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Previous Winners

 

Year:    2015    
Location: Las Vegas  
Winner:   Camp David wins again
Tour Name Splinter Group Tour
   

Due to several other problems such as 25th Wedding anniversaries, people being ill, it was first thought that the 2015 tour might not happen at all. But in the end Four intrepid Gritters decided to take the big trip and go to Las Vegas for the week.

Great golf courses, fabulous hotels and a wonderful experience.

 

Year:    2014    
Location: Belek: Turkey:  Gloria Golf  
Winner:   Camp David smashes it and wins by 10 clear shots
Tour Name Several contenders, but the clean choice is "The Crow stole my Baguette"
   

Another Fabulous trip, great courses, great weather, great hotel.

On day two, Winnie had skipped breakfast and was starving.

He took the opportunity to purchase a chicken baguette from the on course buggy vendor.

He put it on the seat of his buggy whilst he went to play his four iron approach to the 7th at the Sultan only to see a crow swoop down and steal his baguette. The sight of Winnie waving his four iron and chasing a crow will stay with us for a while. It has, however, resulted in the new pastime of "Crow Goading".

 

Year:    2013    
Location: Belek: Turkey:  Cornelia Diamond  
Winner:   let joy be unconfined....... WINNIE gets a second victory !!!!!!!
Tour Name Tony's Tours
Tour Song "me, me and me again, me, me, me, more me, and me again" by me

Fabulous trip, great courses, great weather, great hotel, no hire cars. As always there was great company, great food, great laughs and at times some very good golf. Well done to Winnie who now enters the "two time winner" club.

 

 

Year:   2012  
Location: Back to Hotel L'Univers, St Malo  
Winner:  Camp David: great win on his first tour
Tour NameShank shank, blobby blobby shank shank
Tour Song"Where have all the pro V's Gone" by Neal. I. Am and the shankers

Really good Trip, we have this format nailed down now. As always there was great company, great food, great laughs and at times some very good golf. Well done to our first timer Mr David "Camp David" Parry, who played by common consent, the best golf of the week. he began poorly with 26 points, but then handed in a 39, a brace of 37's and a couple of 36's. his winning total of 36 under beats last year's total by one shot.

 

 

Year:   2011  
Location: Hotel Mercure, Dinard 
Winner:  Probably the tightest scoring in a long time, two players tied on 35 under and WINNIE wins his first tour beating The Swede on the back nine.
Tour Name"The Lost Kitty Tour"

We have been doing this trip for nineteen years now, and no one has ever mis placed the drinks kitty. Darrell has now corrected this oversight by leaving 200 euros on the ferry.

Excellent Trip, great company and some very good golf. Well done to Winnie to had to make a par four down the last at Dinard. He holed a tricky four footer on the last green to win the tour with the final putt on the final green. See the full results here >>>> 2011 results

 

 

Year:   2010  
Location: Hotel Mercure, Dinard 
Winner:  It was a "hung committee" Some suggest that Cock won the tour with a score of 38 under. But, if you add Ian and TC's scores together they come to more than this. So............
Tour Name"Its a jolly holiday with Barry"

First time for Barry with his wonderful London accent. We nearly called it "Who is Ivor?" after Barry said "there is no bar in here either" and we wondered who Ivor was.

Great Trip, great bunch of guys and some good golf, one of the very best ever.

Hall of Shame entrant was Porky, well done Cock who wins his third tour.

 

 

Year:   2009  
Location: Hotel L'Univers 
Winner:  NEAL GOODING (on a back nine countback with darrell)
Tour Namethe STUP !!! tour

A Lithuanian sailor in the bar would use the expression STUP every time he wanted to speak. We were reminded of the Steps song "Stop! Thank you very much. But when we played them side by side we realised that they didn't even sound the same. Simples.

The 2009 trip was one of the best ever with a really close finish. See photos section.

To see the video, click here >>>>   2009 Video Highlights

(but be patient, it may take a while to load)

 

Year:   2008  
Location: Hotel L'Univers 
Winner:  NEAL GOODING  
Tour NameThe "Get Andrew Lloyd Webber on the phone, tell him to stop the show, we've found the new Nancy" tour

Lots of putts were left very short on the very fast greens. Short Stuff's comment became the tour name.

Neal won his first tour at his first attempt, Narrowboat came last on his first attempt.

A great tour and up there with the very best.

Click here to see examples of Nancy Style putting

 

 

Year:   2007  
Location: Hotel Majestic, La Baule 
Winner:  T.C.  
Tour NameThe Gnome Tour

Fabulous tour, new location at La Baule. St Jean de Monts is a stunning golf course, La Bretesche is great too.

