So 71 years after we first visited Thorpeness, 32 Baltic golfers (of all ages & various abilities) gathered on Saturday morning June 15 for this year’s Summer Meeting - amazingly we welcomed 7 rookies this year who came to discover if the course was as easy as they had been told and if people could really drink as much as they had been led to believe - the first part of course was a lie !

Captain Trevor Marsh with his valet Mr Robins, along with his captain of vice Mark Ravenscroft teed off first with our President Mr Robert Gemmell, as the singles began - luckily the rain and wind were relatively light and despite a slow pace everyone got round safely. As ever some interesting shots were interspersed with some spectacular golf, beautifully demonstrated by James Greenly who again won the nearest the pin on the signature 7th hole with his weapon of choice - a driver. Proving the earlier point made, brimming with elation on the closeness of his drive James then 3 putted for a gross bogey.

This year the Bob Bird Tankard was awarded for the nearest to the pin in 3 on the tough fourth hole (which deservedly is stroke index 1) and Peter Hirons was the winner with another display of power hitting. It was no surprise when Mark Ravenscourt crunched the longest drive on the 13th into a head wind just as the Red Arrows went over the course en route to the Trooping the Colour ! The coveted longest drive in the ruff was won by the Captain Haddock impersonator Duncan Brown, back after missing the event for a few years. The stableford scores were keen, despite the testing weather conditions and this year’s runner up on 35 points was John Madden. It was left to course specialist Chris Cox to become the first person to win five singles titles at Thorpeness with a fantastic 39 points, finally passing Ken Mason’s long standing record.

After quickly re-fuelling with succulent cheese & pickle sarnies and a pint or 2, everyone set off for the foursomes, sadly in what can best be described as biblical weather. It switched between torrential rain, sun and 40 m.p.h. winds - a true test which really challenged all the players! When everyone was back in the clubhouse the scores were collated and the runners up were Chris Cox & Mark Ravenscroft on 27 points but the clear winners by a huge margin of 7 points were Steve Ballard & David Knights who compiled a tremendous score of 34 points. Congratulations to all the Saturday winners and well done to all for completing the round in such adverse conditions.

The next challenge was to get showered & dressed into jacket/tie for the dinner by 20:30 hours. Everyone turned out on time smartly dressed even if some were looking somewhat weather-beaten. The hotel put on a great dinner menu and the usual tradition ensued whereby all the rookies had to stand up one at a time and tell a joke, there were no casualties, I think Les Hayes was our oldest rookie ever (for personal data security and ECHR reasons we are not able to mention his age, but he looked fantastic).

Meeting manager Chris Cox also had a special presentation of a BEGS hip flask to make during the dinner to Malcolm Stephenson in recognition for his long service to BEGS, 44 years (& counting) after his first trip to Thorpeness. Sadly this w/e Malcolm was a non-player, hampered by a knee injury, however in true style he had already volunteered his services to assist with the scoring and Malcolm did a sterling job marking all the cards and being score-master general - here’s to many more years in Suffolk Malcolm, bring your clubs next year please ! Sadly this year we were missing another regular Andy Powell and we all look forward to seeing you next year sir!

On Sunday morning, once we had explained the rules of St Andrews Greensomes a number of times (a tradition that takes place every year), everyone set off again into the elements only to be faced with hail, further downpours and high winds - most greens were flooded for a good 30 minutes but we prevailed nonetheless and everyone managed to complete their round. Once everyone was in, it was time to work out all the winners and tuck into ham, egg & chips, follwoed by a swift prize giving ceremony in our private dining room.

Captain Trevor powered the longest drive through the puddles and President Gemmell was nearest the pin .

Nearest the pin in 2 was Peter Hirons & partner Nathan Ellisdon, whilst nearest the pin in 3 was won by Steve Ballard & Mark Ravenscroft.

No surprise that Knightsie won the longest drive in the ruff - a speciality of his.

The Sunday greensomes scoring was good considering the trying weather conditions, the runners up were Robert Gemmell & Kevin Coughlan on 37 points, but this year’s winners with 39 points were Chris Cox and Bob Childs.

Various other prizes were given out, the best score by a rookie went to Michael Childs and the age group winners were Peter Hirons (under 45), Chris Cox (45-65) and Steve Ballard (over 65).

Given the run of scoring already mentioned we had a clear winner for the overall title namely Chris Cox, who went home with his car boot half as full as it had arrived !

Most importantly the Noddy Collins challenge (awarded by the captain at his discretion) went to Peter Hirons for his all round contribution over the weeks before and during the whole weekend.

Special thanks go to Simon Cox, Bob Childs and Duncan Brown for their help with everything during the weekend, as well as the previously mentioned Malcolm Stephenson.

Next years meeting has now been booked for 13/15 June 2025 so please contact Chris Coxy to ensure you are on the list. Everybody contributes to this event - for those who haven’t been I strongly recommend it