Captain signing off, or should I say “señor’ing” off

Posted on behalf of Mr “CC” Loveless, get a cuppa and settle in

In a few days I step down as Club Captain and handover to Sean and I felt that a final and suitably irreverent pompous and self-important report for the Swashbucklers website would be in order.

So where do I start in the summing up for the Swashbucklers my year as Surrey National’s Club Captain?

Well, let’s start with this bl**dy nickname…”CC”

I suspect that it is one of those names that is going to stick for a while yet. While I think it all started at Charthills back in May the nickname was possibly already lurking around before then. As Jim and I decimated the worthy pairing of Macve / Savedra my recollection is that as another putt rolled in Phil asked “Is he some sort of c***?” to which Sean replied “some sort of Captain C***”…and there you have it. My 47 points (damn that double bogey on the last!) left poor old Huge in 2nd place with his meagre 42 points and as I went off into the sunset with the money the nickname had become well and truly stuck.

But was that the only highlight? HELL NO!

• Taking £20 off Winkle by winning our 2013 handicap wager by a whopping 0.1…SWEEEEET!
• Pairing up with Carol Newman to win the Mixed Open at Sutton Green GC.
• Winning the Trilogy Cup at home. Surrey National is now the only club in the group to have won it four times AND the only club to have retained it. Sean I fully expect you to use this titbit of information this year when you defend the cup!
• Winning the Gender Cup and wiping the smiles off the opposition as we turned over their lunch time advantage with the men only losing one of the afternoon matches. Bob Axten’s half in the Gender Cup from dormie 3 down is always worth a mention.
• Let’s mention the Order of Merit…HIGHEST OOM FOR A CLUB CAPTAIN? OH YEAH BABY! (BTW, you do need to read this in the style of Austin Powers otherwise it doesn’t really work…).
• Runner up in the Blue Bogey….yes I know who won it on count back…”pah!”
• Runner up in the Pro/Captain challenge with Matt Stock. We was robbed Matt, robbed I say! Ten under should have sent us to Turkey in November…anyway I got a nice Titleist bag
• Being a member of the The Originals and seeing us take second from starting last on the final day.
• The Charity Day = golf, dinner, beer, auctions, beer, massage, beer, curry, beer AND all in a good cause. Such a perfect day!
• The “Captains” match with Messrs’ Savedra, Little and Gilbody at The Ad.
• Coming 4th on countback in the Anniversary Trophy…if only I had made that 2 putt on 18 or Mr Strong had made his one putt we would’ve won! Just wasn’t to be…at least no one was particularly upset by it.
• Captain C (the horse that won!) @ Lingfield.

And this is not a complete list – watching Al S win the OOM and handing out major awards to other Swashbucklers (even a certain Mr Nowak) and has all been part of a great experience.

Will I miss being Captain? I guess I will but I have had my time and it is now Sean’s turn to get the texts from Phil asking to use the Captain’s parking space. I’ve had a great year and I owe a big part of this to the Swashbucklers.

On a serious note, I would like to say a special thank you to the former Club Captains in our swindle who have been really helpful (possibly more than they know) in helping me get off to a good start and gently nudging me in the right direction over the year.

I hope everyone else has enjoyed having me as Captain and let’s all raise a glass and get behind Captain Savedra.

Sean, I hope you have as much fun over the next 12 months as I have over the last

Cheers,
Graham