The Majestic Hotel is okay too. Very friendly with a nice bar.

Hall of shame entrant was Cock

 

Year:   2006  
Location: Hotel L'Universe, St Malo 
Winner:   Cash Till  
Tour NameThe tour with the message from the dark side

Someone broke wind quite violently on the first day, everyone fell silent except Porky who said "a message from the dark side there is".

 

Hall of shame entrant was Short Stuff

 

Year:   2005  
Location: Hotel L'Universe, St Malo 
Winner:   Cash Till   
Tour NameThe Stressless Tour

One of the guys, : - we shall refer to him here as Mister X (although in fact his real name is Cash Till) had attended an Anger Management Course and was foolish enough to own up to it. Of course this whole subject then resulted in a spate of good humoured leg pulling ensued that lasted the whole tour.

As in 2004, this tour was one of the very best. Good weather, nice courses, great food and wine and wonderful humour. Memories of Thermia, Old Somalia, the two guys in the bar in Old Cadiz, great people in the hotel bar and Short Stuff's follow through will remain with us forever.

Hall of Shame entrant was Harry.

 

Year:   2004  
Location: Hotel L'Universe, St Malo 
Winner:   Porky  
Tour NameSulmorkev's Car  with Guest Star Alexia and Maxime

One of the most successful tours ever. Great weather and a high standard of golf. It turned out that the administration at Dinard had forgotten to reserve us two buggies despite us having reserved them in writing three months earlier. The Ever Prepared Cock had the confirming fax with him though and so our position was unarguable. After much discussion they dug out a 1951 Harley Davidson. This three wheeler had clearly seen better days and could be heard arriving from three holes away. It was called the Sulmorkev car and we have been sure to book this vehicle again for the 2005 tour.

Hall of Shame entrant was T.C.

 

Year:   2003  
Location: Hotel L'Universe, St Malo 
Winner:   Cash Till  
Tour NameMemory Loss

It was the fifth day, we were all very tired. Everyone sat in a restaurant, having eaten their starters, for about an hour and a half, until someone realised that we had completely forgotten to order our main courses. This was the first occasion that more than half of the party had to wear their reading glasses when consulting the menu. 

Hall of Shame entrant was Clarkie

 

Year:   2002  
Location: Hotel L'Universe, St Malo 
Winner:   Tippy                 (Harry tied but lost trophy on back nine)
Tour NameHey Jude

It was Saturday night and about 2.00am and Stefan had to tell us to keep the noise down in the piano bar. He insisted that we play "just one more song" and then call it a night. We chose "Hey Jude" whereupon he then proceeded to behave very badly and make much more noise than anyone during the "La la la, Judy Judy Judy"  bits at the end.

Hall of Shame entrant was Short Stuff

 

Year:   2001  
Location: Hotel du Golf, Deauville 
Winner:   Cock
Tour NameSea Mist

Cock couldn't wait for the last day, he was desperate to show a new tour member the view from the 6th green at Omaha Beach. 

Seconds before the moment arrived, a thick sea mist rolled in and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

Hall of Shame entrant was The Baron

 

Year:   2000  
Location: Le Grand Hotel, Dinard 
Winner:   Cash Till    (Clarkie tied but lost the trophy on back nine)
Tour NameEdward

The less said about this the better. Suffice to say that a photograph of someone called Edward became the booby prize. It now hangs in the bar of L'Univers in St Malo.

Hall of Shame entrant was The Baron

 

Year:   1999  
Location: Hotel Amiroute, Trouville 
Winner:  Tippy
Tour NameBookends

Quite an impromptu tour this one. We rang the changes and there were only four going with a week to go and then four more brand new members signed on. One of these was Tippy who, not only won, but has been on every trip since.

Unfortunately, the other three were unable to play golf. 

Still, they weighed in with their kitty money and that's all that really counts.

Hall of Shame entrants were The Bookends (The only Joint award ever made)

 

Year:   1998  
Location: Hotel Les Hauts, Montreuil 
Winner:  Short Stuff            (T.C. tied but lost the trophy on the back nine)
Tour NameThe Ladies of the Launderette

Well we met these two elderly ladies in the restaurant and had a few laughs. Turned out that they lived above a launderette. Lots of harmless fun ensued which mainly involved us drinking all their wine and smoking all their fags. Eventually they got fed up and kicked us out. 

