Friday The 21st March 2008: Eastern Star.  The Charity Classic provides the largest single influx of Charity Funds of the Year, and for Months in advance the Golf Chairman and his Committee beaver away to twist arms and find volunteers to give generously. This is usually not really difficult as all who live here realise how important the amount we give is to some poor soul. The harder the Committee work the more they provide, and although in the present financial climate the situation this year has been daunting, still at least a Half Million Baht was raised. This money along with our normal Charity works will be distributed to the poor and needy by our Charity Chairman, Bernie Tuppin.

  This day therefore was the culmination of a tremendous amount of time put in by Golf Chairman, Tony Oakes, and his helpers, mainly Perry, Nigel, Tim, Bernie and Dennis The President, and too many others in the trenches to mention, but special mention must go to out Major Sponsors, Baltex, Bauer, Seadrill, Joe St Laurent and Diamond Dave, we will mention others later.  So let us play the game.

 After all the hard work of the last few Months, the actual day is sometimes a bit of an anti-climax for those that organise it, but as Tony said, this day was exceptional because all were ahead of the game. So when we arrived all was planned and all the 'Gimmees' were given out very smoothly, all the players were booked in, all knew where they were to tee off and they moved smoothly to their allotted tees.

 The day was to be a shot gun start at 10 O'Clock, and the scoring was to be best three Stableford scores out of the four players in a team at each hole. One of the 'Amusing' things was that the hooter, called a shotgun, actually went three times, each time just as the player was about to swing. All went well as he hit his tee shot well.

 So at last after all the planning the day was underway. Here I must say that the Course was in fine condition, with all aspects of the Course at their best. This is normally a tough Course, and so it was on this day, but poor play could not be put down to the condition of the Course. It was just bad play.

 The wind was a factor on the day and blew quite strongly, and the heat was also a major factor for those who walked, however the play continued to move along quite smartly and we got around in good time. This was a really good walk, and not spoilt, because we were in good company and we had a good chat.

 This is maybe the time to thank the Eastern Star Management who provided a really fine Course, were helpful and courteous, aided in the Charity aims and provided a really fine Buffet after the round. This is a fine Course to hold a major function on.

 Talking of after the game, one of the draw backs to a 'Shot Gun Start' is that all 144 players tend to want to dash to the showers at the same time, on this day with the excellent facilities it was noticeable that the players spaced themselves out and many could be seen having a quick 'cold one', or two, before going into the shower.

 The Buffet was set up outside and the players had plenty of space and time to sample the food and relax after a really hard day. This passed the time until the results could be tabulated in a nice relaxed manner, in fact so relaxed was it out there, that one of the players actually fell asleep and had to be 'Gently' awoken by the Emcee, our Nigel. We will not mention who it was but as he was a 'Sponsor' along with Tropical Bert's and Bua's Fishing, we will let Tom remain anonymous, we will let any one get their 'Cotton' picking hands on him.

 The peace and quiet was all too soon interrupted by the Golf Chairman thanking all his helpers, all his Sponsors and Eastern Star for their help and hard work, he then passed the mantle onto our Emcee for the night, Nigel Cannon, who did the honours.

 First Nigel called out the 'Technical winners, and we will give a list of them below, along with the Sponsors of their hole, and then Nigel got onto the actual Team Winners.

 In fourth place was The Shenanigans Team' of  D Bramley, S Dutton, C Platten and R Smith with a very creditable 116 Stableford points.

 We then got into the 'Countback Zone' with all the first three Teams having 118 points, and so it came down to who played well at the end.

 In third place  was the Team of 'Bangkok Bowlers' consisting of G Hiskett, R Murphy, P Lindley and G Dodson. In second was the 'Rich Man, Poor Man' Team of S Behr, A Duckett, T Mason and A Evans.

 So to the winner and this fine Team was 'The Misfits' and consisted of B Blackford, P Seward, F Kelly and A Galvin. They were obviously overwhelmed by the fame such a great win would bring, but I was most impressed when Brian Blackford phoned me up and insisted I thank Tony, his helpers, The Eastern Star Management and all Sponsors, on their behalf, for an excellent Tournament well organised and well run. Surprisingly in many Years of  completing the write-ups this is the first time anyone has said thank you. Well done The Misfits and thank you.

 So now we got down to the real reason for being here, the Raffle. This was run by the Emcee and had 'Dozens' of fine Prizes. All the tickets were drawn by 'Our Arthur' helped by Tim, and with respect to Arthur's nearly 80 Years, they were allowed to sit down. Suffice to say the list of winners and Sponsors will be Published separately.

 After a fine day, with the light failing, the players made their way to their transport and went home after a great day. Roll on next Year. T.T.F.N.