Thanks chaps. And as Ralph notes, yes, I play that Course so often, I'm bound to fluke a few of them.

I can & have birdied all the Par 3's (previously), and a few short Par 4's too. For longer Par 4's & par 5's, Pars are rare but have happened when the wind & all other variables are in my favour.

It really is surprising the difference winds makes to shot length.

"Or just mark in the bogeys/pars/birdies/eagles till you were almost there?"



Yes, that might be the way to start.

In a sort of anti-climax, I ticked off a hole yesterday, after getting a birdie on a short/easy Par 3 Sixth, somehow managing to hole a 40' putt. Pure fluke, obv, as most 40' putts are, especially at my level, but it counts. Realistically, I'm never going to better that, so I'm up & running.

Just need to find a way to keep track of every hole now. I don't do spreadsheets these days, but it won't be a problem, I have time on my hands.

OK, 18 holes await, so gotta go.

Today I'm going to play well.*

I say that every time, & of course never do. It's the hope, isn't it?

unless there is an app for eclectic scores, a good old spreadsheet would be the way to do it. Maybe wait till you have played a few rounds before starting? Or just mark in the bogeys/pars/birdies/eagles till you were almost there? Be a pretty good target for a high handicapper to get a sub-par eclectic, imo. 

Well that's never going to happen, as I'm so "short" off the tee & approach shots, but if I could shoot an eclectic 80 that'd be quite something, all things considered. It's all relative.

I've been retired 8 months now, & the novelty has yet to wear off. It's the luxury of having plenty of time to do whatever I want, no worries or obligations, never having to rush, always arriving early. After working hard for 60 years, it's just wonderful.

I've done something (golf, poker, meals & travelling with Gill) just about every single day, & with one exception, I've enjoyed every single day.

Typically?

I get up at 0630 or 7am, it varies according to daylight hours.

Tesco first, bits & bobs & a Costa.

Then I go for a half hour drive around the country lanes, I have a dozen or so different "loops". I live in such a beautiful part of the country, & in 3 minutes I can be in Derbyshire back lanes, gorgeous gently hilly countryside, trees & birdlife galore, & those old fashioned direction signs, black & white cast-iron ones, sometimes with a little pointy finger on them.  I look forward to that every day.

Next it's the Golf Driving Range, to hit a basket of balls. I'd like to think it improves my game, but it reality it does not, & it's hard to get better at my age.

BBC News next. Has the news ever been more fascinating?

Next, a round of golf. I play every single weekday, though I missed most of January as the Courses were closed due to weather. We actually played yesterday when the "feel like" was 23f, which was a bit dumb, but so be it. I was awful when I re-started golfing, & I've not improved much, but it does not matter, & I'm blessed to have such an understanding bunch of golf mates. I'm always mindful of spoiling their game but they are wonderfully tolerant. I mean, there's plenty of piss-taking but that's all part of the fun. I'm super-short off the Tee, so the running joke when there's a group in front of us is "it's safe for you to tee-off tikay". Which is OK, but a bit hurtful on Par 3's...

After golf, a spot of lunch, then a few hours nap. I LOVE having a nap with no need for an alarm call. Weird really, when we sleep we are effectively unconscious, & yet for some reason I love it. Always preceded, of course, by reading a book for half an hour. (Since retiring I've read 37 books, basically 1 a week).

Next is poker, I play every night Wednesday to Sunday inclusive. I'm no better or worse than I was 30 years ago, except that the results don't matter, I just love the buzz. It's mostly small-ball Tournaments, £50 or £100, & I just like to have plenty of table time in good company, & the occasional cash. If I bust the tourney early, I go play cash, either £2 £2 6 Card PLO, or £2 £2 DC. Scariest thing ever to play at those levels, especially in relation to a £50 Tourney, & I suppose that's part of the attraction, the danger.

I have a bet on the football most nights too. I think I'm a compulsive gambler, I can't enjoy Live Sport unless I have a bet, but for the most part, it's just £10's & £20's, though for Ante-Post stuff, leading Goalscorers etc, a bit bigger. 

