Tuesday, 17 December 2024

Christmas Fayre and Baz Backhouse Trophy December 17 2024

 

Captain Richard Westergreen-Thorne presents Andrew Wellings with the Baz Backhouse Trophy


Everyone's a winner in the Christmas Fayre and Baz Backhouse Trophy competition - the last of the year for the Senior Section.

Joints of meat, wines, spirits, chocolates and biscuits - something for all 75 players in this festive get together. And there were quite a few festive outfits too to complete the scene.

Everyone arrived in good time for the 10am shotgun start on Carthagena. But hang on, who was that rushing to the tee with minutes to spare?

It was Paul Jones who opened his car boot only to find that he had left his clubs at home. But Paul is not the kind of chap to let a missing set of clubs spoil his day so he appealed to the pro shop for help and they  hurriedly put together a bag of random clubs for him. Amazingly he scored 37 points - only two less than the winner!

After the action everyone gathered in the clubhouse for free sandwiches and chips courtesy of Captain Richard's honorarium and waited for the all-important results.

But before that there was a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday to Dave Wrench, a presentation to the kitchen and bar staff of a Christmas gift from the seniors in recognition of their hard work throughout the year and a few trophy presentations to winners who had been unable to attend the Presentation Evening earlier in the month.

Scoring at the top of the Christmas Fayre leaderboard was incredibly close with no less than six players on 39 points. Winner of the Baz Backhouse Trophy was Andrew Wellings, followed on countback by Malcolm Roberts and Jim Kerr. Well done also to Colin Norman, Andy Brown and Phil Gow who all scored 39.


Runner up: Malcolm Roberts

Third place: Jim Kerr

Richard presented Paula with a Christmas gift for the kitchen and bar staff


Chris Sullivan is presented with the Rex Cleaver Championship Cup

Geoff Scott is presented with the Jubilee Trophy

Peter Jarman is presented with the Fourball Better Ball Trophy





















Wednesday, 11 December 2024

Christmas greetings from Andy Shilton

 

Pictured is Andy Shilton's yacht Olive Oyl, safely tucked up in the Marina and looking very festive. Andy tells me he won't be doing any sailing now until the New Year



Wednesday, 4 December 2024

Presentation Evening Dec 3 2024

The Senior Section celebrated its 2024 winners at a Presentation Evening in the Burgoyne Suite when trophies and certificates were awarded by Club Captain Justin Thomas and Senior Section Captain Westergreen-Thorne.


Golfer of the Year: Graham Gadsden 

Ron Atkinson: Certificate of Achievement after 54 years competing in the Senior Section

Keith Howlett, who won the Fourball Better Ball Trophy with Pete Jarman

Kevin Cocker: winner of the John Freedman Annual Medal

Keith Howlett: winner of the Rex Bullock Shield

Ken Robinson Texas Scramble: Jonathan Lean, Trevor Darrington and Bob Isaacson won with Paul Jones who couldn't be present

Peter Imray: winner of the Bessant East Scratch Trophy

Rob Bage: winner of the Annual Stableford Trophy

Richard Westergreen-Thorne: winner of the Kethro Tray Captain's Trophy

Justin Thomas and Richard Westergreen-Thorne: winners of the Captains v Vice Captains Trophy


Richard Westergreen-Thorne: winner of the Jim Peacock Away Day Trophy

Graham Lewis: winner of the Bailiff Shield

Gordon Percival Team Trophy: John Hazelwood, Graham Gadsden and Bill Conway

Warren Churms: winner of the Martin Ives Memorial Shield

Paul Hammond: winner of the Two Clubs (Now Three) and a Putter Trophy

Ian Riches: winner of the Autumn Singles Stableford Trophy

Nick Church accepts the TSB Trophy on behalf of the Juniors for their victory over the Seniors 

Jack Shepherd: winner of the Arthur Lucas Cup

Malcolm Roberts: winner of the Jock Allan Prostate Cancer Project Trophy

Paul Hammond: winner of the Green Tilley Singles Trophy

Dave Wood accepts the Holmwood Plate on behalf of Dennis Ford

Jack Shepherd and Hazel House: winners of the Foursomes Knockout Trophy

Lorna Jerome, who was runner up in the Foursomes Knockout with Cav Kendall

Peter Imray: runner up in the Golfer of the Year Competition

Chris Roy: 4th place in the Golfer of the Year Competition

Rob Bage: 5th place in the Golfer of the Year Competition

Master of Ceremonies and Trophy Officer Dave Wood is presented with a bottle of champagne for his hard work throughout the year


