55th Anniversary Weekend

Over the weekend of 26/27 August 2023 a large proportion of the BGC membership celebrated 55 years of our Club's existence by enjoying a weekend of golf at Anstruther and Crail. The weekend was organised by John Dunn Snr.

Golf was over the two courses at Crail - Balcomie (Saturday) & Craighead (Sunday) where the sun shone for the first 35 holes (!) with  a little dampness / shower to finish.

A total of 20 members attended the weekend and we were treated to two superbly set out golf courses.

As opening holes go, the 322yd Boathouse has to be one of the most scenic, especially on a day like we had.

From the elevated 1st tee over Balcomie, it was left to Kevin Matthews to take the first tee shot and as usual he didn’t disappoint - wow - 295 yards.

The scoring overall was very good on the first day with half of the group scoring 36 Stableford points or more. Nobody  could match Paul Greenslade on the outward 9 with his fantastic 24 points. However John Jack produced a blistering back 9 to pip Paul for 2nd place with 41pts on bih.  Alas for JJ, Murray Sykes nudged past him with a total of 43pts to win the day.

Day 1 

Best Team: Hinds / McKerrow / Jack / Rankine .

Nearest Pin: T Hinds 

Nearest in 2: C Taylor

We then enjoyed the hospitality provided by The BANK Restaurant & Bar at Anstruther. This was clearly the place to be on a Saturday night in "Ainster" - it was buzzing and we enjoyed the food, sports TV & live ( maybe too lively for some) entertainment. 

Overnight we enjoyed comfortable B&B accommodation at the Waterfront @ the Harbour.

Sunday saw us compete over the newer / longer course, Craighead. Again superbly set out, more of an inland course with a few cracking golf holes!!

The previous evening at The Bank caught up on a few but it seemed to spur on Stevie Graham who set the pace with a brilliant 23pts front 9. Alas, once his 2nd bottle of Lucozade dried up, so did his golf. The leader from Day1, Murray, again set off with a very good front 9 (21 pts), but could he keep it going ???

The last 2 groups out clearly were on good scores and were taking great care over every shot! (i.e. Slow Play ).  And so it proved with Aki Barbod gaining 3rd place on 38 points and Martin Hunter in 2nd place with 39 points . Winning the day over Craighead with an incredible round of 74 (2over) Gross &  41 points was  Thomas Hinds.

Day 2

Best team: Hinds / Hunter / Hall / Muir

Nearest Pin : M Sykes 

Nearest in 2: Paul Greenslade

As you can imagine with so many playing well at points on the course the leaderboard for the Crail Cup  was changing all the time.

The Overall combined scores over the weekend saw:

Winner 79 pts ( 40+39 ):  Martin Hunter 

Second 78pts (43+ 35):  Murray Sykes

Third 74 pts ( 39+35):  Brian Muir

Thanks to all for their participation in making our 55th Anniversary trip a thoroughly enjoyable occasion. 

Thanks to John D for arranging the whole weekend so well (and for providing some photos - see below.)