Derek Robins wins the second event of the 2010 British Tour, The Chilly Chuck.

The event was held this weekend at Derek’s beautiful course Quarry Park in the heart of England.  With heavy snows falling on Thursday the hardy campers at the course had to pitch tents and sleep in minus temperatures.  With another snow fall on Saturday night nature seemed determined to prove the chosen name Chilly Chuck correct!

Not to be deterred the show went on as normal with entrants split evenly across the three divisions.

After the Saturday rounds Conor Davies led the Open division one shot in front of Derek and three and four shots up on Jonny Morris and new comer to the open division James Luton respectively.

The tee pads were cleared of 2 inches of overnight snow on the Sunday morning and this allowed Del (Quarry Park Ranger)  to continue his steady climb to the top with his rounds getting better and better culminating in a 50 in the afternoon – 209 after the four rounds.   Jester Wilson (Croydon disc golf)  played his traditional Sunday blinder with a second round of 50 matching the champs score.  After 6 holes he was 1 shot over the twos but couldn’t quite hold that blistering pace to the end finishing with 218 for the tournament,  it was enough though to take second place.  Third place was held by Conor Davies  (Harrogate Disc golf) on 219 who was solid throughout,  fourth  place went to Jonny Morris (Ox Disc) with 221 and James Luton (QP) - still eligible for Junior status - was unlucky not be involved in a final after coming 5^th on 230 and holding off the stiff challenge of the Farrell brothers Jed and Jared. 

Derek will be playing in the Netherlands whilst tour event 3 the Burnlaw Snowbow is taking place, so the Open division should be wide open!

The Advanced Amateur division was a hard fought affair.  The early leader after the Saturday rounds was new boy to the tour Dan Eagle of Essex Blades.  Fresh from his second place in the Int Am division at Whitcombe he shot two solid rounds of 60 and 61 to lead the division by one shot. After camping in the freezing cold of the Essex tour bus, his Sunday rounds slipped allowing the chasing pack to overtake. 

Scott Fitzgerald (QP) led Pete “Village” Black (QP) by two shots going into the final round,  the lead was passed backwards and forwards before Scott turned on the afterburners to take his second ever Advanced Amateur tour win – time to Move Up! Scott finished on 247 with Pete on 249. Whitcombe Frostbreaker winner Patrick Green (Whitcombe) shot a superb last round 59 after indifferent play on the Saturday to take 3^rd place (256) with Paul Holden (QP)  and Sophie Southgate (Essex Blades)  sharing 4^th with 257.

In the Intermediate Amateur division Richard Hatton (QP), the favourite going into the tournament, set the early pace.  After his best tournament round ever with a 61 in the 1^st round he slowed in the second round but still had a commanding 9 point lead from local Danny Farndon (QP) going into snowy sunday.  

Danny played some great golf putting pressure on Hatton in the morning round, shooting a strong 63 and cutting the lead to just 3 shots.  After a nervy start to the second round watching Hatton play consistent golf and extend the lead to 7 shots, Danny found his groove again and pulled out the par golf putting the pressure back on Hatton.  Despite hitting a birdie on 7 this caused mistakes to creep into the favourites game and by hole 11 Danny had taken a 1 shot lead with three holes to play.  Hatton managed to keep his nerve on hole 12 to take a par and bring it all square.   With two holes to go both golfers got a 4 and then a 3 on a hole (14) that has now twice seen Hatton throw away chances to win previous Int Am titles.

With Rick Murphy taking the news of an impending playoff to the waiting gallery at the Clubhouse, the two weary players trudged up to the 18^th to decide who would take the title. 

Hatton had the honour at the tee and was just about to take his shot when the Essex van alarm blared behind him.  Resetting, he put down the best drive he had managed since parking the hole in practice on the Saturday morning, to cheers of Tombstone from the gallery with the disc knifing into the soggy soil.  The pressure was firmly back on Danny who had gone OB on 18  both rounds on the Sunday.  His drive went high and wide and swung back in 5 meters in bounds on the Green to huge cheers from the gallery – game on!

With Hatton’s drive within 8 meters of the basket Danny was to putt first.  He went for it and had an unlucky roll away leaving a 4 meter return putt.  Hatton putting for the birdie to take the win,  narrowly missed and had a similar roll away landing just inside his opponents disc.  Danny having putted superbly all day dropped his shot low leaving Hatton a nervy 4 meter putt for the win. With the gallery holding their breath he took an age to set himself before banging the putt into the chains to finally be crowned an Int Am division winner.

Congratulations to Danny who played superbly in his first tournament– the final scores were 265 for both players with Jon Tweed (QP) on 276 and Phil Blount (QP)  playing with a chest infection on 282, both involved with their first tournaments,  more will definitely be seen from all three in the future. 

The next tour event will be the Burnlaw Snowbow on the 27^th/28^th March.