Pattaya pleases Len

IPGC Pattaya Golf Society at the Bunker

On Tuesday, 16th October, the Bunker Boys made the short local trip to Pattaya Country Club for their weekly medal competition. As they set out, the day was grey and the prospects of dry weather seemed slight. However, the clouds kept moving and a dry round was the outcome.

The format was stroke play and it was the Bunker’s web guru, Len Jones, returning to Pattaya C.C. after an absence of more than six months, who topped the leader board with a net 69. A welcome return to form indeed! Second was the Kansas Laser, Stan Axon, with net 71 and in third place was the ever-consistent Ian Phillips, who carded a net par 72.

Nearest-the-pin awards went to Colin Wilkes, “Sunny” Ruthsip and Len Jones. The day was also notable for the absence of the transport manager and many excuses were proffered for his absence. Had the excitement of an Arsenal win at the weekend been too much to bear? Had his granddaughter suffered a restless night? The latter seems more probable! The Bunker Boys await the note from his Mum, with breathless anticipation!

Meanwhile, keep up to date with the Bunker Boys at http://www.thebunkerboys.com

Mud wins, Natural Park prove to be losers

IPGC TAGGS Golf from The Haven

Monday 15th - Phoenix (Stroke)

1st: Lamud Lindborg, 64
2nd: Charlie Chen, 67
3rd: Bob Lindborg, 68
4th: Ciano Glavinia, 69

Bob and Lamud Lindborg started a fine week of golf on Monday, October 15, playing over the Lake and Ocean courses at Phoenix Country Club. On the day Charlie Chen, playing out of The Haven for the first time, separated them, and Ciano Glavinia followed closely behind to round out the prizewinners.

Lamud scored her best round, breaking the century for the first time after only recently having taken up the game.

Malcolm Clare, Mark Campbell and Stephen Beard shared the twos pool. Malcolm had to watch the spoils being shared on the 17th, with first “Must” and then the Doc holing out in two. Disappointing!

Back at the prize giving, Richard Livingston welcomed new member Charlie Chen, who after his day’s success, vowed to be back.

Wednesday 17th - Natural Park Hills (Bogey)

1st: Ciano Glavinia, 1 up
2nd: Joe Sebastian, All square (cb9 1 up)
3rd: Bob Van Mol, All square (cb9 2 down)
4th: Ray Matti, 1 down

The day started inauspiciously when the Natural Park Hills management at the course decided to make a random excess charge over the agreed and published prices. They maintained that contrary to their previous agreements, that they would charge an excess if the club could not produce a minimum number of 30 golfers on any given day. As it was there were only 20 players on the day and this resulted in an additional charge of a total of 2000 baht. No doubt the management would have been less pleased when the IPGC chairman immediately cancelled three future fixtures that would have netted the course at least 54,000 baht. Another example of very shortsighted thinking that does little to promote good business with the local community, and should serve as a warning to all golfers who may be thinking of playing at this and Natural Park Resort courses.

The course on the day proved to be very wet, and together with the cored greens, made scoring a bit of a lottery. This resulted in the CSS increasing three strokes to 73. Ciano Glavinia, preparing to leave for a 2 months stint of work, led home the field, closely followed by Bob Van Mol, Joe Sebastian and Ray Matti. Bob, Ray and Gaute Moen shared the twos.

Back at the Haven, Richard welcomed new members Michael Izzo, Waroon Taranski, John McHugh and John Biangazz, all from the USA, whilst welcoming back Steve Lockhart from Australia, Gaute Moen from Norway and Don Scott from USA.

Friday 19th - Green Valley (Stableford)

2nd Division

1st: Mud Lindborg, 41 pts
2nd: Bob Lindborg, 35 pts (cb9 20)
3rd: B.J. Smith, 35 pts (cb9 12)
4th: Malcolm Clare, 34 pts

1st Division

1st: Brian Wilkinson, 37 pts
2nd: Bob Van Mol, 35 pts
3rd: Doug Campbell, 33 pts
4th: Russell Finch, 32 pts

In contrast to the previous competition, the members’ of TAGGS were welcomed to Green Valley and given 2 free green fees to be given as extra prizes. Obviously there are some course managements that appreciate the regular income from the local clubs and golfers.