The raffle raised £245 for Captain Richard's charity The British Heart Foundation

Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Minutes of the Senior Section AGM Tuesday Feb 13 2024

  

Seniors 2023 AGM minutes Tuesday Feb 13 2024

Attendance: Richard Westergreen-Thorne, Jonathan Lean, Justin Thomas, Peter Grimes, Barry Donovan, Tony Lloyd, Ken Brewer, Nigel Underwood, Dave Wood, Steve Hobbiger, Ian Maddison, Keith Howlett, Fred Williams, Ray Smart, Derek Young, Gordon Goodchild, David Tamsitt, Keith Fuller, Neil Pinnington, Phil Armstrong, Dave Sutton, Peter Salmon, Anthony Bell, Ian Riches, Rafe Bateson, Nick Schumann, Andrew Bowen, Mike Tipper, Graham Berry, Andy Brown, Bob Isaacson, Bill Walker, Richard Coventry, Stephen Collins, Mehmet Osman, David Trotter, Chris Roy, Bill Conway, Steve Luckman, Paul Life, Graham Gadsden, Hazel House, Paul Jones, John Church, Michael Newstead, James Kerr

1 Welcome by the Captain, Jonathan Lean

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It’s good to see you all here. A very warm welcome to you all. Hopefully you will all have seen the agenda so you will know what is going to happen today. However, I first have a pleasant duty of presenting a cheque to my chosen charity. When I got to the stage of having to choose a charity to support this year, I was faced with a daunting choice. There are so many very worthy charities to choose from. I personally am a trustee of 2 small local charities, but I did not think that it was appropriate to nominate either of these. Instead, I wanted to keep it reasonably local and relevant.

Most of us are parents and/or grandparents. Most of us know the emotions we feel when the child is ill. Fortunately, very few of us have to endure the emotions of a child’s illness which is life limiting. I cannot remember how I came across Keech Hospice Care charity (probably accosted by someone outside a supermarket!) but having spent some time on their website it did not take me long to realise that this was the charity I wanted to support. Sarah Phillips is a fundraiser for Keech, and I will ask her to say a few words about Keech before I present the cheque.

Here Sarah Phillips outlined the work done by Keech Hospice Care

Thank you, Sarah. And a special thank you to all of you who have contributed throughout the year either via Just Giving for the 54-hole challenge (never again!), bidding on auction lots, buying raffle tickets etc. Jonathan presented Sarah with a cheque for £8,107. 60p

2 Apologies for absence

Rob Bage, Peter Imray, Dave Gauge, Jan Murphy, Lorna Jerome, Stuart Wilcox, John Whitbread, Len Greaves, Alan Curtis, Tony Goodson, Alban Macdonald

3 Minutes of the 2022 AGM were taken as read

4 Matters arising

None

5 Captain’s report by Jonathan Lean

I have attended several Seniors AGMs and almost without exception, the Captain starts by saying how quickly the year has gone. This is with good reason as I have found out over the past year.

Firstly, I would like to thank Algy for asking me to be his Vice Captain and to take over from him. He was a hard act to follow but I have enjoyed the challenge. I have played in 27 of the 28 matches last year, only missing one for a big family reunion. Thank you to Richard for deputising for me – I hear that his joke had the audience in tears!

Matches are great fun and a wonderful and economic way of playing other courses in our region, meet new friends and enjoy ‘friendly’ competition. These friendships are illustrated by the number of guests at our Member and Guest Day competition are a result of friendships made at matches. I have played in every competition also and had a distinctly mid-table year. Despite this, somehow my HI has managed to drop by 0.5! Who can explain the wonders of the new Handicap system?

Being Captain meant I have had a seat on the Golf Committee plus the newly formed Club Charity Committee and the one-off 75th Anniversary Committee. The Charity Committee is a new initiative (that’s tautology as all initiatives are new!) whereby club charity fundraising would be coordinated throughout the various sections- Club, Seniors, Ladies and Juniors – and the proceeds then divided between the sections for the various charities. It had a bit of a slow start mainly because of the distraction of the 75th Anniversary activities which took place in the Summer also. However, the committee has learned a lot and future years will hopefully reap greater benefits.

