2015 Archives | 2016/17 Archives
Strikers Fall Event- day 2, Oct 13, 2022: Foursomes
Hello Strikers, I wanted to give you a recap of our fall event held at King Valley GC which was organized by Mark Russell. The weather outlook for this day was not particularly optimal but we decided to proceed with a small but classy field. The course conditions were a bit difficult with all the rain that the area endured over night. There was a lot of fairways with standing water and we were restricted to cart paths only with power carts, needless to say the course played long. The competition was very tight as you will see from the results below:
First Place with 42 points…John MacLeod & Colin Fraser
Second Place with 41 points…Philip Rostron & Hartley Zwingerman
Third Place with 39 points…Mark Russell & Chris Gadula
It looked like John and I were in for a long day as we scored zilch on the first hole but we hammed and egged the rest of the way and were fortunate that the 2nd place team had a bogey on the last hole, mind you John and I were pelted with rain on our approach shot into the 18th green, it felt like hail. Our group met in the clubhouse for drinks and prize giving and for the best surprise of the day our President, Ted Clarke, was there to greet us. Ted announced that Richard Halinda has been named an Overseas Lucifer and also that our Quebec neighbours were in the process of organizing their own golfing society and we envision future friendly competitions plus our B.C. friends may join the Strikers and cross country events may be forth coming.
This was my last event as the Striker Captain and I will be handing the reins over to the very capable Paul Borg who will be supported by Malcolm More and John MacLeod. I want to thank everyone for the support and assistance I have received over the last seven years, it has been a pleasure serving you. I wish everyone a safe, healthy Christmas and a wonderful 2023 !
Cheers, Colin Fraser, Captain
Strikers Fall Event- day 1, Sept 19, 2022
The Strikers held our Fall Singles competition for the Captain`s Cup at the Golf Club of Lora Bay in Thornbury on September 19th, 2022. Lora Bay is a lovely, scenic course overlooking Georgian Bay with some wonderful vistas of the water. There are magnificent homes around the course and many more to come with booming expansion of the subdivision. I would like to thank Greg Finkle for hosting and organizing this event, it went off without a hitch. The weatherman was threatening us with periodic rain showers but as usual he was in the wrong but he was correct about the wind, we had consistent wind in the 20mph range with gusts of 35+, a 2-3 club difference. As you will see below in the scoring the wind did have a major impact with no one matching par of 36 Stableforth points. We had to resort to retrogression in order to determine the winner as there 4 tied for the lead. The results are below:
First Place…Don Rogers…35 points
Second Place…Mark Russell…35 points Greg Finkle..35 points Colin Fraser…35 points
Fifth Place…John MacLeod…33 points
In the Skills Competition the winners were:
Longest Drive…Paul Borg
Closest to the pin #7…Colin Fraser
Closest to the pin #15…Dean Anton (guest)
Strikers Spring Event, May 30, 2022
Hello fellow Strikers, sorry for the delay in posting the results of our event hosted by the National Pines GC. It was a well attended venue despite the longish drive. We had glorious weather, maybe a bit too warm and a touch too windy but we persevered. The course defended itself very well, there were were not too many scores above par @ 36(Stableford points). In the future I will have to publish the location of our competition more frequently and not just in the subject line. We discovered that Chris Cook is not a Headline man but a Body man as he missed the location which i stated in the Subject line, he only read the main story so he ended up at Emerald Hills 🙂 The host club treated us very well and the food was very tasty especially the French fries. The results are listed below:
SINGLES…
First place…John Dowley..39 points…brought his A game up from Florida
Second place…Mark Russell..37 points…new hip helped
Third place…Hartley Zwingerman..34 points
FOURSOMES..
First place..Dennis Simm & Malcolm Moore..38 points
Second place..Hartley & John MacLeod..37 points
Third place..Don Rogers & John Dowley..34 points Marc Henderson & Colin Fraser…34 points
SKILLED ?? EVENTS..
Closest to the pins…#4..Tom O’Shaughnessy #14..Bob Millar
Strikers Fall Event, October 14, 2021
Gents, I wanted to give a quick recap of our day @ Emerald Hills on October 14th. We had perfect weather for our competition so we could not use that as an excuse for not scoring better. We teed it up @ 8:30 for the Singles play. The results are as follows and as usual Stableforth scoring was implemented:
SINGLES….
First place ….40 points…Don Rogers…..obviously local knowledge was a big benefit but on a gross basis he shot 76 with an 8 on the card….well done Don!
