Euro Tour 2025 - Cyprus, Pafos

Round One - The Secret Valley

Pos.	Player	Starting H/C	Front 9	Back 9	Total	Finishing H/C
1	Alex Waters	17	16	20	36	15
2	Nick Allcott	22	17	17	34	21
3	Gary Kisby	13	17	17	34	13
4	Owen Callaghan	19	18	16	34	19
5	Enrico Charles	18	18	16	34	18
6	Paul Keenor	15	15	18	33	15
7	Tony Norris	8	17	16	33	8
8	Peter Browning	18	18	15	33	18
9	Adrian Harvanko	18	17	15	32	18
10	Ian Rowan	22	18	14	32	22
11	Darren Parker	19	18	13	31	19
12	Mark Parsons	27	13	17	30	27
13	Barry England	10	14	16	30	10
14	Paul Damper	17	15	14	29	17
15	Mike Fairbrass	14	15	13	28	14
16	Peter Tweddell	20	13	14	27	20
17	Tom Millington	12	14	13	27	12
18	Tim Murphy	20	12	14	26	20
19	Tony Jacobs	25	11	14	25	25
20	Dave Verga	20	15	10	25	20
21	Andy Webb	10	16	9	25	10
22	Bob Crouch	25	12	12	24	25
23	Tim Grimes	22	10	13	23	23
24	Steve Farley	39	6	14	20	41

Lost Balls = 56

Round Two - The PGA National: Aphrodite Hills

Pos.	Player	Starting H/C	Front 9	Back 9	Total	Finishing H/C
1	Owen Callaghan	19	15	19	34	17
2	Andy Webb	10	16	16	32	9
3	Barry England	10	19	13	32	10
4	Gary Kisby	13	13	18	31	13
5	Mike Fairbrass	14	15	16	31	14
6	Peter Browning	18	18	13	31	18
7	Tom Millington	12	14	15	29	12
8	Nick Allcott	21	14	14	28	21
9	Adrian Harvanko	18	15	13	28	18
10	Alex Waters	15	14	13	27	15
11	Tony Jacobs	25	19	8	27	25
12	Ian Rowan	22	8	17	25	22
13	Enrico Charles	18	13	12	25	18
14	Tony Norris	8	12	11	23	8
15	Dave Verga	20	12	11	23	20
16	Tim Grimes	23	10	12	22	23
17	Paul Keenor	15	11	11	22	15
18	Tim Murphy	20	11	10	21	20
19	Darren Parker	19	8	12	20	19
20	Mark Parsons	27	8	12	20	27
21	Peter Tweddell	20	9	10	19	20
22	Steve Farley	41	5	11	16	41
23	Paul Damper	17	7	9	16	18
24	Bob Crouch	25	8	7	15	27

Lost Balls = 56

Round Three - The Minthis

Pos.	Player	Starting H/C	Front 9	Back 9	Total	Finishing H/C
1	Bob Crouch	27	22	14	36	25
2	Barry England	10	16	19	35	9
3	Adrian Harvanko	18	21	13	34	18
4	Paul Keenor	15	15	17	32	15
5	Ian Rowan	22	19	13	32	22
6	Tony Norris	8	14	17	31	8
7	Mike Fairbrass	14	13	17	30	14
8	Tom Millington	12	15	15	30	12
9	Tim Murphy	20	16	14	30	20
10	Tony Jacobs	25	15	14	29	25
11	Gary Kisby	13	15	12	27	13
12	Enrico Charles	18	13	13	26	18
13	Alex Waters	15	11	14	25	15
14	Peter Browning	18	13	12	25	18
15	Darren Parker	19	8	16	24	19
16	Owen Callaghan	17	16	8	24	17
17	Andy Webb	9	8	15	23	9
18	Paul Damper	18	13	10	23	18
19	Tim Grimes	23	14	9	23	23
20	Peter Tweddell	20	12	9	21	20
21	Mark Parsons	27	13	7	20	27
22	Nick Allcott	21	10	9	19	21
23	Steve Farley	41	9	9	18	42
24	Dave Verga	20	4	9	13	22

