Gray Day at Guildford
It was both a grey start and a Gray finish at Guildford on President's Day. Luckily the heavy rain from the day before kept away and we were faced with grey overcast conditions with a blustery wind which caused problems for some but not for Peter Gray who swept up all the major prizes on the day.
Many found the greens difficult with tine holes which, like many
courses during the prolonged dry spring, failing to close up and
causing putts to jump and dodge on the
greens. But there were no
complaints from Peter who notched up 42 points, with a gross 75, in
the morning round of an 11 handicap to win the President's Tankard. Consequently an emergency
meeting of the handicap committee at lunch reduced his handicap by 2
for the afternoon round.
However, this had no effect as he and his partner, Darren Cooper,
scored a remarkable 50 points in the afternoon betterball Pepler Cup
competition. Peter himself grabbed five birdies whilst Darren
contributed another two.
Things may have been different for Peter however. In the following group Andrew Cotterill hit a blind shot through a green that Peter and his playing partners were putting out on. On reaching the green, Andrew looked concerned at the sight of Peter laying on the green being tended by Mark Hitchen. However, it was a ruse as Andrew's ball had not hit anyone and all saw the funny side of it!
Records
Peter's achievements on the day also put him into the record books with a total of 30 wins across all competitions - overtaking Barry Steele's long held record. He also matched the record of 8 wins of a single trophy in winning the Lovell Salver.
Despite Peter's amazing rounds, he was not able to compete with Will Donaldson for the longest drive and nearest the pin. These competitions were supposed to have been competed for in the afternoon but the green staff had put the markers out for the morning round. There was however some dispute over Will's longest drive where his ball ended up on the track
