The year of the DOG(s)

Happy Chinese New Year to you all...... it is the Year of the Dog and for you romantics, it is to be a year of great love !! I am looking forward to it !!!!!!

A good turn out for Barney's final (so he says!!) Dogs game. We had 18 assorted mongrels baying at the 1st tee box eager to chase the little white ball to all corners of the course. Ian Wright returned to the pack after his absence on leave and was a convincing and worthy winner of the Dog Doodoo having accumulated a meagre 15 points. His work mate Gus, last weeks Leader of the Pack, decided to chase his tail round and round the woods and only managed 20 points.... less than half the number he had last week !!!

At the top end it was another sad story for Top Dog who was pipped at the post again and deprived of balls by Barry who came in 3rd with 34 points. I suppose I should be grateful that we had one man with balls as the girls neutered the men at the top. In 2nd place we had Dingo Kate on 35 points and Leader of the Pack this week is OK with 36 points.... and to really rub our noses in it, OK also collected the nearest to the pin on the 12th. Well done OK !! As one would expect, "Matahari" will be taking the knife to certain handicaps!! By the way, OK..... there is no right of appeal in the Dogs rules !!!
After the golf the pack gathered at my kennel to say farewell to Barney.... apparently he thinks he is leaving !! It was a really fun night... thanks to all those that produced salads and desserts. Philippe took pictures all night, some which he has sent out to you by e-mail.... I like the captions !!! We wish Barney all the best and look forward to catching up with him sometime in the future.

Gus, golfing giant!

A disappointing turn out for the excursion to Savar with only 8 dogs appearing for the chase. Well done Heather who was the sole lady dog prepared to brave it out in Savar. For those that are less than enthusiastic about the idea of playing Savar, it is recognised that it is a longish course but because it is not crowded we get round faster. We left the Army as planned at 10.30 (45 minutes earlier than we have had to go to our normal Kurmitola game) and were back in Dhaka at 5.30 having stopped for a pizza and beer en route. The course is in good condition and the temperature yesterday was really pleasant. For those that have a tendency to 'wash their balls' on a regular basis Savar has a major benefit in that the ball boys swim and have an 80+% success rate of return!! I am not advocating that we go to Savar every week but we should take advantage of the facility on a reasonably regular basis.... say, once every 6 weeks??

As to the golf..... Douglas struggled despite sneaking out to Savar with Khor for a quick recce and practise on Friday. He accumulated a miserable 18 points and is Dog Doodoo of the week. Heather on 19 points played with her brand new shiny clubs, and gained valuable experience with them.... she found that she could hit the ball into the 'pani' with them with just as much ease as she had with the old ones !!! Barney on his penultimate chase found, with some difficulty, 20 points!!! And now to the Dogs Bollocks.... in 3rd place we had Philippe with 28 points. It is worth mentioning at this point that Philippe was wearing a pair of Pascales (Matahari) shorts on the course ( is this a start to his campaign to play off the red tees??). In 2nd place we had 3 Putt Pete on 29 points but way out in front, the Leader of the Pack this week is Gus on a staggering 41 points!!!! Congratulations Gus, you have yourself a new handicap which moves you closer to your official Scottish one!!! Gus gets cut 4 to 26, (did I hear shouts of "come back, Chief Chopper, all is forgiven"!!). Douglas has his handicap increased to 22.