Having already spent a long day underground in Monkton Farleigh and Box, this was to be the highlight of the day (or, by now, night) for me. A six-some completed the truly excellent qualifying round, and some of the group determined to finish this one, too.

I went in first, squeezed through the fairway and made my way without much difficulty into the bunker as Sandvika played a sligtly feeble tee shot onto the fairway. I then attempted to play my way onto the green, but ran into severe difficulties. There was a large, rocking rock partially blocking the route. With great difficulty I manage to wriggle and squeeze my bum past it, but then it jammed into my tummy. I couldn't get my chest past it (and those who follow these matters will know it was my chest that "undid" me at il nono Cerchio). Even worse, I couldn't get my backside over it to get out again - I was well and truly stuck.

I could hear Sandvika calling, in the distance, and gave him an update on my situation. He had been having his own difficulties - after the short tee shot, he had got the yips and was himself stuck on the narrow fairway. But on hearing of my plight the true heroism and gallantry of the man came to the fore - he overcame his own inhibitions and managed to drive as far as the bunker to rescue me.

By the time he got there, I had already managed to extricate myself from my very tricky lie but, of course, despite getting to within 3 feet of the pin, the ball was not yet in the hole.

So we called in the virtual referee for a ruling. Rule 24-1 states that moveable obstructions, such as rakes and bottles, located anywhere may be moved without penalty. There was some doubt if a rock that must have weighed more than the two of us together was really in the same class as a rake or bottle, but there was no doubt at all that it was moveable - this rock rocked. Sandvika braced himself and with a mighty effort shifted it 2 feet down and along, so it was no longer in the narrowest part of the constriction. He made a neat approach putt and waited for me to join him on the green before sinking his next shot.

Thanks for a memorable hole, one which in conjunction with the qualifying round gets abanazar yet another TOP CACHE coin (visit the TOP CACHE web site), the first to be awarded jointly to a Groundspeak cache and an OpenCache .

Rgds, Andy