Second place…38 points. …Doug Harris(guest)
Third place…37 points…Chris Gadula
FOURSOMES…
First place…41 points…Paul Gorrie & Philip Rostron..
Second place..39 points…Paul Borg & John Dowley
Third place..38 points…Hartley Zwingerman & Chris Cook Paul Bath & Norm Shaw
SKILLS COMPETITION…
Closest to the hole….both holes were won by Ori Rotstein
Longest Drive…Chris Gadula
We headed for the patio overlooking the 9th hole on the Forest nine for food & beverages. The ambience was fantastic along with the food. I believe most of the competitors enjoyed the layout at Emerald Hills except for the bunkers of which we have had issues with them all year.
If anyone has ideas for the 2022 Spring event please forward them to me or Ted.
I hope everyone has a safe and healthy winter and that things will get back to normal sooner rather than later.
Colin Fraser
—
Striker’s Spring Event 2021
This event was held at the venerable Cherry Hill GC in Fort Erie, a past host of the Canadian Open. The weather on this day was ideal except for a blustery wind that kept our scores down. We had an impressive turnout of 28 considering most of our members are from the GTA. As in the past the staff @ Cherry Hill were meticulous in their preparation for our arrival, power carts, score cards, breakfast, etc. were all ready for us to tee it up.
As i mentioned the scores were lower than normal, no one broke par of 36 points, the results are below, a very tight competition:
First Place..Norm Shaw,,34 points
Second Place..Paul Savoia…33 points
Third Place….Hartley Zwingerman…32 points
After our morning round we gathered around the patio for a box lunch with a few beverages consumed. The wind had not subsided for our afternoon competition of Foursomes, the results are below and as you can see it was a well contested, exciting outcome:
First Place..Chris Gadula & Ted Clarke…39 points
Second Place..Norm Shaw & Jim Diotte..38 points<
Third Place(tie)….Paul Savoia & Malcolm Moore / Mark Russell & Ori Rotstein
I would be most remiss in not thanking our hosts, namely Paul Savoia, Peter Wilkie & mostly Richard Halinda for organizing such a perfect day. The staff @ Cherry Hill were incredible which made my life a lot less stressful.. I hope everyone has a healthy, happy summer and will prep their game for our Fall event.
Colin Fraser
—
Strikers Fall Event, October 6, 2020
Strikers, we had a great day @ Devil`s Pulpit for our fall event. It was well attended with 23 golfers and the weather was perfect, clear sunny skies and not too much wind. As indicated by the scores the Pulpit is a very tough golf course and there were some very tricky pin positions on very large rolling greens. There was a tie at the top and I had to go back 6 holes in retrogression to determine the winner. The singles winner for the Captain`s Trophy was Chris Cook, results are below.
First place..Chris Cook.. 34 points
Second…Greg Finkle…34 points
Third..Chris Gadula..32 points
The Foursomes event for the Robert “Pooh” Preston Cottage trophy was a bit of a runaway as the winners had the advantage of playing together in the morning round so knew each other`s game pretty well by then, nontheless it was very impressive scoring for an alternate shot venue.
Results are:
First place..Greg Finkle & Chris Gadula…41 points
Second..Malcolm Moore & Hartley Zwingerman…38 points
Third..Philip Rostron & Jim Diotte…35 points
I wish to thank Malcolm for doing an amazing job of setting up our event at the Pulpit and ordering up the weather. If anyone has ideas for our 2021 events I would love to hear them.
The executive of the Striker`s wish you and your families a very safe and happy winter wherever you may or may not travel.
Colin Fraser
—
Anthony James Altilia (1951- 2019)
“I am terribly saddened to hear this news. Tony’s smile and sense of humour and fair play was remarkable. My condolences go out to his family and friends” With great respect, Paul B
“A sad day for all who knew this delightful, friendly and extraordinarily talented individual. He will be missed.Condolences to all his family…. May the fond memories of the good times spent together lift their hearts in the days ahead” Adam “H”
“This is very sad news. He was always full of fun with a great wit – I always enjoyed my time when he was around” Tom
<“I played with Tony 2 years ago at Devon. Although I met him several times prior you quickly knew he had a great personality and great sense of humor. He will be sadly missed” Dennis
This is so sad. Among his multiple fine attributes, I will always remember Tony as a kind, giving and positive person. He will be missed. Ori
I’ll never forget that rainy afternoon when Tony and I were the lead pair onto the 2nd 9 holes of a Striker tournament. While the rain intensified, we stuck it out and had a lot of fun, only to arrive back at the clubhouse to find that we were the only two foolish enough to continue. We certainly had a great laugh together at our mis-adventure. He was a great and generous guy, always fun to be around. As everyone has said, he will be sorely missed. Bob B
Peacefully, at the age of 72, surrounded by his loving family on July 27th, 2019. Bruce Brymer was a true sportsman who enjoyed the camaraderie of competition. Bruce was easy to smile, easier to like and forged many lasting relationships during his 30 years of membership at Weston. He loved his golfing home.
