GIVEN the pastoral delights of Astbury's course, it is fitting the club has a golf loving poet in its midst writing verse to enable the other 700 plus members to add extra enjoyment to their centenary season next year.

The poem by club member John Hunter will be published on April 27, the date on which the club was formed in 1922.

Playing Astbury is indeed an ode to some of the most fascinating challenges the sport has to offer and few visiting players walk off the course anything less than in awe of the tree lined splendour of its lush fairways, ponds and impeccably maintained greens.

Or, as John puts it eloquently, in four lines of verse composed especially for this article:

What finer garden could there stand

In all of England's pleasant land

Or wistful waterway divide

From which its lazy lawns be spied

More later of John and where to go online to read his recently published and highly entertaining book of poetry – his literary debut at the age of 71 and written in a different style to his description of the Astbury course.

The subjects range from the horrors of the Battle of the Somme to the joyous slapstick comedy of the girl with a map of the world on her tights in "Moss Side on Sea."

Meanwhile, it is evident the club's directors know how to put on a show on and off the course and that they are gaining rewards from a decision to form a centenary committee.

Rather than stretching celebrations over the whole of the calendar year, the club has nominated April 27 as the first day of the centenary season.

Astbury's "Summer of Celebrations" begin with the annual dinner, involving a centenary twist, on the evening of Friday April 29 organised by the 2022 captains of the men's and ladies' sections. The next day brings a special centenary competition open to all sections, including juniors.

Social events will run alongside the main playing season culminating with the Finals Day of the sections' various season-long knock-out club competitions on Sunday September 4.

In terms of tournaments, the highlight of the summer will be the Cheshire Matchplay Championship on May 12-15, involving both men and seniors.

This will be the first time Astbury has hosted a main individual county final. To add to the interest, their current Cheshire Boys champion, Sam Johnson, a plus three handicapper and a pupil at Congleton High School, will be a leading contender in his first season out of junior golf.

July 14 brings the Margaret Sangster Trophy, organised by the Cheshire Ladies' County Golf Association, which has been played at the club before.

It is a compliment to the course that the event is returning, and to the impeccable hospitality of the Astbury ladies section.

The club has arranged exchange days to play against two other clubs celebrating their centenary next season – Woodsome Hall in Huddersfield and, for lady members only, Dean Wood in Skelmersdale.

June 23 brings a Hickory Shafts Day at Astbury hosted by a golf club member, Peter Denn, and presented by an expert on the subject, Gavin Bottrell of Timewarp Golf.

There will be a Trick Shot and BBQ Day on a date yet to be arranged and the jewel in the crown of the centenary social diary comes during a Bank Holiday weekend on Saturday August 28.

This is a Centenary Ball for 200 people enjoying a band in a marquee on the club grounds and club chairman Phil Richards said: "We are hoping to get some local dignitaries along to the ball.

"We want persuade people who perhaps are not involved with golf to come along and see what the Astbury club is all about.

"The theme running through our 'Summer of Celebrations' is that we are trying not only to widen the reputation we have for an excellent golf course.

"We also want the world to know we give everybody who visits us a fantastic welcome and, happily, all the staff we have taken on are really good at the meet and greet aspect of their jobs.

"The reality is that if we make people feel welcome then they will want to come back."

Explaining why the celebrations start at the end of April and finish in early September the chairman added: "We decided not to cram too much in for too long but rather concentrate on making a few extra events as special as we can.

"The Hickory Shafts Day will be fascinating . . . and relevant in that it will take us all back to how the sport was being played at Astbury 100 years ago.

"Gavin from Timewarp Golf will give us a talk on the subject and bring along the hickory shafted clubs for us to practice with and then go out on the course and play a little competition.

"In a way, this is the reverse of the theme of the club centenary poem by John Hunter. John tells me it is about two golfers playing at Astbury 100 years ago and one musing about what it would be like in 100 years' time and the other one pulling his leg!"

Incidentally, some stellar roles on Phil's CV correct the mistaken stereotype outside golf circles that the ranks of club chairmen consist mainly of hapless old duffers with time on their hands who can produce scant evidence of having provided high level leadership elsewhere.

Phil is a former MD of Tarmac's Lime and Cement Business where he was a main Board Director. At the same time he was a non-executive Director of Midland Quarry Products a JV Company held by Tarmac Ltd.

He was responsible for around 650 staff with turnover in the region of £175m.

Astbury have raised £40,000 for their centenary fund, part of which has been spent on a dry-stone planter near the first tee bearing the inscription 1922-2022, which has been built around a circle of flowers.

The planter and a first tee wall, created by Heritage Walling, achieve a greatly enhanced visual impact around the first tee with a new sand stone dry wall blending in well with the surroundings.

Further work this winter involves refurbishing the walk-off area from the 18th hole, extending the practice putting green and upgrading the outside seating and hospitality area.

John Hunter, the club's' master of verse and a retired IT professional, is a rarity in that he is both a published poet and a golfer good enough to play off a handicap of eight.

The highlights of his golfing career are a hole in one on the 121-yard third using a pitching wedge at Mobberley (a course since shut down) and signing for the best score in the Astbury Seniors Three Club Challenge for the third consecutive year a while back.

His debut book of 41 poems – 'Words Speak Louder Than Actions' – is published on Amazon and is available free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited. Otherwise you can buy it either for Kindle or in paperback.

The poems have been inspired by various events over the past 30 years and John says publication was made easier by modern publishing methods.

It includes several fictional romance-related poems and touches on a variety of subjects.

'Death or Glory' is an old soldier's memories of the Battle of the Somme, 'The Universe is Inside Out' is a perspective of Paranoid Schizophrenia and 'Living Life On Mars' is a perspective of Autism.

'The Map of The World Tights' is a Lancashire Monologue in the style and spirit of 'Albert and the Lion'. 'The Lady of Grosvenor Square' is a description of an old lady.

'The People You Step On' was inspired by an insensitive newspaper article John read about the homeless.

Both the Kindle version of John's book and the paperback can be bought on Amazon here.

……………………..

Tim Taylor is a former national newspaper staff writer and sub-editor who offers a low-cost copy writing and publicity service to business people in and around Congleton, where he lives. Reviews of his work are here.