Lost Balls = 50

Overall - Stableford Points

Pos.	Player	R1	R2	R3	Total Points
1	Barry England	30	32	35	97
2	Adrian Harvanko	32	28	34	94
3	Gary Kisby	34	31	27	92
4	Owen Callaghan	34	34	24	92
5	Ian Rowan	32	25	32	89
6	Mike Fairbrass	28	31	30	89
7	Peter Browning	33	31	25	89
8	Alex Waters	36	27	25	88
9	Paul Keenor	33	22	32	87
10	Tony Norris	33	23	31	87
11	Tom Millington	27	29	30	86
12	Enrico Charles	34	25	26	85
13	Nick Allcott	34	28	19	81
14	Tony Jacobs	25	27	29	81
15	Andy Webb	25	32	23	80
16	Tim Murphy	26	21	30	77
17	Bob Crouch	24	15	36	75
18	Darren Parker	31	20	24	75
19	Mark Parsons	30	20	20	70
20	Paul Damper	29	16	23	68
21	Tim Grimes	23	22	23	68
22	Peter Tweddell	27	19	21	67
23	Dave Verga	25	23	13	61
24	Steve Farley	20	16	18	54

Total Lost Balls = 162
*Lost Ball Prediction. Winner - Nick Allcott - 165

Grand Imperial Poobah's Notes

Fellow weary travellers, a new personal best for Rowan Tours of 24 (notional) golfers set off barely a week ago on Monday 9th full of eager anticipation on another European tour of adventure in Cyprus. From the numerous pre tour comments I could sense that some of the party may be getting a little overexcited and whilst lovely I thought some may need a sedative once we were at the airport. Little did I know that BA were way ahead of me in the calming things down agenda with a massive mood drop in prospect. More of which later, logistically all was going swimmingly with no casualties on the way to the airport although some early risers did report traffic on the m25 (who knew?).

The majority of the seasoned campaigners rendezvou’d in our departure watering hole, of the flying horse, to luxuriate in a spoons breakfast of Guinness and fry up (just as well in hindsight). The virgin tourists chose to break themselves into the group through a gradual introduction and stayed well away indulging in the more rarefied Hibernian atmosphere of the business lounge.

We were then full of pre holiday anticipation shuttled off to our waiting international aircraft, oddly parked up on bricks in a disused part of the airport surrounded by snowploughs resplendent in the June sunshine. Not a front-line vehicle some of us thought. Once seated we were informed there were insufficient crew to get us safely airborne, so the piolt had put a call out and BA were rustling up some staff who rather thought they may be otherwise engaged that day (seemingly not as aircrew it later transpired). Anyhow that was only the first of our (not quite) flying issues that day. The next hurdle to overcome, was that following some significant repair work (who would have guessed) our aeroplane was not fit to fly as the necessary paperwork confirming that the part was appropriate was not available to the pilot such that they could guarantee the safety of the flight (admin gone mad some thought, safest way to travel they cried, just get on with it). The supplier then confirmed they were refusing to issue the aperwork so we all had to disembark and return to our holding pen. Leaving the existing staff to seamingly deal with the plane issues as none of the buggers were available to supply information, food or drink whilst we whiled away a few hours in a holding pen.