Once again Mud Lindborg led home the second division and can look forward to at least a four shot reduction in handicap for her week’s efforts. Husband Bob Lindborg, as well as B.J. Smith and Malcolm Clare, who is just getting used to the ground not moving on his back swing following 6 weeks at sea, trailed her.

In the first division, things were a little closer, with Brian Wilkinson staying ahead of the ever improving Bob Van Mol (who, having had several tips from the elder of the Campbell twins, now continually takes his money) and “Teacher” Doug Campbell, with “Pin Eye” Finch another shot back.

A Nice Day Fishing

The Fish & Trips fishing team had a nice day fishing when they went out from Pattaya on Wednesday the 3rd of October with Captain Sowan. On board were Rod James, Karl James and John Standard Alex, all here from the UK.

The fishermen had entered the Pattaya Sports Club monthly competition, and although during the morning the fishing was slow, at around 11:30 things started to pick up when they landed their first fish, a nice Queen Fish, and from then on the action was non-stop.

The men from the Fish & Trips fishing team filled the boat with delicious fish on Oct. 3.

At some stages there were two and three fish on at a time, and by the time the day was over, they landed 26 queen fish and 4 pompano. All together they had a total weight of 138 lbs. They also lost 10 or 12 fish.

At approximately 4:30 in the afternoon they ran out of bait, so they had to up anchor and make their way back to Pattaya with a boat full of fish and a very happy bunch of fishermen. They all agreed that it had been another great day fishing out of Pattaya.

Suzuki, Sebastian, Ebrahim and Marrison win the week

PSC Golf from Cafe Kronborg

Treasure Hill was in fine condition for a stroke play competition October 15 from the Kronborg. Two flights were played: A flight at 0-15 handicap and B flight 16 and up.

Yasuo Suzuki took the A flight with a net 70, Ron Platt was second with net 73 and Aussie Alan Doug 3rd net 74.

Joe Sebastian won B Flight with a net 71 despite a TQ hangover. Hans Probst finished 2nd with net 72, and Richard Worden 3rd with a net 75 on count back from J.S.

Thursday the 18th October saw the beautiful and surprisingly dry Khao Kheow host to a Stableford competition organized by SGT Major (or thereabouts) Derek Brook.

A flight (0-14 handicap) was won by our good friend Ebrahim! 2nd place went to the U.S. all star Wayne Koch and 3rd place went to the Swiss Star Phillipe Berra.

B flight was won by the effervescent Bob Morrison with the only sub par round of the day. 2nd went to the old codger Frank Sinclair (to prove again that the Pattaya nightlife is a bonus), and 3rd spot went to the PSC stalwart Dave (the rave) Richardson!

Nicholas and Wilkinson scramble home at Eastern Star

Larry Nicholas and Brian Wilkinson carded an impressive net 64.8 to win the Shenanigans October 16th Pairs Scramble at Eastern Star. Some way behind were father and son team Peter and Tyrone Renggli with a net 68 to claim the runner-up spot, with on-form Tony Stevens and new Shenanigans member Norman Riskie just one shot behind at net 69.

Barry Winton and Alistair Waugh sank the longest first (on the green) putts, with Peter Renggli, Brian Wilkinson and Larry Nichols adding to their prizes by being nearest the pin on holes 4, 8 and 15 respectively. Another newcomer, Chris Oxley was nearest on hole 12.

The weather stayed dry, but only just, and there was more evidence of work on the course with more approaches to greens being neatly roped off.

Next outing of Shenanigans Very Friendly Golf Society is on Tuesday October 30th, just a few days after the 8th TQ Masters. The numbers are to be increased on that day with Pat Ryan’s twenty golfers from Ireland when the format will again be a pairs scramble, and not a mystery pairs as previously published. That should be a good day and a typical Shenanigans day.

Sign-up at Shenanigans.

