Golf Sports Section

Police Sport UK Championships 2006

Fairhaven Golf Club - Lytham St Anne’s

In June, the Lancashire Constabulary Golf Section were the hosts of the prestigious Police Sport UK National Championships. Northern Division’s PC Peter Murphy (recently retired) and a team of other helpers put together a very well planned and coordinated championships with 103 competitors from 31 UK Police Forces taking part. The event was a resounding success.

Five top Lancashire players competed in the Championships with DC Michael Hanson and DC Nigel Barnes (‘G’ Division), Bob Thompson (Pennine Division), DC Ian Hill and DC Peter Nelson (Northern Division) competing against the country’s finest police golfers. The team finished 8^th, 22^nd, 27^th, 38^th and 80^th respectively.

The course was in magnificent condition from day one and the weather forecast to be fine, dry and sunny, which was amazing after the weather of the previous week. On practice day the greens were superbly smooth and medium to fast.

Day 1

The conditions throughout the playing time were excellent and some excellent scores were predicted. In the end the scoring did not quite turn out as good as was expected, probably because we were all still learning about the course during the first round proper. It was becoming apparent that positional play at Fairhaven was very important, especially with the second shot and certain pin positions.

Seventy-four was the best score of the day, which put Chris Mayo (Gwent), Craig Cuthbert (Greater Manchester) and Matt Denton (Merseyside) firmly at the top of the leader board. Lurking in the wings on seventy-five was previous winner Chris Dinsdale (Gwent), Mark Lee (Nottinghamshire), Ian Fraser (Dumfries & Galloway), John Chapman (Derbyshire), Stuart Bancroft (Hampshire), Russell Thwaites (Kent) and Bobby Thompson (Lancashire).

The latter score was a wonderful achievement from the previous English Committee Member, who had played very little golf since sustaining a serious injury to his ankle. Bob, of course, was playing as a retired member on this occasion having recently left the police to become Secretary of Fairhaven GC! In the lead in the first round of the 36 hole Handicap Trophy was Mark Lee, Stuart Bancroft and Bobby Thompson all with net seventy-ones.

Day 2

Round two saw the materialisation of the sort of rounds that had been expected. Star amongst the second round scores was Craig Cuthbert with a superb round of seventy-one. This gave Craig a two round total of 145 and put him quite firmly in the lead. Following hard on Craig’s heels in this round was a seventy-two from Bob Lander (Metropolitan). This was a great recovery round for Bob from a first round of eighty-four, and certainly saved him from an early morning start in the third round!

Other scores at the top end of the leader board were Paul Tatlow and John Chapman (both from Derbyshire) who scored seventy-three, and Jim Gilmour (Strathclyde) with a seventy-four. Placing themselves in a better position for a fight over the last 36 holes was Gareth Hodges (Metropolitan), Simon Harper (Devon & Cornwall) & Colin Milne (Lothian & Borders).

Day 3

Day 3 saw the continuation of the good weather and the good scores. Matt Denton continued his impressive play and was star of the day with a seventy-one. Richard Giles (Derbyshire) had a fine round of seventy-two which was only nineteen shots better than his previous round! This course was showing no respect for anyone for anyone that did not show it respect! Golfers of Richard’s quality could get their act together as he had done in round 3 or let the course grab them and knock them back as in his round 2.

Chris Mayo brought himself back into contention with a round of seventy-three, and three seventy-fours by Keith Davies (Essex), John Chapman and Paul Tatlow placed all three in great contention positions, specially John Chapman.

Day 4

Whether it was nerves or the fact that some players were out of contention…………….but scores on the last day went very slightly downhill. In the final threeball, consisting of Matt, Craig and John, nerves had a little to do with the outcome – certainly in John’s case. Matt, unfortunately, could not keep up his quality of play (and it is very difficult in a four round scratch tournament) right to the very end and finished with an eighty-two.

Craig and John arrived at the 17th tee with John Chapman in the position of being six shots ahead. John teed off and miscalculated the clubbing slightly ending up in the bunker short right at the green. Craig’s tee shot was not good and bounced before the bunkers and hopped up onto the green. John came out the bunker successfully but followed it up with two putts, the same number used by Craig. Hole over and John still five ahead……….

Craig drove on the 18th and it was good. John drove and pulled it slightly left but with not with a major concern. 40 people spent five minutes looking for his ball without any success, recovering nine others. At three off the tee John was now in the fairway and played his fourth shot short of the green. Meanwhile Craig hit what was possibly the best second shot of the week (under the pressure) to about eight feet from the flag.

The tension rose, naturally, and John played his fifth shot onto the green. Craig then proceeded to stun the audience into rapturous applause by holing his putt for an eagle – a fantastic putt to put all the pressure on John. But in the melee of it all John putted his sixth shot close, and manages to hang on by a single shot by holing his short seventh!

Results Table