Several hours after our due departure they had found a seemingly working aircraft and we were re interred into the cabin for our departure. Looking forward to complimentary hospitality from the renowned chefs at BA having assumed some of the delay was due to the compensatory champagne and steaks they were loading up to placate their customers we gambolled up the steps like spring lambs. The resulting shit show of inept, incapable, gormeless, glacial, customer services culminating in half a glass of warm water, the biscuits you leave behind by the pisssed in kettle of a budget hotel, or a small tin of ginless tonic, rather put the cherry on the cake. The replacement staff having not been battle hardened by seemingly never having served on the front line, broke down in the face of the remaining passengers being uncivilly grumpy at the admin staff dragged away from a day of internet gazing and candy crushing to face holidaymakers having had six hours sat with us lot and therefore had will to live issues. I was pleased to see some hackles rising and white chargers being made ready to defend our useless but not to blame trolley dollies by preparing to smack a few of the stroppier ones I am glad chivalry is not dead amongst us.

So luckily I’d managed to get through to logistics HQ at Rowan Tours and the head of operations who was about to nip to the savacentre managed to inform the hotel of late weary travellers requiring a delayed collections and after losing sustenance. Head of legal who coincidently was also about to nip to the savacentre was charged with preparing the inevitable claim. We all managed to find our way to bed strangely sober but completely knackered having been sat about all day.

Day 1 golf Secret Valley
The first day is quite often personally my worst so I was rather pleased by the 32 points I came back with after a lovely day of golf with Messers Kisby, Parsons and Damper as the first day is allocated on a room by room basis and is usually my only chance to go out first unless I gravitate to the group of death. Scores ranged from the sublime 36 and 34 of the pre drinking Alex Waters and nick Allcott to the equally ridiculous 23 and 20 of the pre drinking Grimes and Farley. A beautiful course undergoing some work but to my mind it played well (i.e. suited me ok). As a new initiative I had introduced the snakebite post round livener cocktail to accelerate the evenings festivities in our group both Damper and Parsons qualified mostly for bickering about who should have it. Farley England Allcott Grimes and Webb were also eager suppers of the new cocktail labelled bog brush holder residue and favourable received. On our return journey all snake biter were saying how nice the drink was and how they had been worried at first. Then the festivities continued and of the 24 only 20 made it to dinner Mr Damper having to spend some time on the great white phone to God.

Day 2 was a day of rest and relaxation and ensuring we kept our fluids up, a task some of us threw ourselves into with unreserved ferocity. This may have been the evening our little dynamo of dancing diva semitone Jacobs (he’s a cracker) had to be lured from the clutches of several voracious admirers in the nightclub or it may not I personally have little recollection of the evening!

Day 3 Finally a decent challenge PGA National course Aphrodite hills
With our votes in for the lost ball sweepstake, I felt sure our previous contribution to the total of 8 of the 56 on the first day would be eclipsed and I was in with a shout this year at 191 for the three days. This was after all, the PGA course and I imagined it was therefore of virtual unplayability to a hacking halfwit such as myself. Being in group three so mid table, I was lucky enough to be out with Mr Parsons again along with Adrian HJ and Darren P and indeed we did manage to lose 16 of messers Callaway, Titelest and eventually Slazangers finest that day. Notably Mark who cunningly avoided the protective netting and sunk two int separate swimming pools. I think the frequent shouting of “fore” was mostly to send the skimpy sunbathers scurrying for their tops but no injuries were reported so that’s good. Everyone else seemed to be less enthusiastic however and remarkably the daily total was again only 56. In other news our advanced driving instructor Mike Fairbrass seemingly hadn’t had his offroad module renewed and attempted to grate Mr Damper along one of the stone walls, following a wheel wall interface, resulting in a bent axled buggy dragging itself along for the last few holes like a dog with worms. Luckily as sensitive to peoples distress as we are I don’t think this was mentioned again and I was loathe to bring it up, other than to report being relieved of driving duties on the last day and being provided with L plates no further collisions were reported.

