THE SHIRE CUP

YOUNG GUN SIMON FOKES UPSETS PINKMAN TO WIN THE SHIRE CUP IN 2011

Rising star Simon Fokes wrested The Shire Cup from Pinkman this year, with a stunning round of golf at The Rolls of Monmouth today. He carded a  score of 41 points playing off his 15 handicap.

The course at The Rolls was well presented, as always, and very green with all the rain that they have seen this year. OK, the greens could have been a bit quicker, but their pace was assessable in the morning 9 holes.

The morning alliance, off ¾ handicaps, saw the pairings of the Johns, Raison & Hope, scoring 31 points, Luke Burgess & Simon Fokes 34 points, but the Winners, with 37 points Marcus Bentley & Tony Painting. All 3 pairings included 2 Birdies in their scores, but the 21 points from Marcus produced the win.

Gordon tried his best to sabotage Pinkman & Thomo’s play by driving off with their buggy & clubs at the 5^th, but the best was Tony Painting standing in the soft mud, in the pond behind the 4^th with the mud and water covering his shoes and splattering his trousers on playing his shot.  

The fine weather continued in the afternoon to provide ideal conditions for golf. Nearest the pin on the par 3, 4^th hole started with Marcus Bentley, beaten by John Hope, but finally Peter Green beat the rest of the field to go nearest. Only one name featured on the Longest Drive that of the mighty hitting Luke Burgess.

The front nine of John Hope was outstanding with good scoring seeing him to 21 points. 20 points to Luke Burgess and a bunch at 19 points including Alan Hanlin, Andy McCloud, Pinkman, Tony Painting and Roger Dunmore. Simon & Dave Evans on 18 points were poised to threaten.

Dave’s poor showing on the back nine dropped him out of contention, and Roger Dunmore had a disastrous final nine to come nowhere.

Poor results on the second nine for Tony 15 points, & John 14 points, dropped them out of a podium finish. Only 18 points for Pinkman & Andy were not enough to challenge the top 3.

18 points for Luke, adding to his 20, lifted him to 3^rd place, and Alan Hanlin’s 20 saw him progress to 2^nd , but an outstanding 23 points by Simon Fokes increasing his score to 41 for the competition, including 6 successive pars on the run in, served up the win.

Congratulations to Simon Fokes winning The Shire Cup 2011

Roll of Honour             2003    J Raison             2004    A Painting             2005    A Hanlin             2006    G Irwin             2007    R Dunmore             2008    G Allen             2009   Pinkman             2010   Pinkman             2011   S Fokes

HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR !!!!