allowing me to join the second last flight without a pre-booking: the early bird catches the worm, but the eagle shows up and has himself a freshly fed bird(ie).

AKD Matchplay: Jess made FROGS history by winning two matches, both going into sudden death, all in one easy(?) step: out go No G&T Baxter and Lots of G&T Tony. BTW, a great number of matchplay matches are behind the OFFICIAL scheduled dates, sort it out ASAP, over the w/e or before or after work if you must, the ‘Mittee seem to be getting jittery and if previous decision-making is any indication, some (but probably not all) of us will face some sort of unpleasant consequences. Joost, stop faking injury, I have now been cut so you have a (small) chance if you play really, really well…

Pink ball: guess. If you have a kind heart and half an hour to waste, please offer help. No one? It can’t be the half an hour requirement ??

NTP: Mark Gillies
Longest: Jess
Bijnens Leary: Johan, closely beating Rob McC, but the hand back prize mysteriously went to Tim (who was unlucky to only score 16, to be fair)

Top 5:

5 – Dave with 16 on countback
4 – Tim with 16
3 – Stephane with 17 came within a whisker… (2 puns in there, work it out)
2 – Steve B made a solid (?!) 18 and probably only lost 2 balls (in addition to his patience)
1 – Johan made an almost godly 19 with lots of help from the angels and a can of Norway’s 4th finest – good bye any chance of breaking 12 points in FROGS ever again

Next event is on the website already, your starter will be in touch whenever it takes his fancy, if at all (yes, we truly empower our starters)

CITCO report round 2 – Kikuoka – 2 May 2018

Posted on 4 May 2018 by jhave

Sunset at the fourth hole

Fellow FROGS,

The month of May is upon us, the sun is shining, and 2nd May saw the FROGS landing at Kikuoka for the first time in the 2018 season.

There was a distinct buzz in the air as your humble scribe wandered onto the practice ground this Wednesday, and he was met with some very strange sights indeed… not only was there Mark “Medicine Man” Gillies dancing wildly round the scattered contents of his entire golf bag, obviously deep in some ancient golfing ritual, but there was Tony Nightingale … PRACTICING … (I assure you, this is genuine!) What could all this mean? Would Mark be guided by the Golfing Gods to the winner’s circle (spoiler alert – Nah) would Tony be practicing his way to the top? Watch this space.

Up on the first tee, it way mayhem! The place was rammed, the beer was flowing, everyone was happy (or should that be “Hoppy”?) All that was missing was some US of A-style walk on music…..What should we have chosen ……”What a difference a ~~day~~ Starter makes”? “~~Grandad~~ Hoppy we love you”? Whatever, this “Starter” thing all seemed a great success, and I for one think that we should make this a regular feature. Why the Committee didn’t think of it earlier, I don’t know…

Anyhooo, everyone was too busy to do any actual golfing, so yours-truly was rushed with indecent haste onto the tee, only to disappoint everyone by failing to hit his usual “where the **** did that go”, and instead launch one a goodly way down the middle… (cruelly robbed of LD by petty rules…)

And so they were off. And very soon they had all thrashed and cursed their way round, and made it to the 19th (do we officially have to call this “the 10th in the FROGS”? Ruling please…..) where the usual entertainment was laid on by the Kikuoka cabaret team (or “staff”), who did their usual routine of wilfully misunderstanding drinks orders, and ostentatiously showing that yes, there are 70 religious / cooking channels, and some very interesting lawn mower programmes on, but no we won’t let you watch the football (which is playing on the TV in the other corner)…..

Anyway, who wants to see part 2 of a 13-goal thriller, when you can be enjoying the FROGs Grand Official Prize giving ??!! There was a hushed anticipation in the room, with the atmosphere being only soured by a certain Fat Frog, who insisted in conducting the entire (let’s face it, semi-religious) ceremony, wearing a “they-who-shall-not-be-named” jumper!!! Through shame, the offender shall remain nameless here… just remember that he is a dead ringer for Nicola Sturgeon, from a shallow angle…

Back to the results, and at this point I must thank Jess, (my saviour), who obviously heard me mutter “why the ****** would I want that” when the Fat Frog handed me the list of prize winners, as he took a photo of it (after I had left it behind) and sent it to me, which is why I know the following…..