A fascinating story teller and conversationalist, Bruce just enjoyed people and was quick to ask how you were, with meaning. He will be missed by his friends at Weston.
A Celebration of Life will take place on Wednesday August 7th at Weston Golf and Country Club from 4pm to 7pm
—
From A First Time Participant (2019)
As an ad guy I have the gift of gab, of storytelling. Written or verbal. But I’m going to challenge myself to get to the point here. Because I want to clearly state my overly positive takeaways from my first Lucifer adventure.
I’m in my early 40’s, my dad his mid 70’s. He asked me to join him on an England golf trip that was organized by a proper British golf society and that concluded with a black tie affair at The Savoy Hotel. This painted some pretty concrete opinions on what I was in for if I accepted. I knew I would be the youngest participant, I knew I would play some incredible golf courses and I was sort of sure that 8 days with my father was a good idea. Oh, and I also knew that I was not going to have the proper length golf socks.
So I accepted the invite because of the above and figured everything else would be secondary. However, as it turns out everything else was not secondary.
Our trip was all about the people. And meeting as many as we could. Other Canadians, Commonwealthers (not sure that’s a term) and the Lucifer’s themselves. Golf was just a means to get the conversation started.
The Lucifers and their event(s) extend an invitation to acknowledge the Commonwealth’s collaborative past, but maybe more so a means to look forward. A reminder and reason to engage with the people we’re going forward with. Age doesn’t matter, patriotism not really either. Golf is a bridge. Fellowship the outcome.
I’ve been home for a week and I’m already hard at work with my wife to ensure my early July calendar can accommodate many more Lucifer adventures in the years to come. It’s not too early to start thinking about my son joining me in 2050 is it?
Thanks again Mark to you and your fellow Lucifers. It was so much more than I expected.
Till next time.
Chris.
—
2019 Spring Event
Our event this year was held at York Downs G & CC on June 17th. We were blessed with perfect weather for a change. We had a decent sized field of 24 which included some of the rookies heading over to the Lucifer Commonwealth tournament. As usual we held the Singles competition in the morning session and we were able to finish in record time due to 3 starting tees.. The scores were not as good as in previous years. One contributing factor may have been the speed of the greens. The singles event seemed to favour YD members as 2 of the top 4 were from their home course. The scores were very tight. The Foursomes competition in the afternoon was pretty much a cake walk for the winners. We did have one interesting side show as one group thought that they were only playing against the other team in their foursome so stopped scoring after 14 holes, of course they believed they would have won the event if they had continued scoring. The names will be withheld but one of the group was a veteran. After golf we headed to the Men`s Lounge for dinner and drinks. We had a great day and all of the players were extremely complimentary of the golf course and the YD staff.
The winners are as follows:
Lucifer Trophy (Singles)…1st..Colin Fraser 36 points 2nd..Peter Golding & Chris Gadula..35 points 3rd..Paul Botha, Norm Shaw & Ted Clarke..33 points
Preston Trophy Foursomes)..1st..Richard Halinda & Michael Manley..38 points 2nd..Paul Gorrie & Don Rogers..36 points
3rd..Peter Golding & Colin Fraser..34 points
2018 End of Year Report of the Lucifers GS
Dear Overseas Lucifer,
Firstly, thank you all for your ongoing support which, although not too arduous (I hope), culminated in our biggest ever number of players entered for this year’s Commonwealth Tournament. Out of interest our Match Scribe, Jeff Turner, produced a list of Commonwealth players for the CT in 1976 which records the following numbers : Australia 12, British Solomon Islands 1, Canada 5, Hong Kong 2, Jamaica 4, Kenya 22, Malawi 3, Nigeria 5, New Zealand 8, Rhodesia 5, South Africa 3, Singapore 1, St. Lucia 2, Tanzania 3 and finally Zambia with 45!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How the Commonwealth and the world has changed in just over 40 years!!! This year’s figures show the following: Australia 54, Canada 15, Malaysia 9, South Africa 4, Bermuda 4, Kenya 3, Singapore 2, New Zealand 2, Pakistan 1, Mauritius 1.
