The First "Annual" HMS Resolution Association Golf TournamentWritten by Billy Dobson (with blessings from Taff, Chuck & Terry)

Farthingstone Golf Course, Nr Towcester, Northants, NN12 2HA.

First and foremost I will start off with showing my gratitude to Martin (Taff) Kaupa for organising this Tournament with a testimonial :- The golf course was in great condition considering the battering of rain it received over the three days I and my wife were there, the course was in a really picturesque setting and was also very challenging.

Unfortunately there was only four members of the Resolution Association present who were able to find the time off to participate, they being Terry Nowell, Martin (Taff) Kaupa, Richard (Chuck) Berridge and myself, Billy Dobson. We all arrived around the same time enough for the other three lads to play nine holes in the afternoon, I hadn't played golf at all for the previous two years due to varying injuries from a silly spectating issue whilst retreiving some old boy's lost balls down a high/steep slippery slope festooned with roots from cut bracken, gently sliding on my left foot underneath my bum, caught my foot in the hidden roots and ended up going 'arse over tit' off a four foot ledge slap bang onto a concrete road doing damage to my right shoulder, left ankle and right knee and lacerated right hand, I knew that I couldn't last two days on the trot playing golf, so therefore declined the offer of joining them. The wife and I checked in to the hotel and drove to the local town/village for a nose around.

All the staff were marvellous, very attentive to all our needs, the food was excellent, we had a drinks package with our booking, Taff saw most of our allocated issues of drinks to his liking being the last one standing during our stay.

I had to hire a buggy to enable me to get round the course as it would've been a physical impossibility for me to carry my bag of golf equipment round with me, I had a few practice swings in the nets previous to the competition, the plan was to play the first nine holes in the forenoon, in for a light lunch, out again for the back nine.'Slowly slowly catchy monkey' to begin with, didn't want to overdo it on the first tee, we all drove the balls away, Chuck being furthest, Taff being 'drag arse', there was a small ditch down the green bit which I thought I was in from my drive, mutter mutter until I got to the ditch and saw my Callaway had cleared the ditch by some thirty yards, must have my eyes checked, observing the opposition at their addressing and hitting the ball, Chuck impressed me the most, his swivel hips, full turn resulting in a well slapped ball, Terry came clean and declared an annoying back injury that he was carrying which was hampering his game, he eventually found a little light relief when he took off his belt round his waist and secured it further up his body helping him give more support to his lower back, the penalty he had to pay for this was the fact that his rotation was somewhat hampered, as if it was ordered, the rain started to come down before we got to the first green, there was standing water on some of the greens, nothing outrageous though, a few ponds on the way round, when we approached the water hazards, the ducks were ducking it here, ducking it there, ducking it everywhere, there was a lot of fallen leaves adding to the misery when we went off piste resulting in “I'm now using a different ball”. We completed the front nine, into the clubhouse, something to eat, the weather took a turn for the better, sunshine galore, out we came for the back nine, Chuck decided to hitch a lift on my buggy, down came the rain again and off we went, I believe it was both Chuck and Terry that decided that they would play a little game with their bats, One went forward out of the hands further than the ball went, the other likewise, but, it went backwards, we were then ducking it here and ducking it there Ha! At this juncture, I must give credit and also a de-merit (if there's such an award) to Taff, he had the longest successful putt of the day coupled with the shortest drive of the day, and I mean short, you could measure it with his Willy, and that wasn't counting his 'Air Shot' on one of the tees, still, who cares, the company was great and the mood was brilliant, Chuck done the checking of the score cards against our declared handicaps and by jingo, I slaughtered my nearest rival by one point, photographs were taken of the presentation prizes, we paraded our Association Standard and all I have to do now is try and somehow transfer the pictures from my phone to the computer to display the evidence onto the website.

My only gripe was that of the hotel accommodation wasn't in my opinion, up to scratch, the water wasn't hot in the morning (first come, first served), there wasn't a hair dryer in the room, had to go out and buy one, the teasmade worked when it wanted to, and on a personal note, my mattress was too soft, I'm from the North East where the beds are made up of wood mattresses, well they were in the police cells where I spent quite a few nights as a lad, to add further insult, they were twin beds (rant over), all in all 8 out of 10, I'll do it all over again and hope that the next event we hold is much better attended, you don't have to play the game, just come along for the 'Crack'.