Bijnens Leary Catweasel (this is sticking, even if he does get a house and a shave sometime)
NP Nick
LD yours truly, but with the prize going to….
5th Dave, with 15 points
followed by
4th Nick (again…did he get 2 prizes?) 16 points, off Bugger-all handicap
3rd Rupert (who obviously needs the balls, as he was risking his life on the range to nick a couple)
2nd Stuart “sneaky-long” Rowlands, an excellent 17 points off just 2 handicap
1st Yours truly [18 points]

Being the FROGS, the contest for the pink ball was tight, and at the wrong end of the single digits (as is depressingly common in the FROGS). The list tells me that Gerry and Will were contending, on 5 points (which means that my scoring of Will’s card was way off … Sozz), but in the end, no-one could compete with Tony “Practice” von Knittingale, on a range-improved 4 points. Gents, there are as many theories on pre-round practice, as there are FROGS, but this should surely be a warning…

Finally, I’m glad to report, that with this victory, I have achieved a lifelong ambition, having actually earned more from golf, than from regular employment this year (although I would have preferred it to be from turning pro and winning a Major, instead of being sans employ / en chômage, and winning EUR 150 in golf vouchers … but c’est la vie!!)

In the match play (and I’m winging it slightly here) I believe the following occurred:

Catweasel beat Ayzo

Jess beat Marco

If I’ve missed any, feel free to tell your missus / any close relative… they might care.

All in all, a successful FROGGIE evening. The thanks were both numerous, and given out on the evening, so no need to repeat here, other than to say well done again to Hoppy, who we hope to see on the course again soon (if only to give Tony “Two-Pink” some competition).

Next event is, I believe, 16 th May, at Preisch.

TTFN, and may the Frog be with you,

Steve

Report CITCO round 10 – Grand Ducal – 24 August 2017

Posted on 6 September 2017 by jhave

Well then, that was that. Another FROG season has come and gone. It hardly seems possible. Just as some of us were remembering which held of the waggley stick to hold, it is all over…

Firstly, the bad news. Despite all entreaties, Donald J. Nightingale has refused to go for the hattrick and Tweet last night’s results, and so unfortunately (and unexpectedly) you are stuck with me… so expect more banality than inflammatory… here goes…

The evening was seen of to a splendid start, with Top Gent and Top Golfer Gregor, offering what can be only described as “a Full-Arnaud” on the first tee. Very impressive and so official-looking, that some of us thought we’d wandered into the wrong country club by mistake! But no, it was all for us… Nice nibbles, nice crisps, nice hat and (oh dear) warm beer….so nearly perfect Gregor, so nearly…

Under Gregor’s stern gaze, the golf got underway, with the FROGs showing that they were in no way intimidated by the prospect of a tight tree-lined fairway, and a longest drive mark to chase… especially worthy of note were Will “one-leg” Heath, attempting to take out a couple of the slower members on the 6th tee, and Johnny “Dangerous” Sutherland trying a sneaky “Tin Cup” road shot to improve his distance (top tip John, next time try a path that runs along the fairway… not across it…). A suitable prize was awarded to the latter of these.

And so the evening unfolded, with the many FROGS desperately competing for the almost as many prizes. In fact, such was the allure of the prize fund, that we were able to tempt back to the course such breeds of FROG as the rarely seen Stefano “Milan catwalk” Ciccarello and the Russel “nice tan, nicer teeth” Edwards… good to see them, and all FROGS on the night.

Eventually, the crowds gathered at the bar, marveling at the tales of the shots that got away, and happily surprised to find out that there are still things we even we can learn… things like i) you can hit a sand wedge 200m, even if you don´t want to (thanks Mark), ii) Johan will travel an enormous distance to get a free beer, and to show of his “double-black” combination, and iii) Botty bears a striking resemblance to Nicola Sturgeon at certain angles (although I´m not allowed to say which ones…)

And so, thanks to the various offered drinks from a retired bloke (Russell) and an old bloke (Steve B), it was a happy and relaxed crowd that sat down for an excellent meal and the prizes…

The top 3 were a showcase of experience vs. youth, with Dennis claiming 3rd with 16 points, and yours truly holding off a resurgent Luc on countback with 18 points.

The special prizes went as follows

LD – Russell
Leary – Marco
Nearest – Luc
LD – Mark G
Nearest – Peter B
And the final Bijnens Leary went to yours truly on the 9th (drive and a ¾ lob wedge if you´re interested, I know you’re not, but I´m telling you anyway), which also claimed the overall Bijnens Leary, with a grand total of two. Thanks to Serge for the excellent sponsorship (and beer).

In the AKD Matchplay final it was a reversal of form, with experience losing out to beauty, as Botty beat Peter B 3&2.

