In 2008 we had 26 punters venture to Echuca to contest a 3 round tournament, with 2 divisions and a purse of $1000. Due to the drought the courses played very easy which enabled many of the punters to get their egoes back in order after the carnage that was Barnbougle Dunes. Low scoring was the order of the day with many punters shooting unprecented nett scrores in the low 60s.

Due to the drought in Victoria the Rich River course was a lot drier than when we last saw it last. In addition, the weather was perfect which resulted in the lowest TCP Cup scoring in the short history of this great event. The handicapper reported:

• Cougar finished 3rd off the stick, braining the likes of Slick, Sir Les,and Zidane, all off whom gave him many shots start. In addition, he finished within striking distance of the single figure handicappers.
• For the first time in TCP Cup history, half the field in Division 1 played to their handicap or better. Prior to this, the best result was in 2003 (Cobram-Barooga), when 2 players beat their handicap in a field of 23. The Pontiff, Monty, Gareth and Springer (averaged) shot scores at Rich River that would have won any other TCP Cup played to date.
• High handicappers (19 and above) filled the first 5 spots compared to Barnbougle Dunes where the first player with a handicap of greater than 18 finished 6th.
• Fourteen of the eighteen Division 1 players and 5 of the 7 Division 2 players shot their best or equaled their best 3 round totals at TCP Cup off the stick. This included The Rock (NAGA) and Buddha and Newman (equal sixteenth).

On day 1 we played the West course in perfect conditions. The Pontiff came out flying, shooting nett 64 after turning on 31. The Cougar was second with a nett 66 and third was Shirley with a nett 67 after shooting 73 off the stick. Next was Springer with 68 and in a 3 way tie for 5th were Barnesy, Max and Zidane. In clear 18th position and already 5 to 1 on for the NAGA was The Rock who was 7 points behind  2nd last player with his tough new handicap of 7. The Rock shot 92 off the stick which was one worst than what he shot on Round 1 the previous year on a course that made Rich River look like a pitch and putt track. Bad luck Rock, good player out of luck!

The Pontiff hit the ground running.	Shirley shot 73 off the stick

On day 2 we played the West course again and The Cougar continued his brilliant form with a nett 63. The boy from Bunbury showed little respect for the odd couple from The National Golf Club playing faultless golf especially inside 100 metres where he hardly hit a bad shot all day. The Pontiff and Shirley started badly and could not recover. Off a luxury handicap of 20 The Pontiff was able to ground out an ugly 68 to stay in touch but Shirley playing off 6 knocked himself out of contention with a nett 74 which relegated him to 8th position and 12 off the pace. Rocketing into 3rd place and 7 off the pace was Monty who shot a nett 64, breaking 90 for the first time since his Horsham win in 2004. The Bandit shot the low score of the day, 73 off the stick to move into the final group 8 shots behind the tearway leader. Springer shot a nett 66 for the day and lived up to the form he has been telling us about for a while now. Unfortunately he had to go home on the Saturday night which put him out of the running. Down at the other end of the table The Rock wrapped up the NAGA by shooting another shit score of 91 which left him 12 points behind Newman and a certainty for the orange jacket. Newman had the razor blades out, but would have needed a solid ton on the last day to trouble The People's Champion.

Monty breaks 90, with Yogi Bear	The Bandit shoots 73 off the stick with that party hat.

Day 3 was played on the East Course which proved to be the highest scoring day. Whether this was because the course was more difficult or the consequence of lack of sleep and too much hydration is one of those TCP Cup mysteries that will be argued in the years to come. The Cougar once again played faultlesly shooting a lazy nett 64 to take out the Cup in a canter. The Pontiff could not do the business and finished with a nett 70 for second, 9 points behind the winner. In third place was Monty with a nett 69 and fourth was Gareth who shot nett 70 and played real well for a little Kinez who plays limited golf. Fifth was Springer, then came The Bandit who ran out of condition with a nett 75 finish. Seventh was Max who is starting to find form again, followed by Shirley, Barnesy, Zidane and Smokin Joe rounded out the top 10.

The Cougar wins with a leg in the air.	The Rock takes out the NAGA wearing sunglasses at the restaraunt.

The NAGA went to The Rock who won emphatically by a clear 16 shots. Even though he finished with 84 off the stick, the weight of the 7 handicap made it improssible for him to avoid the inevitable. So from Champion in 2007 he was reduced to NAGA in 2008 by a flick of the handicapper's pen. Actually The Rock took it gracefully up the clacker, handling himself with a lot more dignity than you would expect from a diehard Collingwood supporter. Newman did offer some threat to the orange jacket after 2 rounds but finished with nett 73 to tie for 16th with The Buddha who shot a inglorious 112 on Day 3.