The Square Ring

by Howie Reed

Tonight in Hat Yai, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (49-2) will be defending his WBC Flywiegh title against Alex Baba (18-1). The impressive Thai with the great record won the title when he KO’d Malcolum Tynacao in 1. His first defense was in Japan where he took care of business with a KO of Hagato Asai in July. Keep this up and he may actually fight outside of Asia and make some real money.

The WBC’s 39th Annual World Convention, scheduled from December 2-7 in Pattaya (actually Jomtien’s Ambassador Hotel) has already booked more than 300 from around the world. Usually one of the highlights is the number of world class and world championship fighters that attend. It gives a chance for fans and those in the business to “rub elbows” with the elite. In other times one could expect many conventioneers from America but it seems at this point that the USA will be under represented.

With October in the rear view mirror November is one of those months in boxing that could go either way. The Holyfield-Ruiz “contest” either is or is not on. The Chi Comms missed a payment to promoter Don King so he’s searching for a new venue. The fight is a dog so one might suggest that any pound in America would suffice. Staying with the heavy’s Brahman-Lewis go postward on the 17th of the month (18th in Pattaya). The word on the street is that Rahman has ballooned up like a float in New York’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Maybe he’s believing his own hype. Always a bad idea. Of course he doesn’t need the championship. He can always go back laundering drug money for his brother-in-law.

November 3 (4th in Land of Smiles) Kostya Tszyu (27-1-1) and Zab Judah (27-0) will fight for the undisputed jr. welterweight championship. It would be almost impossible for two fighters to be more different. Tszyu comes from Australia, via his birth home in one of the former Soviet republics. He’s quiet, polite and takes care of business. Zudah is the complete opposite. He’s the “East Coast of the USA’s” favorite fighter. He dresses like a dope dealer on the street corner, is loud and obnoxious. He’s a big favorite in this fight from the Grand Arena of the MGM in Las Vegas.

In September I reported that, “Bantamweight world champion Veeraphol Nakhonluang, 32-1-1, 24 KOs, of Nakhon Ratchaseema, made his seventh successful defense of the title with a twelve-round draw against Toshiaki Nishioka, 22-3-2, 13 KOs.” A reader writes, “Note the comments about the Thai Bantamweight Champion Nakhonluang ‘successfully defended his title with a draw’? How about, ‘the current champion was able to retain his title by eking out a draw’. Talk about your unbiased reporting.” I would prefer you don’t.

WBC bantam champion Veeraphol Sahaprom stopped Boy Givara in round seven of a ten-round non-title bout at the Mall Shopping Center Stadium in Bangkok. On the same card, Napapol Kiatisakchokechai 22-0 (16 KOs) knocked out Dino Olivetti in round ten to claim the WBC International 122 lb belt. The title had been vacated by Manny Pacquiao last June. Also, WBC #2 super feather Sirimongkol Singmanasak stopped Arman Molina in round three.

“Kimi Raikkonen” makes it two in a row!

Pattaya’s own Flying Finn, Matti Kaikkonen is emulating the desires of his much younger compatriot Kimi Raikkonen in the Formula 1 motor racing scene. Matti has been competing in the Concept Car series held at the local Bira International Circuit just outside Pattaya and at the previous meeting scored his first win. This last weekend he proved it was no fluke scoring his second victory, crossing the finish line (or is that the Finnish line?) a massive 28 seconds in front of the second placed runner.

After securing second slot on the grid in Qualifying, Matti was counselled by the Pattaya Mail’s Dr. Iain (a motor racer of 32 years experience), that you never win races on the first corner - you only lose races on the first corner! With this advice still ringing in his ears, Matti patiently waited till the second corner and outbraked the leader to take over first place at the hairpin and was never headed from there on.

Flying Finn Matti Kaikkonen is settling in to Concept Car racing

Matti is now running equal first place in the championship, despite having missed the first race of the year, and is currently the favourite to take out the title for 2001.

Despite having done a little karting some years ago, this is Matti’s first year in a proper racing car, with the Concept series as promoted by the AIM Racing Project Co. making it possible for amateurs to try their hand at pure bitumen racing. The Concept cars are hired by the drivers, with all preparation and maintenance being done by the AIM group, and is the ideal ‘introduction’ formula for new (and older novice) drivers.

