75 Years of The Poker Circle

Article Published: Thursday 14th October 2010 18:01:21 pm

Despite the impression given by the Internet that poker is a recent phenomenon, poker has been a popular game in England for many years and The Poker Circle at Frinton Golf Club can trace their weekly meetings back to 1935. Apart from their love of poker, the members of The Poker Circle have also been great supporters of golf at Frinton and on Saturday they staged a Texas Scramble to recognize their 75th anniversary. To add an extra layer of entertainment, the event was also a stringsomes – each team having a measured length of string, a portion of which can be sacrificed on each occasion the team decides to convert a near miss into a ‘holed’ putt. Shrewd management of when to use the string certainly played a part in the final scores. It was fitting that a member of the winning team, Frank Thorpe, is also a long term member of the Poker Circle. The three other members of the team were Barbara Thorpe, Frank Sanderson and Robert Emery. The teams in second and third place followed in close order with the remaining teams some way behind. Second team was Kevin Maleary, Ed Glease, Alec Cochrane and James Hide; third was Danny Leno, Michael Lockhart-Smith, Nigel Oakley and Rod Fox.

Earlier in the week the Ladies held their ‘Guest Day’ and encountered changeable weather conditions. The winning pairing was Caroline Gard with her guest Sally Cearnes on 68 points, second were Angela Low and her guest Chris Pearce on 66 points with Tracy Taylor and her guest Anita Davey in third place on 65 points.

The Ladies Bronze team completed their final league match against Boyce Hill and rounded off a satisfactory campaign with a well fought victory by 5 matches to 2. The team has now played six matches winning four and losing twice. The team playing against Boyce Hill comprised of Jan Wright, Jodi Rutherford, Michelle Lawton, Val Nicholls, Caroline Gard and Joan Horner.

The Veteran’s Cup was contested within a Men’s Stableford event, only those competitors aged 60 or over being eligible to win the Veteran’s Cup. Winner of the Veteran’s Cup was Terry Stapleton with 38 points. Best stableford scores came from James Taggart with 41, Matthew McAuley 40 and Danny Leno 39.

The Youth Shield Team scored a resounding victory over Burnham on Crouch Golf Club running out impressive winners by 5 matches to nil.