After poker, it's home for dinner, which can be any time between 10pm & 3am. Dinner, & watch a Documentary on NetFlix. Nobody does documentaries better than NetFlix. TV entertainment finishes with an hour on You Tube, watching all sorts, but usually finishes with some music - Clapton, Pulp, BB King, Kinks, Radiohead, all sorts. "Just one more video" usually ends up about an hour, so it's often 4am before I get to bed. Then 30 minutes with my book.

Rinse repeat, pretty much.

Hey tikay, it's been a while but I have finished my 6-monthly catch up on what's happening in here and it's great to see you are loving life and retirement.

I was clearing up some folders on my PC and came across a folder "Sky Poker Video" that I remembered saving a lot of entertaining clips to.  I'm not sure if you'd like to see them for the memories and laughs, or you would dread to see them?

There are 284 videos in there with interesting titles such as:

Mastercash Sat 25 Sep 2010 01 Orford Magic Trick and Tikays Fluff
The Club 21 Jun 2010 04 Tikay is your father
Mastercash 29 May 2010 03 Tikay I Love Buoys
Primo Sun 3rd Oct 2010 Orford Stuck Hand

Many an evening playing poker and watching poker analysed live.  Those were the days!

Oh my, Aaron, lovely to hear from you.

I'll never forget when you all turned up at an SPT (Leeds maybe?) wearing those "masks". What a moment.

Those videos? Last time I stumbled across one (Orford Stuck Hand) I felt super cringe, but I don't mind if you post a few. The whole Sky Poker TV thing was an amazing chapter of my life. I now know I was wholly crap at it, but no matter, I had my time & loved every minute. TV is SUCH a powerful medium, you only have to watch Darts on TV to see the power it has.

I still keep in touch with Richard Orford & Anna (she is a Mum now), & have nothing but fond memories of the whole TV chapter of my life, even though I now realise how bad I was. It does not matter though, I'm at the age where ego no longer matters.

Don't know if you've seen this but the Train Spotter extraordinaire has gone and done a TV programme. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/mission-to-space-with-francis-bourgeois

Thanks Carl.

It might surprise you, especially as you know I'm a transport buff - trains, boats planes etc - but I've zero interest in space travel. I do marvel at the unbelievable engineering & computing that is necessary, but that aside, I never read or watch space exploration stuff.

Having said that, I'm still trying to get round Elon Musk's latest idea - putting a million satellites into orbit to be used as Data Centres. A million satellites. It's beyond imagination.

How is life with you & yours? Still pokering? I regularly see dear old Direwolf at DTD, but not many others from the Sky Poker crew.

Whatever. When is the book coming out?

So glad you seem to be enjoying your Great Retirement Adventure. When is the Honeymoon trip report coming  

Hopefully, I will catch up with you at DTD soon.

Hi Alan,

Hope you are keeping well. How's your lad?

When is the book coming out? Ha. A sort of "private" version, 100 copies or whatever, just for friends & acquaintances might just happen. A good pal is going to help me with editing it etc, so you never know. It seems a bit pretentious, writing an autobio, but some truly extraordinary things have happened to me, they really have. "WAL" in every sense. I might have to have it published posthumously though, there's a difficult blend between honesty & upsetting some folks, but it won't matter (to me) if I've moved on.  

Maybe see you at DTD soon. I see Direwolf ""Guy" there frequently.

And I bumped into this young lady at Resorts World Birmingham last night....

Sorry just catching up after starting cataract removal, my upgrade continues! I couldn't read anything until I made all the txt bigger and then couldn't read the instructions. Isn't middle age wonderful.

Great to see Alan is still here and that Brommers is still looking as fab as ever.

Hi Shaz,

You've certainly been in the wars the last few years. I do hope things have settled down now health-wise & life is good.

[Parkinson's Law;]

Parkinson's Law;

Work Leisure expands to fill the time available.

I love writing, & when I retired I was determined to write a lot more. Bit of a fail though. Somehow, every day is full. I am in a lovely place since retiring, but it may sound a bit chirpy to bang on about how good life is, especially to others might not be as fortunate/lucky as I've been.

Anyway, I'll catch up on replies first, then maybe try & pen some stuff.

Do any of you golfers keep "eclectics"?

In my Golf 1.0 period, 30 years ago, they were quite a thing, but I never see mention of them now. Think I'm going to try & do a 2026 Eclectic Card, but I can't really remember how we used to do them, how we kept track etc.