The overall winner of the Commonwealth Tournament was Paul Jackson from The Australian Golf Club in Sydney with 73 points, closely followed by James Swinburne from Royal Melbourne with 72 points. The weather for a change was extremely warm and the golf courses parched from lack of rain! Our Commonwealth Scribe, Mark Dumas, as always did a wonderful job in handling a record number of players (128) at West Hill and Walton Heath. Unfortunately, Mark’s last year in the job will be the 2019 CT. We were particularly encouraged to see a large Malaysian group whom we hope enjoyed themselves and particular thanks to Han K Hoh and Nigel Turner for their help.
Our new Captain in 2018, Charlie Jamieson, has been extremely busy on a number of fronts and attended virtually every event in our busy calendar plus a 3 week Tour to Canada, taking in Quebec and Montreal together with Niagara for the first time and which was a great success. There have been a couple of changes to our Scribes – Michael Webster taking over from Charlie Courage as Honorary Scribe who did a wonderful and demanding job over many years and Jeff Turner taking over from Simon Allport as Match Scribe together with the job of continually improving our Website. Jeff also has the role of looking after and collating all our Trophies which are considerable as you know. Some of these Trophies have an interesting history which Jeff is researching.
A small Lucifer team of gentlemen only will be touring the Toronto area in Canada in 2019 with Ted Clarke and his Maple Leaf Strikers. There is no Tour planned for 2020 and in February 2021, our official Centenary Tour to Australia is scheduled, and a Kenyan Tour in September 2023 has been agreed. Whilst on the subject of our Centenary which covers 2022 in the main, a special Committee has met to formulate a plan to celebrate this important event and whilst no firm decisions have yet been made we will let you know immediately that’s all agreed. However, we all hope that you will make a particular note in your diaries and make every effort, not only to attend but to attract new tourists as there will be some very special events.
We have been endeavouring to attract younger Members and better golfers, whilst not forgetting the spirit of our lovely Society. Our present Captaincy is a 2 year position involving much work so it has been decided that a Captain Elect be appointed for 2019 so that he is fully aware of all important issues before taking office in 2020 – this will continue every 2 years thereon.
A new and updated List of Members for 2019 is being worked on and our apologies for missing you important gentlemen out in the 2017 edition but a hard copy will be sent to you together with a 2019 Fixture List. Finally, one important event took place in Australia a short while ago with the 2nd such Match being played at the Australian GC with representatives from the Swan Vestas in Perth, the Vesuvians from Victoria and the Match Club in Sydney which was put together by Tony Parker (Sydney), Ross Bradfield (Victoria) and Alex Monteath (Perth) co-ordinated by Stuart Cox, Chris Burgess and other wonderful chaps. A special Trophy was presented and played for, called the Bradmontpark Trophy which will be played for annually, the next Match being in Perth. These wonderful Societies with links to the Lucifers create a long lasting friendship between golfers and is enjoyed by many and as such we would be very keen to help in similar such events in other Commonwealth Countries.
Mark Dumas will be sending out Invitations to our 2019 Commonwealth Tournament in mid-December, the dates being the 8th and 9th July with the Savoy Dinner on the 10th. As last year’s events for wives, girlfriends etc., was such a success golf at New Zealand on the 8th and a tour of London with lunch on the 9th July will be available.
Most of us in the UK and Canada are entering Winter mode but the rest of you lucky chaps, I hope enjoy your golfing in the sun and warmth!!!
Very Best Wishes,
Nicholas Hayes
—
2018 Report of Lookout Point n More
Fellow Strikers, I thought you might like to read about our day @ Lookout Point GC that was hosted by our President Mr Clarke. We were worried about the weather but the afternoon turned out to be perfect, maybe a little bit windy. We started off with a typical British pub lunch, Bangers and Mash along with a beer of course. Ted arranged the competition Lucifers vs ML Strikers, using Stableford scoring and the top 8 scores from each team counted. It was a very tight match but we persevered and outscored them 274-249, led by Mark Russel`s 41(bookies have him as the 2019 Lucifer favourite). I should mention that the Lucifers were at a disadvantage from the start, they had Ted on their team:). After drinks at the club we headed to a restaurant in Fonthill for an amazing repast hosted by the Lucifers.. Ted did an amazing job of arranging the foursomes and getting everyone to the first tee on time, well done!