Following the first day cuts of 2 and 1 were applied at the top and added at the bottom and fortunes seemingly changed with Owen winning day two with 34 followed by Andy Webb separated from Mr England on countback. Propping us all up at the bottom messers crouch on 15 and the seemingly still struck down by a mystery virus Damper, on 16. Snakes for day two were awarded to owen Callaghan possibly as a reward for actually emerging from the Kermit this year, Enrico co co, Parsons (repeat offender), Damper (ditto), Farley (ditto) and I’m only drinking water for the week, the lovely necked Tom Millington (who was the old bird on the bus?) todays cocktail was the green ernie a mint based number featuring gin vodka and crème de menthefor any remaining dyspepsia. The evenings entertainment was mostly in the Italian, with an increasing number of stragglers falling by the wayside, a notable exception being messers Norris and Keenor who managed to drag themselves out of bed barely 40 minutes late to enjoy a candlelit meal a deux, sadly ignoring their wine and accompanying sereneding from the group and retiring for an early night. The heat and the golf seemingly getting to a few people semitone Jacobs was again dragged out of a nightclub for his own safety and that of others. This following his destruction of several drinks and glassware followed by a re creation for the benefit of those that didn’t want to believe it the first time.

Day 4 Minthis hills, Pink ball charity day and reverse grid order.
As the group of death Messers Damper, Grimes, Farley and Crouch emerged blinking into the morning sun first off the tee. I had managed to creep up to group 4 and was accompanied on this round by Droning Millington, Crashtest Fairbrass and Andy Webb. A lovely and equally spectacular course Minyhis hills is evidently the oldest and most difficult course on the island. I hoped finally the ball count could get somewhere near my prediction especially when I saw the island hole where the green was surrounded on an elevated green by a large looming pond. Obvs I landed on the green and parred it but a did see a few casualties before and after with less success. I believe a lovely round was had by all despite again the dodgy putting conditions which I blame for missing several two footers but overcame with superhuman skill to sink a thirty footer on the back nine. (if you cant be good be lucky)Winner on the day was Bob Crouch who towered above the rest of the field despite suffering the group of death mantle well done Bob hitting 36 point narrowly beating Barry England on 35 at the other end of the pile Dave seemingly had one of those days and limped in with a 13 whilst being thrashed by his roomy Steve Farley on 18. As Enrico co co and curly whirly Alex were off for a massage together at five, we returned quickly to the hotel for final verification by the ever attentive and hardworking Pete Tweddell (much appreciated mate) and the pink ball foursome was awarded to Norris, Keenor, Jacobs and Parker well done chaps. I was one of the snakebite recipients and as such fail to remember the others but I seem to remember Parson and Farley who were definitely getting a taste for it. My evenings reminiscences were also somewhat depleted by Dave’s nighttime excursion to a superb mountain restaurant where copious amounts of food and wine were consumed (and worn in my case) in friendly and very hospitable surrounds great choice DV well done!

That night I understand there was a fire alarm at 2 am but thankfully it didn’t manage to disturb some of us who were in the land of snakey coma On the last morning we gathered with our bags and audited scores for the winner of Barry England to be crowned with the presentation of the glorious trophy to be at Wouldingham on Friday mags meeting. His core was 97 over the three days well done Adrian HJ came in silver medal place at 94 and in the medals but out pof the prize pot Mr Kisby gets a mention in dispatches. In the must try harder mixed ability group at the south end of the table Farley Verga and Twedell may need a quiet word with themselves, or more beer although possibly not?

I would like to thank you all for making it such a great tour and reminding me why I was never in a customer facing job. I especially need to mention my roomy Mr Kisby for peaceful nights where I could rant to myself seemingly asleep but not notifying mental health professionals, Pete for his scoring, grouping and verification in the face of many better things to be doing with his time and all of you for supporting the Pink ball day which once converted I will round up to £450 for a cancer research charity which I will post up once paid. All of you have been great supporters of Rowan tours and joking aside its been an honour to serve and humbling to see the thank you’s. I think this will however be the last outing for RT we have been through a lot and I’m not sure I need the ag anymore. I have said this every year but if there is a volunteer for next year I will be happy to pass on all contact information.

Thanks to you all we really appreciated all you feed back and kind words
Keep Swinging pip pip x