And lastly, the overall seasons standings, and the Order of Merit:-

Overall Order of Merit
Rob – 82
Nick Felfoldi – 80
Tony Nightingale – 79 (Botty to double check if he is borrowing a Tony Whiteman score)
T4 Jess and Craig 78

Thanks of course to Citco and AKD, for their excellent and continued support.

Did I say “lastly”??? Of course I’m missing something, the one prize that everyone has at the back of their mind from the carpark onward, the notorious “Pink Ball of Truth”. I must admit, there was some confusion as to who had one this one…. was it Catweazle, was it a caveman, was it our very own Craig … was it Conor McGregor … be honest, have you seen them in the same room? All we can say is that one of them is a ginger-bearded, foul-mouthed sporting icon, and the other is a Irish wannabe-boxer … Whatever the truth, whoever it was, with a magnificent 7 points, they certain PLAYED like Conor McGregor, so we must assume it was he.

After that a word must go to GCGD. While many of us are “conflicted” at the prospect of forking out EUR 60 for 9 holes (especially as “they who shall not be named” get a lower rate), I think we should all acknowledge that the course was in excellent condition, the food excellent, and the service was absolutely first class, in fact the best all year (apart from the hour it took Neil to get his first beer, but that was the exception!). Gregor informs me that collectively we left nearly a grand and a half in their coffers, so hopefully that might help us get a better rate next year!

And so, that only leaves the lessons learned…

No 1 – when showing off your photos, DO STOP at the “me and my mate Richie McCaw” shots … DO NOT get carried away and go onto the “me as a Victorian Hippy” ones… (thanks Stuart)

No 2 – do not hand your camera over with the words “now this is private, just for us” and expect to ever see it back (thanks again Stuart … did you get it back)

No 3 – and finally, Peter Baxter is very old.

End

Report CITCO round 9 – Kikuoka – 9 August 2017

Posted on 10 August 2017 by jhave

Oh no, surely not him again! Can’t we do something? Grumble, grumble. Surely we can. What do the bloody statutes say? Ho hum. So…ramble or results first? Results or ramble? Ok, you win let’s go ramble. Those of you looking exclusively for the results section are advised to fast forward about…Now! And before you go, a great big thank you to our sponsors, Citco! Now then, off you go…

To the results… Several traditionally friendly Frog faces were absent since they had been on a dedicated golf day trip to darkest Germany. The truly dedicated returned to follow up their 18 German holes with the extra 9 at Karaoke so a big well done mention must go out to Dennis, Craig and Jess for making the effort. That’s the spirit, chaps. Merve was down to start but suddenly became a Dan K lookalike on the first tee yet there they both were in the bar afterwards. It can be hard to keep up sometimes. In the end, 23 dedicated Froggy type people (which included two guests; the gloriously named Allard Fontein (could be a fine wine, no?) and Eric Masset) tip teed off having been wined and dined by the returning to the big time ever pheasant/effervescent Luc. Gone (for now) are the days of foie gras and Chateau Margaux, it seems. These things will almost certainly return. Small bags of very plain Jane Ready Salted crisps and cans of local beer offered a pragmatic current compromise and were thoroughly welcome. Some sort of odd tasting Dutch cough syrup that Luc was frantically talking up somewhat was also offered and generally gleefully accepted. Not exactly a class A product in my view but we’ll try anything at least once. Well done Luc!

Despite fine playing conditions throughout, there was a standard scratch score of just 14 [15, Ed.] points. Certainly not great. Maybe that English idiot friend was right? Oh rats. As James, suitably supported by Jess, eloquently intimated during the presentation over an efficiently served dinner of fish and chips or steak and chips, this can largely be explained by the significant battle that went on for last place. Although both John and Will recorded uncomfortable single points figures, Delboy elbowed his way in to the reckoning with a miserable but well deserved 8 points. Meanwhile, we all recognise that Colin has all the attributes to be an excellent golfer. Nice shoes, colour coordinated outfit, smooth swing, regular practising. Looks the part in fact. Keep it up, matey. His mammoth 6 points took the pink ball. Thanks for coming, Colin. Our two guests, Allard and Eric came home with 15 and 3 points respectively. Respect and another pink ball respectively!

The prize for Nearest the Pin went to Will, the Bijnens Leary prize to Daniel and the Longest Drive to Craig. Congratulations to all of you.