I would also be remiss in not mentioning our welcoming reception at the Wilkie`s farm in Niagara-on-the lake on Saturday. Peter and Joey went to a lot of trouble to organize this function, ie putting floors in the barn so tables could be set up for dining and lots more. We had a great dinner of BBQ`d Beef, chicken and lots of salads. They even had musicians there for background music and we did convinced them to do a few songs after dinner and were well received. Unfortunately we did run out wine during dinner but fortunately we had champagne as a backstop, very generously supplied by Tom O`Shaughnessy. The next day we were at Cherry Hill GC in Fort Erie which was hosted by Richard Halinda. Richard arranged for a wonderful buffet in the backyard of his fabulous home, just down the street from the club. The competition was a 2 man or woman net best ball from the groupings. There were Lucifers, Strikers and host club members in most of the groups. It turned out to be a runaway by one team, my wife Brenda, Lucifer wife Jenny and a Cherry Hill lady. Their team shot 119, only 25 under par! The highlight of the day was the Ladies Captain from Cherry Hill got her 1st hole-in-one at the very difficult 9th hole. Richard did a great job in hosting this event as he usually does.
—
2018 Fall Event
Fellow Strikers, I just wanted to give you a quick recap of our event last Friday @ Woodington Lakes GC. We had very nice weather in the morning for the singles competition to vie for the Captain`s Cup on the Legend`s Course. If you have never played there I would highly recommend it. The course has some strong, interesting holes culminating in a very tough but scenic 18th, one of the finest finishing holes I have played. It was a very tight competition and once the smoke cleared your winner was Bert Keene. Bert and I accumulated 34 points but in retrogression since I parred the last hole and Bert bogeyed it he was the leader after 17 holes, hence the winner.
The Foursomes event for the Robert “Pooh” Preston trophy in the afternoon was played on The Legacy Course. This course is more wide open but with more water and the weather changed dramatically. I think there may have been a wind chill and with the gusts it was probably a 3 club wind, very challenging. Bert continued his stellar play and was teamed up with Mark Russell, who had 41 points at Lookout Point last week. Bert and Mark ran away from the field with 38 points, tremendous scoring in an alternate shot competition. I think Bert and Mark are the bookies favourites for the Lucifer tournament in 2019!
The overall results are:
Captains Cup & Preston “Pooh” Trophy
1. Bert Keene 34 points 1. Bert Keene & Mark Russell..38 points
2. Colin Fraser..34 points 2…Colin Fraser & Dean Anton..31 points
3..Don Rogers..31 poits 2..Don Rogers & Bill Marshall…31 points
—
2018 Spring Event
For once the Weather Gods smiled down us for our 2 day event. We started off playing Peninsula Lakes GC near Fenwick, On. It is a beautiful layout with elevations and great views , as it was designed out of a former quarry. This day was sort of casual with only cash on the line. Some excellent golf was featured with fairly high scores under the Stableforth Scoring System. Bert Keene and Don Rogers split first place, the results are as follows:
1. Bert Keene…Don Rogers.. 38 points
3. Colin Fraser 35 points
4. Paul Borg….34 points
Friday found us at the legends of the Niagara, the Uusher`s Creek course. There was some confusion about our starting times but it was resolved with no delays. The golfers were playing a singles format and competing for the Lucifer trophy., again using the Stableforth SS.The course itself was in good shape but the greens were on the slow side. The wind was freshening as the morning wore on and made for some difficult club selections. The results are as :
1. Paul Borg 35 points
2. Tony Altilia 32 points
3. Bernie Zukerman 30 points
The afternoon session is our Foursomes event, playing for the Preston Cup. The format is alternate shot and can be very taxing on friendships. The wind by this time was a semi gale and played havoc with shot making. Paul Borg maintained his excellent play from the morning and along with a capable Partner, Michael Hobart, took the title by a very slim margin.
1. Paul Borg & Michael Hobart 35 points
2. Bert Keene & Paul Gorrie 34 points
3. Richard Halinda & Ted Clarke 29 pointsAfter golf we proceeded to Peter Wilikie`s farm for beer, wine, pizza and chickens wings, it was a great venue to wind up our event.