The Division 2 championship was once again keenly contested after some creative handicapping by Newman to improve the chances of previous non-winners. Unfortunately somebody forgot to tell Jars who played some splendid golf and some shit golf to push the top weight and favourite The Bear all way.

On Day 1 The Bear with a luxury handicap of 50 for a man of his stature in the game led the field after breaking 60 with a lazy nett 58. This put him only one shot clear of Jars who also broke 60 with 59. Third was Yogi with nett 60 and they streeted the rest off the field with Crocodile next on 74. The pin up boy of Div 2 The Snake had a bad day with a nett 77 leaving him in last place.

On Day 2 The Bear made his move with a nett 61, but the Jars did the business again and also returned 61 sending them into the last round separated by one lousy tomato, chunk or fresh air shot. Yogi got a 69 and also shot that number, to be nine of the pace and out of contention. Crocodile racked up 131 points to leave himself 40 off the pace in clear last place.

After a ding dong struggle on the last day The Bear was able to display more guts and determination, definately more guts anyway to take out the Division 2 crown by 6 points. In second place on countback was Jars who refused to lay down, in case The Bear fell on him. Third was the other bear Yogi who finished with a nett 67, clearly the best Div 2 score for the day. The Crocodile came home strongly for fourth, followed by Fullager who played shit all three rounds. Then came last year's champion Toy Boy who was badly handicapped on 50 and bringing up the rear was the Snake who failed to flatter in any of the three rounds.

Off the park it was an eventful weekend. On the Friday night it was dinner at the Club followed by the usual drinking a punting. I can not remember much about it apart from the some  delicious shots provided by Full of It and The Buddha and the fact that I had a big headache the next morning. I also vaguely remember some fire crackers going off late at night, including a sky rocket which had hundreds of birds fleeing north for winter chirping "what the fark was that". 

Any good stories here can be forwarded to The Pontiff for screening.

On Saturday afternoon a good time was had by a number of the boys who enjoyed a cool ale in the courtyard behind the units. A bit of Gold was consumed of the Cohuca and the Sunbury variety, the latter provided by the Buddha who has a new cook and reckons one of her teenage sons drinks twice as much as him. " I'd like to see that". The highlight of the afternoon was Sir Les who had played shit golf, accidently lighting a fire cracker in one of Shirley's shoes and then crackering Max's room while he was having a kip. To see the footage click here but will take a long time to load.

On the Saturday night the TCP Cup crew went up market heading to Oscar Ws in Echuca for dinner. As usual Gareth was late for the bus so The Pontiff have him a spray and Gareth just smiled and gave him a big kiss.

The food at Oscar's was magnificent and all had a great time. It was a balmy night and some of the boyz sat out in the courtyard at the front of the restaraunt after dinner to enjoy a few vodkas and some drum roll your owns. Unfortunately there was some poor quality tobacco used and the gold type smell wafted through the restaraunt resulting in some stares from the staff towards the TCP table headed by the usual suspects. 

After the poor conditions provided for the Hunters the previous year at Bridport, The Pontiff pulled one out of the bag, by booking at Oscar W's on the night when 30 seasoned virile females were having their hen's night at the same venue. Thank you very much!

The early moves were made by Sir Les who courted some felines as they made there way to the urinals. Apart from his good looks and personality there was some interest in the substances that the great man had at his disposal. After we finished at Oscar's we adjourned to the pub across the road where a number of the Hunters were strutting their stuff badly!  By this time Sir Les had arranged a tag team with Hunter Hall of Famer Snake Baker and were positioning themselves perfrectly for some horizontal activities in the early hours of the morning. The Knight seemed to have pulled the better of the two felines by implementing 'the Cohuna off side rule'. You see the Snake had told me that the better looking girl had told him that he was a bit of a poof and that she preferred real men like Sir Les.

After further investigation, The Knight advised that he had told the gal that if she wanted to talk, Snake was the man who could talk shit all night about anything. But if she was looking for action, Snake would not be able to deliver as he was gay; so she would have to defer to Sir Les who specialised in drinking, sex and darts.

As luck would have it all went wrong for the Cohuna love machine when he snapped his achilles while attempting a John Travolta disco move that he had rehearsed in his shed many times. He finished up in hospital, out of the TCP Cup and flat on his back for 6 months. Thanks to the Snake for getting him to hospital and to Jars for helping drive the Kluger to a friends place in Echuca early the next morning.

Another great weeked. Congratulations to The Cougar who did it all on and off the field. See you all Swan Hill for the tenth anniversary TCP Cup.