Dennis came in at 6th with 14 points. Ayzo and Mark both hit 14 but nudged ahead on countback for 5th and 4th places. Craig made 18 points in perfect fashion. Playing off scratch, he made 9 pars. Morally, Craig was easily the real winner of the day by far. Quality stuff. That fluffy ginger beard is starting to look slightly ridiculous and should be attended to urgently, however. Dan and myself both managed 19 points and when I left the club, poor Dan was still analysing the scorecards seemingly trying to work out just how he didn’t manage the overall victory. It’s tough when you care deeply about something, isn’t it? Oh well, I assume that he found the answer somewhere. On the plus side, coming second at this level leaves room for improvement, Dan. Stay focused and you’ll get there. Life can be so very tough and unfair at times, don’t you think?

My particular flight involved the two winners of pink balls and the winner. A rare combination. An opportunity? I think that the attached photo recorded this moment appropriately.

The next Frogs event will be critical to those looking for pomp and ceremony and honour. It will be the decider. I have no idea when it is but I know it’s at Grand Ducal. Hopefully, someone will tell you all about it when they’re ready [24 August, Ed.].

Enough is enough.

Tony.

Report CITCO round 8 – Kikuoka – 26 July 2017

Posted on 30 July 2017 by jhave

Morning All,

Firstly big thanks to or starter Arnaud for arranging a great French feast for sending us out to do battle on course…..with the mantra of constant desire for improvement, referencing Big B, I think this can only be beaten by the style of the Italian contingent and maybe a young stunner serving the produce…. Females at the start, is that permitted by the constitution?

A few stats:
Standard Scratch: 14
NTP 3rd hole: Ayzo
NTP 7th hole: Arnaud
Bijnens Beer Leary: Arnaud
Longest Drive: Jess
Best Guest: Richard
Worst Guest: Phil

1st myself 19 – shows no practice can work…..Christiane was happy to receive the voucher, nice return after her giving grace for me to participate on the 20th wedding anniversary…..burger girls are great.
2nd Big Rob 17
3rd Peter B 14
4th Ayso & Arnaud 14
5th Will H

Pink Ball….young Gerry took the honours again…..with Marco, Richard and Colin following closely.

Matchplay results (after all the young bulls in a paddock type facing off over email pre the evening)….Peter B pipped Big Rob on the 10th hole, Craig hammered Simon and Big B’s pre match jousting got to the Dutchman and he ended 1 up….were you teasing him Big B?)

In answer to Big B….maybe we are all “selfish fuckwits” out on sunny Wed evenings trying to get the competitive juices flowing when we should be at home with family……on reflection after a minute or 2 I concluded these evenings are great and I look forward to the next one.

Cheers and happy holidays

Tony

PS….if any of the results from last night are presented incorrectly then apologies for my transposition from the hand written evening notes attached…..

Report CITCO round 7 – Junglinster – 5 July 2017

Posted on 6 July 2017 by jhave

?Buongiorno,

?What a difficult task I had today! Not only express myself in a language which is not mine but to do it the week after Nick’s? [it was Tony, Ed.] fantastic report … but l’ll fight the perfidious Albion!

The sun was still high and the sky when our brave frogs jumped on Junglinster ?golf course? to play the round 7th of the 2017 CITCO Grand Prix. The players were welcomed by our starter Rob “the cowboy” and his generous offer of cheeses, salami, beers etc.
Thank you Rob and well done!

At yesterday event the 7th of the 2017 edition played 19 Frogs and they were quick enough to play all the 12 holes in bright light.

Only one AKD match play was played, Craig defeated Francis 3&2 (Francis….are you Dutch, don’t you?).

Gregor, our international glorious champion (background of heavenly music..) holed the 9th hole in one shot and generously and consequently offered a round of beers to all of us.

Thank you Gregor and well done! (background of heavenly music..)

Coming to the competition :

First of all many thanks to our sponsor CITCO.

Standard scratch was 14…quite low specially compared to the last event were it was 17.

Slow greens the reason?

?Probably, ask Craig his opinion on Junglinster greens.?..?

Nearest to the pin 4th Hole : Gregor (background heavenly music..)

Nearest to the pin 11th Hole: Jonny the kiwi

Bijnens Beer Leary : Steve

Longest Drive, 2nd Hole: Mark Hugues (background of pipes music..)

Best and worst guest: Martin

And finally the real winners:

1st) Marco 18

2nd) Gregor 17 (background heavenly music..)

3rd) Maarten 16

4th) Rob 15

5th) Craig 15

6th) Francis “the Dutch” 15

7th) David 15

Hard fight yesterday for the pink ball but Tim “the real Dutch” prestigious manager of our generous sponsor was good enough to outperform himself with an unrivalled 6 points.