I'm reminded of them by Red-Dog actually. Tom plays off 21, & yet I've seen him Eagle the 470 yard Par 5 16th at Breadsall Moorlands, as well as two other occasions when he had an Eagle Putt on that hole.

That included yesterday, when it was bitter cold ("feels like 23f"), so the ball does not travel so far, with not much run-out on soggy fairways, & yet he had a 12' Eagle putt. I'd not believe it if I had not seen it with my own eyes. On a really good day, I can just about get on that Green in 4....


Actually, I think Tom would love keeping an eclectic.

Anyone got any tips on how to keep track of eclectic scores?

Loving this debate, & well done EssexPhil for starting it. All the contributions have been good, even those from Red-Dog.

Phil was a mainstay of the now defunct Sky Poker forum whilst I was responsible for it, & he almost single-handedly kept it going with insightful stuff. I know him quite well personally, but his capacity to surprise, & come up with left-field debates was a constant source of fascination. You never quite know what angle he's going to take.

Great to see Enut here too, he's one of the few to understand how the minds of billionaires work.

100% agree. Utterly riveting & fascinating stories galore. How to make a cup of tea, how to take the dog for a walk, mixed in with less riveting tales.

Nice writeage Mr Dazzler, thank you.

a 50 gram packet of rolling baccy now costs £50 in most places

£1 a gram? Wow!  I had no idea, but then again I haven't had a cigarette this century.


After trying to stop smoking and failing dozens of times,  I finally had my epiphany in December 1999.

I woke up feeling terrible, mild headache, sore throat, tight chest...

I went outside and lit my first cigarette, had my usual 5 minute coughing fit, and knew in that moment that if I continued like this, I wouldn't live to see my grandchildren. Once again I vowed to stop smoking, and this time I kind of believed it.

It's a bit clichè, but I decided to stop on New Year's Eve. So at 11:50 on December the 31st, I lit my last ever cigarette.

It was tough going for a while but i did it. Now, 25 years later, it seems such a horrible habit that I can't believe I ever did it.

I'll add a PS to that.

When I stared pokering with Tom it would have been the early noughties, 2002/3, something like that.

He was not smoking, but he had a "dummy", a sort of little white plastic thing, bit like a cigarette holder, maybe 3" long, & this was his "pretend" cigarette. It had nothing in it, but it was just a sort of comfort cloth.

He was never without it, & at the poker tables he'd have a "pretend puff" every few minutes.

We went down to Brighton for a Festival and stayed at a little Hotel in Hickstead, out in the Country, & shared a room. Only one bed & iirc, Tom slept on the floor. (Actually, may have been Southend, but no matter).

Anyway, we wake up in the morning to get ready to go have some breakfast, & Tom could not find his dummy. He went crazy, "I HAVE TO FIND IT".

Tom's prone to occasional mental agitation, & he completely flipped.

After 20 minute's searching, he had to give up & accept it had disappeared.  

So he started to put his shoes & socks on, & there it was, in one of his sweaty socks. Within seconds it was in his mouth & everything in life was good again.

PS - I'm not taking the piss or 'owt, if it works, don't knock it. I gave up 17 years later than Tom, and it was both instant & easy, though those 17 years cost me dearly in health terms. Never touched a cigarette since, though I do indulge in the occasional vape, mostly when pokering in Vegas. It just sort of goes with gambling. I loved smoking, but yes, it was a pretty dumb thing to have done. I have a very long list of dumb things & what might be best described as unforced errors I've made in life, & ciggies are certainly in that mix, maybe even Top 10. Jeez, when I look back at the mis-steps I've made in life....

Really good to see Tuney & Phil on Tom's Diary. You two guys still pokering? I've not played Online since retiring from Sky. I keep in touch with a few of the lads, & occasionally have a peruse of the Sky Poker Discord thing, but for the most part, that Chapter of my life has closed. Good to see a few good mates on here though.

I do see Doug quite frequently, he's the guy that ran the SPT's at 235, Alea, Rendezvous etc, in fact we shared tables in a PLO Comp on Thursday at DTD. I'm seeing him at Genting Sheffield next week too, they have a bit of an Omaha Fessie on.

Sadly, Rendezvous Brighton has closed down now, always loved that place. The writing had been on the wall for some time, the building was falling to bits & no repairs or maintenance has been undertaken.