Martinborough Golf Report

2022 Shoot out winners Biddy McLeod and Trevor Peterson.

By Kris Chamberlain

It has been an extremely busy time at the Club over the last month with a number of events happening.

Grumpies have been well attended with recent winners being Bob Schofield, Tony Taylor (twice), Malcolm Wood, Mariana McDermott and Seamus O’Sullivan.  Twos have been had by Andy Morison, Seamus O’Sullivan, Wayne Phelps (3), Tony Taylor, Ed Brown, Malcolm Wood (4), Paul Harris (4), Martin Napier (2), 

Thursday Club winners have been Arthur Warren, Vern Anton, Shane Hislop and Ju Allen.  Twos have gone to Troy Shaw, John Warner (2), Rick Thompson, Arthur Warren, Jason Shaw, Rob Lopez, Malcolm Bridge, Wayne Phelps and Rob Smith.

At the end of October we hosted Eketahuna Golf Club to compete for the Baarbraa Trophy which we have failed to win for the last couple of years.  It was a very close call with Eketahuna averaging 31.55 points and Martinborough 31.61 so the sheep has a new home for the year!

At the beginning of November we held our Club Championship Finals.  The winners were:  Mens Senior Troy Shaw, runner up Tony Russo, Mens Intermediate Seamus O’Sullivan, runner up George Kirk, Mens Junior Dayle Scrimshaw, runner up Trevor Petersen, Mens Vets Brian Russo, runner up Andy Morison.  Womens Silver Sandra Petersen, runner up Debbie Donaldson, Womens Bronze A Julie Weber, runner up Marie Scrimshaw, Womens Bronze B Karen Stephens, runner up Alison Tipler. … Continue Reading

Maree’s musings – Happy days!

By Maree Roy

As the end of the year approaches, it seems we need to find excuses to celebrate. Like just last week [as I write this] when Monday turned up and Black Friday was still on the go! Traditionally, Black Friday marks the start of shopping madness, but it looks like consumers needed more time this year. Of course it may be a plot hatched by retail outlets to take over Cyber Monday, invented in 2005 to persuade people to shop online.

I’m not one for shopping, I confess, but I do enjoy the occasional shindig. This delightful word possibly stemmed from the Gaelic sinteag [to leap about] and is very apt for this month’s column. Rest assured, I don’t make a habit of leaping about, by the way, but Dunedin’s annual ‘Edinburgh Festival’ was worth a visit. Harking back to Dunedin’s extensive Scottish heritage, it’s traditionally celebrated around St Andrew’s Day, and the bigwigs in charge were fine with borrowing it.

So I took myself off to the Octagon where the impressive bronzed (though not from sunburn) statue of Robbie Burns, the traditional landing stage for the city’s screeching seagulls, watched benignly over the festivities. Tartan kilts abounded despite the ten degrees temperature. Yep, summer’s coming! Various contests included a race to finish a bowl of cold porridge, chucking the caber and hefting huge concrete balls onto barrels. There were bagpipes; an Ode to the Haggis. And singing and dancing, naturally. All good fun. … Continue Reading

Inner Wheel South Wairarapa

By Maureen Mortensen

Hi everyone

November already, how the year has flown.

Last month’s Members Dinner Meeting at the Offering  we had an interesting guest speaker.Dave Stephenson a Sales Consultant from Greytown who is also a volunteer Fireman.

Dave gave a very interesting talk about being a volunteer fireman. 85% of New Zealand’s firefighters are volunteers.

In the Wairarapa there are 13 Brigades, five of which are Urban and eight are Rural. They are all staffed by volunteers with one exception. That is Masterton which is career and volunteers.

The volunteers respond to an array of non-fire incidents, including medical events, car accidents, hazardous material emergencies,severe weather episodes and a range of rescues.

Dave said it is all about the communities and serving our people.

Dave was an interesting and informative speaker. We thank our many Fire volunteers for their superb work in protecting our communities.

New members very welcome you are welcome to come along to ourmonthly dinner nights at the Offering from 6pm. For further information ph. 0226533510

How Well Do We Know People in our Community?

Graham Clark.

Graham Clark

By Lyle Griffiths

Graham’s father’s family had settled in Featherston around 1908, his mother’s family in Carterton. For Graham, the Wairarapa is home. 

After attending Featherston School, Graham commuted to Wairarapa College daily by steam train on the Wairarapa line. Two years later he decided that that was quite sufficient in the way of education. It was time for a new chapter.

He was taken on as an apprentice electrician at Cotter and Stevens in Martinborough.

“Your first job, and you naturally think that it is time to purchase your own car. My first car was a 1939 Vauxhall 10. The roads were largely gravel, except in town. Naturally, the cars did not go quite as quickly as they do today, and you could pretty much do as you liked on the roads. But the roads were maintained by the District Councils, who had their own employees, and they were maintained to a remarkably high standard.

My first vintage car was a 1947 Hillman. It had had quite a checkered past. Mrs Griffiths who lived in Martinborough purchased it brand new from Les Campbell, the Mayor, who owned Campbell’s Garage. She died in 1985 and the car was put up for auction. Tinny Malten then took ownership of it. After a couple of other owners, it finally ended up at John Harvey’s place at Dyerville, left by a worker who unexpectedly died on the Remutaka Hill, while helping someone else in trouble. I was doing some electrical work for John and saw the car just sitting there. It was a wreck. I bought it for next to nothing. I took possession, put it on the trailer and brought it home. I worked on it in my spare time. … Continue Reading