In the Grand Champion cars, the feature event at the meeting, the rains came and spoiled the chances of many of the highly favoured Singha Beer team cars driven by the Bhrirombakdi brothers and cousins, though Tanawud Bhirombakdi managed to stay on track to record the win. Second was Man Manit in the Three Crowns/Shell entry, followed by Kajonsak in the Biwa Saha Meng car. 4th was Piti Bhirombakdi and the final podium position was scored by Opars in the Sizzler entry.

PH3 Run 919

Vengeance, C. face, is a base instinct - especially when it’s directed at the wrong party. Quite how I got saddled with this write-up after an altercation between you and the Big-Nosed B I don’t fully understand, but that was GM Sir Chicken F’s Solomonic ruling so here we go...

The problem with being appointed Scribe some twenty minutes into the circle is that you’ve already reached that comfortably numb stage where your brain is going to pieces but you don’t care. You have no pen and no paper; you think you’ll do it all from memory, but when you wake up you find you haven’t got one. ‘Just make it up,’ says the new-relaxed backbencher Boy George, which seems sound advice. So, there was Siam Country Club steaming after the deluge as we aquaplaned into the car park. Hare Teeny Weeny, resplendent in fluorescent yellow, issuing tip-offs to would-be front-runners, having abandoned Big Chief Wombmaster somewhere on the trail. Eventually the bus makes it up the Suez Canal, late sign-ups and new shoes are dealt with and it’s On On down the road.

You fall for the loop on the left, re-cross the road and spend the next 45 minutes playing catch-up. Ten minutes in the grass with VV and his young lady till you emerge into a sort of cemetery for dead pineapples and thence a series of live pineapple fields. You meet up with Balloon. Where is everybody? A wide-open landscape with nobody in it. Eventually you spot stick-men in the distance, and it’s On On again past Uncle Fester (what’s he doing there, and why is he muttering to himself?) only to be overtaken by the Big-Nosed B who has briefly detoured to Sattahip.

Long grassy avenues, and its back On In where you meet Fini looking like The Thing from the Worst-Ever Science Fiction B Movie after diving in a swamp. Nice one hares, and no tapioca!

In the circle, Dr. Pinky runs his weekly Muppet Show including unmentionable Mystery Prizes, which winners furtively hide from female companions. Sir Chicken Fellow sets up Fini for Hash Trash and relieves The Pope, before handing over to Sir Airhead who is suitably dressed for dinner. And a good dinner it was Hares. Thanks, especially for the pig-roast, which at first I thought was Flying Frog.

Sir Airhead reconstructs the business-class section of a 747 where Mad Cow The First counts ring-pulls; Teeny Weeny consumes 20 kg of Aussie plonk and collapses on Big Chief Wombmaster. This gives way to the icing of luminaries, with Sir Airhead still simmering over being forced off the road the previous week by Big-Nosed B. No damage though, other than dented machismo.

I vaguely recall Sir Chicken and Yao Yao icing each other over and over. Yao Yao lectures us on the virtues of advance planning, and the monotony of ‘that stupid song’. Then it all gets hazy. There’s Apple’s Turnover on the ice for setting about the neighbour’s dog with a baseball bat. (Are you reading this Drippy?) The Village People are there for a while and so is boat-person A-hopper. Oh yes. And the Hash Choir. Well Jazzer, sorry to grass you up, but when you asked me to shower the Hash Choir with superlatives you forgot the necessary purple palm-greaser. After all, this is Thailand and we have high standards of corruption to maintain. As it happens, I do have a few observations to make about our hyperactive Choirmaster. Imagine this man leading a charge over the top from the Northern Alliance trenches in full religious regalia, waving his baton in time to a rousing chorus! The Taliban would run a mile. Maybe we should donate him. I really can’t remember much else through the fog of alcohol. Perhaps Scampi Poofter really did do a quintuple down-down for leaving mud on each of the truck’s wheels, including the spare? No, it’s all fading.

On On! Ringworm

Updated every Friday
Copyright 2001  Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand
Tel. 66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax: 66-38 427 596

Updated by Chinnaporn Sungwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk.
E-Mail: [email protected]