I hope that many of you enjoyed the activities arranged for the 75th Anniversary celebrations. I certainly had great fun playing in the Greenkeepers’ Revenge competition and also attending the funfair evening. An excuse to go back to my childhood!

Some significant successes with the Golf Committee include the agreement that we can now increase the number of matches to 15 clubs. This year therefore we will be including Luffenham Heath in our match programme. It has been made clear though that this is our limit for the time being and if we want to have a match with any other prestigious club such as Woburn, we will have to drop one of our existing matches.

Another issue that I have raised with the Golf Committee is tee furniture. Having seen how other clubs do it when playing matches, I feel that it would improve our club if every tee had a ball washer, waste bin and a board with all the hole details including a small sketch of the hole. This would be particularly helpful to visitors playing JOG for the first time where very few of the greens are visible from the tee. Having initially been greeted with little enthusiasm by the General Committee, this issue has now been taken up by the upcoming Club Captain, Justin Thomas and has progressed to the stage of getting prices.

Another success was getting approval to have a further 4 Seniors Honour boards in the bar area. These will be placed close to the existing boards and will consist of records of winners of the Rex Cleaver, Reg Batson, Annual Stableford and Golfer of the Year.

It has not been decided yet how far back the boards will go in recorded winners. My personal concern is that the GoTY board goes back at least as far as 2016!

 The ongoing issue of having a 2 tee start for home matches continues. This has not been raised at the Golf committee this year because, as my wife tells me, timing is everything. The club is undergoing a change in governance at the moment and the seniors committee feel that it would be better to wait until this is in place before pursuing this request.

The captain’s job is made much easier when he is supported by an excellent team. So, I would like to go on record by thanking all of the committee and others who have helped to make my year run smoothly. Richard Westergreen-Thorne has been on top of everything as Hon Sec and a stalwart supporter as Vice-Captain. He has made sure that I don’t forget anything with timely reminders and been an excellent communicator to all senior members through his weekly newsletter.

Andy Shilton will be sorely missed, not only by the senior section but also by the club as a whole as he sails off into the sunset (literally). He has very efficiently juggled the intricacies of team selection for matches ensuring as far as possible fairness in selection and balancing home and away fixtures.

Tony Lloyd has done an excellent job as competitions secretary and will be a hard act to follow as I take over this responsibility again.

Barry Donovan has been a welcome addition to the committee as Honorary Treasurer. He has excelled at managing and updating the accounting system as well as reporting on the financial situation in a clear way that even I could understand.

Algy Grimes as Immediate Past Captain has been immensely supportive and has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the meetings. He will handle his new role as matches secretary with good humour and efficiency. I am delighted that he is staying on the committee.

I would also like to thank all of those who have assisted in the smooth running of the section without being on the committee. These include Dave Wood who has managed the trophies and also organised the Presentation evening, Nigel Underwood who, with his wife Sabrina organised the Member and Guest Day, Alban MacDonald who helped design a new selection matrix for team selection in matches. Thanks also to Derek Young for managing the sale of clothing and also managing to sell off the few remaining ties. Thank you to all those who have volunteered to be match organisers also. I know that Algy would welcome anyone else who would like to take on organising a match. There is usually a bottle of wine in it as a thank you.

Thank you also to Bill Walker for taking over the running of the roll-ups. As many of you know, our Handicap Committee are keen that more general play cards are submitted for handicapping purposes, so Bill has arranged for several of the roll- ups to be individual Stablefords rather than 4BBB to allow cards to be entered.

Thank you also to all those who are on the rota for managing roll-ups. We are always looking for more volunteers to do this on an occasional basis. Rafe Bateson, Anthony Bell, Peter Salmon, Jim Kerr, Terry Domagala, David Barlow, Bill Walker and Richard Westergreen-Thorne and I are currently on the list.

Rafe Bateson, Andy Brown and Trevor Darrington have taken on the role of welcoming new members to the senior section and ensuring that they are integrated into the system. Thank you to them.

An additional thank you also to Trevor who audited our accounts to ensure that we don’t have a ‘Horizon’ issue!

We now have over 250 senior members, and we are always looking for more volunteers to take on either supporting roles or indeed aspiring committee members. It is healthy to have a regular influx of new blood with fresh ideas.