? ?Pink ball: Tim

Watch out the Citco leader board where some players with only four events played are in the top ten…

Next event the will be the 26th of July at Kikuoka. See you all? there.

Marco

Results CITCO round 6 – Preisch – 28 June 2017

Posted on 29 June 2017 by jhave

Whilst our largely untouchable committee probably meant well by kicking off with the bright idea that the winner of each event should take responsibility for the related subsequent write up, there was always going to be a tiny danger that some loud mouthed, rambling idiot who knows absolutely nothing about golf might just slip in with a thoroughly unexpected victory on the first day it was introduced…And where would that leave things, we wonder?

As your incredibly generous starter, my strategy was rather simple. The general idea was to challenge the usual balance of abilities by shovelling as much alcohol and nibbles down the throats of those individuals who I perceived to be the most likely threats to a comfortable victory on the night. Anything to upset the usual routines in fact. Craig, Dennis and David were early arrivals so I managed to work on them gently at the bar beforehand. Keith too but he’s completely useless at golf so he doesn’t really count. So that was four Froggie boys pretty much sorted. Frank refused to join us preferring to practice alone. Worrying. Certain players take their golf rather seriously of course. As assortment of goodies was made available at the first tee – most of them fairly unhealthy of course – but with copious amounts of reasonably decent champagne on offer, I maintained a quiet confidence. They’ll surely take the bait. Take as much as you like, chaps. Relax and enjoy the moment. Have another. Longest drive on the first. Would the startegy work? Frank likes a bit of quality. He’s that type of a bloke. Having been persuaded to tuck in to the Moet quite gleefully, Frank was first to up and away. A solid sideways drive into the adjacent fence and out of bounds. Have fun, Frank! A wave and a genuine smile. A perfect return on the investment. ‘Just what the doctor ordered. Next please. No need for me to watch the golf too closely from this point forward…

And so it progressed…In fairness, there were some areas of resistance. For example, Gregor and Arnaud flatly refused to participate in my get drunk quick scheme. Slightly annoying. Maybe try some of the cocaine laced salami instead, chaps? Yes? Perfect. Have a nice round and see you later.

As you can probably tell, I could go on and on about similar nonsense for longer than you could be bothered to keep awake but even I’m starting to get slightly bored so let’s move on. Golf was played. The weather held out nicely. 18 players in total. Standard scratch respectfully high at 17 points. Rob and David went through in the AKD Matchplay face offs disposing of Jess and Paul respectively. Craig, who looks more like the 70’s series Catweasle character every week, won nearest the pin, longest drive and rather greedily, the Bijnens beer leary as well whilst Jess picked up the other longest drive award. Gregor came 2nd with 19 points, Nick 3rd with Rob, Neil, Craig and Marco following along. Latest overall standings and Matchpaly status is attached. Best guest was Richard on 12 points and worst was Keith on 3 points. Andrew collected the pink ball with 8 points, scraping ahead of Botty on 9 and Frank on 11. Bla bla bla.

In the end, it was pretty much business as usual last night with the same old suspects largely dominating the prize giving ceremony at the local restaurant and as such, there are very few material surprises to report on in amongst the overall results. Oh yes. Another deserved win for yours truly of course – that’s now one in a row, I believe – but frankly, who really cares? Certainly not me. Golf is an odd sort of game, isn’t it? People of limited ability are effectively rewarded for being rubbish hence this ridiculous result. For this reason, I would prefer to clsoe by taking the opportunity to offer a few simple observations rather than focus overtly on golfing performance matters.

So…In no particular order…

1. Citco is a wonderful sponsor and their continued involvement is genuinely appreciated by all Frogs.
2. All sponsors are truly super doopa in fact.
3. Frank stayed for drinks and dinner. Blimey. Well done that man!
4. Everyone paid exactly the right amount of money for the golf – perfect!
5. Everyone settled their food and drink bills correctly. Not a cent over or under. Unbelievable.
6. Maybe we get too bogged down in organising start times and playing partners. Why not just turn up between x and y time and go out with whoever is around? This would help the social element of Frogs, I think.
7. Neil is always happy and smiling. We like that.
8. Jess is Danish. Life is good.
9. Marco might organise a Frogs trip to Venice to play some golf. Go for it, Marco! The last time we went away, you needed time in hospital to recover but it won’t be like that, Bart is no longer around!
10. Next Frogs event in Junglinster next Wednesday evening.
11. There are plenty of interesting and amusing characters within the Frogs grouping. Keep it up!

Are we there yet? Probably. Can I go now? Good.