A narrow defeat over the weekend but yet another memorable opener to another CCGS season. This was our first weekend visit to Rye for 3 years - high winds and a certain pandemic having prevented the traditional February fixtures in 2020 and 2021 - but we were blessed with clear skies and, for the most part, manageable winds. For the 14 Society members who participated over the weekend, it was simply a joy to be back out on a course that is dry and firm, with pacey greens and magnificent fairways.
Saturday evening saw 9 of the team dine with our Rye host Geoff Dearing at the excellent Globe where there was much reminiscing and some entertaining moves from the perennial Peter Pan that is Nigel Ross. Later, back at the Dormy House, 4 of our team defied the traditions of falling asleep in front of Match of the Day, preferring instead to drink a little more of the red wine than is good for them and thus enjoy less sleep than they might have.
Nonetheless 3 of the 4 returned a winning point the next day so perhaps it was not the worst preparation! Geoff Dearing steps down as the Rye Match Manager after 11 seasons so our heartfelt thanks to him for being such a wonderful host over the years. And to all the Rye members, our warmest thanks for making us, yet again, feel so welcome.
The CCGS side was : Bill Merry, Nigel Ross, John Shepherd, Neil Burns, Guy McDonnell, Tim Wren, Julian Thompson, Tony Pigott, Roy Dexter & Chris Goldie (for the whole weekend). Jon Hardy and Simon Daniels played on Saturday and were replaced by Charlie Rowe and the perennial Ted Rose on Sunday.