It is the nature of the Senior Section that a few of our members pass away in the year. This year we should take a few moments to remember with fond memories Ralph Black, Alec McGeady, Robin Carter, Fred Cox and Peter Dean. If there are any others that I have forgotten please let me know and I will include them in the minutes of this meeting.

So, finally, many of you will have looked at your year in review as reported on IG. Algy told us last year that his most popular purchase was a pint of Carlsberg lager. I can report that mine was egg and cress sandwich! I can confidently predict that if Richard chooses to divulge his next year, it will be Green tea!

I wish Richard success for the coming year. My advice is to enjoy it as much as I have. It has been a great honour to be your captain and I thank you all for your encouragement and your words of support throughout the year.

I hand over now to Richard for his Hon Sec report.

6 Honorary Secretary’s report by Richard Westergreen-Thorne

2023 was a good year for the Senior Section and I would like to echo Jonathan’s thanks to what is in total around 30 people helping to run the section and our events. It would be impossible without you.

Our membership numbers are not as clear as when we had a membership fee as we now take it as those who are signed up for the Newsletter. We had a big influx of new members in 2022 post covid both to the club and to the seniors and numbers have continued to grow steadily. We currently have 271 signed up to receive the Newsletter and, with a handful of other members and ex members, as courtesy members plus copies going to several club staff such as Gordon the circulation of the Newsletter is now over 280 a week. In conjunction with this many members regularly look at the blog for more details, photographs and insights into what is going on.

We have had 7 existing club members join us in the past month and five of them are in the 59/60 age group and I am pleased that our Ambassadors of Rafe Bateson, Andy Brown and Trevor Darrington are already making contact with them.

We added the Swap Day in 2022 to our calendar as an annual event and an annual fixture with Brocket Hall in 2023 plus a match with Luffenham Heath has been added for 2024. All great additions to our calendar which is now pretty full - of which more later.

The roll up has very healthy numbers each session at present and it was good to see the trial of the single stableford roll ups in the Autumn which has led to 8 of them being added to the calendar for the coming year. This will help provide opportunities for members to complete qualifying cards to keep their handicaps current.

167 members took part in at least one of the Golfer of the Year events in 2023 which is a record and, in addition, several others took part in the knockouts, matches and other activities. It just remains for me to say many thanks to the other members of the committee and to you and all our other members for your engagement and support during 2023.

Competition Secretary’s report by Tony Lloyd

Looking back at the year we had a packed competition calendar which went very well apart from one or two weather-related setbacks.

The Greensomes with the Ladies planned for March was the first victim and was cancelled as the courses were closed due to snow. And I’m sorry that try as we may the club calendar was so crowded that we were unable to find another day to play it on. Let’s hope we have more luck with this year’s Greensomes, our first event of the year on March 5.

The rest of our competitions were a great success and were extremely well supported.

And the honours were fairly evenly distributed with most competitions won by a different player… apart from Dave Wrench who shamelessly took home no less than three trophies. Well done Dave.

Dave almost topped off his success with the Golfer of the Year Trophy but had to settle for third place as Andy Brown stormed through to seal victory in the final qualifier of the year. Congratulations to Andy and also to the other top five players in the Order of Merit, Richard Knell, Rob Bage and Dave Tamsitt.

Incidentally 167 people played in one or more GOTY events and everyone with five or more entries made the cut for the Xmas Fayre. So the moral is if you want to be in the Xmas Fayre get your name down for as many GOTY qualifiers as you can.

We also celebrated a few firsts. If you noticed an extra fragrance on the first tee it wasn’t just Pat Gilgallon’s cologne. Yes we had lady members taking part for the first time including Jan Murphy who with Paul Dobson won the Foursomes Knockout… the first time a lady has won a Senior Section competition. So well done Jan and Paul.

We always hope for a few holes in one … but no one was expecting Chris Walker to score a hole in one on the John O’Gaunt 16th with a 100 year old hickory club. Amazing and a great headline for the Seniors Blog, which I hope you all read avidly!

The knockouts were closely fought. As well as Jan Murphy and Paul Dobson’s victory in the Foursomes, we also saw Clive Bassindale win the Green Tilley and Paul Jeeves take the Holmwood Plate. Congratulations to them.

Being seniors we are always prone to a few health issues which force us occasionally to withdraw from competitions. Sometimes quite late in the day. Sometimes quite early in the day … like 8am on the morning of the competition!