Hall of Shame entrant was Fairground

 

Year:   1997  
Location: Hotel des Ormes 
Winner:  Clarkie
Tour NameOne Irons

A long and highly involved saga that started months before the tour. It was a wind up where nearly everyone involved thought that they were "in" on the joke but then it turned out that they were the butt of it. Final result was a free one iron that never quite appeared. If you want the whole story, send me an email.

Hall of Shame entrant was Cock

 

Year:   1996  
Location:L' Abbey at Le Tronchet 
Winner:  Buck Rogers
Tour NameHen Party

Imagine that you are in a small deserted village the middle of nowhere, in an tiny Italian restaurant that has no one else in it. The evening looks like its going to be a bit on the dull side. Then in walk thirty drunk French women out on a hen party. Lots of singing and good fun followed. The "piece de resistance" was when the bride to be threw up on the pavement. Unforgettable.

Hall of Shame entrant was Salisbury

 

Year:   1995  
Location:Mercure Omaha Beach, Port en Bessin
Winner:  Cash Till
Tour NameMade up rules

Buck and Clarkie invented a new game on the pocketless billiard table. Imaginary rules were invented as we went and there was much pretended discussion about the tactics. Scoring was arbitary. TC was well in the net. 

Hall of Shame entrant was Buck

 

Year:   1994  
Location:Mercure Omaha Beach, Port en Bessin
Winner:  the Almoner - Graham Champken
Tour NameBread Van

Starting this year we decided to have a competition known as "Shot of the Day". 

It would be worth just a few Francs and we anticipated it to be a worthy discussion topic in the bar after the game with each match putting forward a nomination and then arguing its relative merits against the other choices.

Cash Till shanked his second at the short third at Omaha beach. The ball shot out of bounds, hit a bread van coming down the road and bounced back into play. 

He got down in 2 for his par.                         (see disclaimer notice below)

We knew we could never top that so we abandoned shot of the day although it is still technically open as a category in the unlikely event of anything better than that happening.            

(See Tour Stats)

Hall of Shame entrant was Short Stuff

 

Year:   1993  
Location:Hotel Friendly, Caen
Winner:  Cock
Tour NameTwo Taxis and a rabbit

Our very first tour. Nobody knew then what an institution this would turn out to be.

Cock was so drunk that he thought he must be imaging the rabbit that was sat opposite him in the restaurant.

 

We took two taxis back to the hotel and had a bet on who would get back first. We bribed our driver to go the wrong way around a huge traffic island in the centre of Caen. Oh the impetuousness of youth!

Hall of Shame entrant was Cash Till

 

Years:   1990 - 1991 - 1992  
Location: Scotland (Blairgowrie, Carnoustie, Dunblane, Alyth, Letham Grange etc)
Winner:   Various winners on various days, not really established a format at this stage
  

Three trips to Scotland were the the catalyst for the next twenty years of going to France.

 

In Summary, the story so far............
YearTour Winner Hall of Shame entrant
2013 Turkey Winnie (2) Stewie
2012 Camp David Cock (3)
2011 France Winnie T.C (2)
2010 Cock (3) Porky
2009 Neal Gooding (2) Narrowboat (2)
2008 Neal Gooding Narrowboat
2007 T.C Cock (2)
2006 Cash Till (5) Short Stuff (3)
2005 Cash Till (4) Harry
2004 Porky T.C.
2003

Cash Till (3)

Clarkie
2002 Tippy (2) Short Stuff (2)
2001 Cock (2) The Baron (2)
2000 Cash Till (2) The Baron
1999 Tippy The Bookends
1998 Short Stuff Fairground
1997 Clarkie Cock
1996 Buck Salisbury
1995 Cash Till Buck (2)
1994 Almoner Short Stuff
1993 Cock Cash Till
1992: Scotland Nigel (2) Johnny M
1991 Darrell Buck
1990 Nigel Roul

Disclaimer Notice:

It is in the natural order of things that stories get repeated and are enhanced 

with each repetition and the passing of the years. The truth is the first casualty.

It is our policy at the Gritters Golf Society never to let the facts get in the way of a good story and, accordingly, some of the tales contained in these pages may not be completely accurate. Well, okay, probably none of them are, but some of them were originally based on fact, just wildly exaggerated to make them more interesting.

A good example is the story of the shanked ball that hit the bread van and rebounded back into play. That much certainly is true. However. the van may or may not have actually been moving and, if all 

of the players who claim to have seen it were in fact present, the we would 

have been playing a 16 ball. 

 

The stories  are as true as we now remember them, 

and that is all that really counts anyway.