The City of Newcastle Men's Club Championship proved yet again to be one of the best days of the year:

Firstly a massive thank you, to Craig Parkinson and his team for producing a course in such fantastic condition: best greens I've ever seen at the City (I've been here since the early 70's!), to Dave Fletcher (Starter), Phil Tennant and Chris Miller for doing a tremendous job administering the competition on the day, and to Si Coultas for his 'live' scoring updates.

We had 10 players in the field off a Course Handicap of Scratch or better, but it was Ken Cairns off 2 with the clubhouse lead 144 - level par: he was followed in by Andy Elliott (2) who matched his even par total.

Andrew Minnikin at this stage was still on the course, also at level par with 3 to play: he birdied the stroke one16th hole to take the lead, could only manage a par on 17, but hit a great shot in to the last finishing 5 feet short of the hole and which he converted for a 2 shot win.

Andrew Minnikin 73  69 = 142

Ken Cairns          72  72 = 144

Andrew Elliott     71  73 = 144

Well played Andrew on winning his second City Club Championship, also to Andy and Ken for putting up a great fight.

Many will know of course, that Club Championship Day doesn't end with the presentation of the Trophy:

The 60 yard challenge kicked off at 8.00pm with dozens of competitors heading out to the 'tee' (60 yards from the 18th pin in the semi), immediate Past Catain Julie Schofield amongst them (let's have some more ladies next year!)

Many of the favourites fell in the early rounds: leaving the final to be eventually be contested between Phil Tennant and Paul Dodds: Paul hitting a great shot to about 10 feet only to be done by gritty Phil with the last shot of the night!

Thanks to a soaked Phil Ridden for refereeing and repairing the pitch marks.

Back in the Clubhouse to be entertained by Michael Close, picking up the microphone and giving us his rousing rendition of Kenny Rogers "The Gambler" - better than the original!

It's great to see the clubhouse jumping on night's like this: hope everyone enjoyed it.

Geoff Davison

Men's Captain