But I must say when I have had to rejig the start sheet to take account of these problems, or put out a plea for last minute replacements, you have all been fantastic at coming to the rescue.

 I will pay special thanks to Keith Fuller who (and I didn’t know this at the time) was in the shower when I rang him early one morning to ask him if he could fill a slot vacated by an injured player. Keith dried himself off and was on the tee inside an hour or so. Above and beyond the call of duty. So thanks to all of you for making my job over the past year so easy and enjoyable.

I would also like to thank Jonathan for all his help and advice last year as I grappled with IG and wish him well as he takes back the reins for this year.

Thank you all and good luck next year.

Match Secretary’s report by Andy Shilton presented by Algy Grimes

Overall, our season performance was Played 28, Won 11, Drawn 6 Lost 11.  As with last year the final group of mainly away games took the shine off a bright start to the season.  But it was positive to finish with an even number of wins and losses especially as we lost both of the ‘extra fixtures’ to Brocket Hall.  It should also be noted that this was an improvement on last season’s 9 wins, 4 draws, and 13 losses.

The season will also be remembered for some cracking jokes from the Captain (was this an improvement on last year – I can’t remember).

Season in numbers

At the start of the season, we had 60 players signed up but by the time we had finished we had used 70 players with most players getting selected for between 60% and 70% of the matches they had made themselves available for.  There were a few outliers caused by late additions and withdrawals and long-term illness/injury.  This is 11 more than we used last year, probably a reflection on the increased size of the Senior Section.

Of the 70 players 29 used their Joker.  The most popular joker fixture was Letchworth with 7, followed by Gog Magog having  5, Northampton 4, Saffron Walden 4, Wellingborough 4, and Aspley Guise 3, also proving popular.  But no Jokers were played for South Beds, St Neots, Cambridge, Leighton Buzzard, Millbrook.

Of most concern was the number of withdrawals, this numbered 101 over the course of the season, a significant increase over last year and almost 4 per game on average.  Some of this was caused by illness and injury and some by changes of circumstance.  My view is that the selection for the whole of the season was problematic, many people’s diaries for the year are not known or change during the season, and asking people to confirm in February is going to be liable to increase the chances of withdrawals later in the year.  

My thanks especially go to the players that responded to our calls for help during the season.  It was much appreciated.

There were no Jokers allowed for Brocket Hall

Costs

At £24 (and not charging a match fee), we were the most expensive club for match fees and meal costs with Leighton Buzzard, Northampton, and Saffron Walden still only charging something like £17 and seeming to be able to supply a meal of equivalence.  And others charging £18-£22.

Next Year

From the findings of the player survey there is a majority in favour of returning to a batch-based approach.  My suggestion would be to do it in 5 batches, March/April as the first batch, then because of the frequency of fixtures, monthly a month in advance.  I think that this would help with communication and management of the availability. 

One downside of the multiple batch approach is being able to make sure that equitable selection has been made, especially because we do have a front-loaded home bias.  I think that the Match Secretary should be able to manage this, because selection rests with the Secretary (on behalf of the Captain), we should avoid any suspicion of organisers picking their friends.

Using two separate systems IG (where the players are using IG for most activities), and a separate Google Sheets selection and sharing system has caused confusion.  Members see availability features as they use IG and think that they have created or changed their availability when the data in IG was not being used.  It has also proved to be difficult for some members to find what matches they have been selected for.  Alban Macdonald has done a great job creating the Google Sheets system, but it may be that IG (though it has limitations), does lend itself to a smaller batch-based approach and because it is a Database it is more intrinsically able to handle ‘change’ in comparison to a ‘Cell based’ system.  This is something for the new Match Secretary to judge.

Looking forwards I would suggest the trend is still to further de-formalise the games.  The ‘Sandwich and Chip’ matches with Brocket have been popular and other clubs have also suggested informally that this might be a direction of travel.  This is particularly the case where only one tee starts are available as a rolling meal makes it easier to enable early starters to eat when they finish and get away as soon as the last groups are in, and the Captains have done the presentations.  This should particularly reduce the up to 80-minute wait at the end.

All the matches have now been set up in IG for next year, and with the addition of Luffenham Heath there are now 30 matches to be played.

I have very much enjoyed being match secretary for the last 2 years and in particular want to thank the Match Organisers for their sterling efforts getting arrangements in place and of course the entertaining match reports onto the Blog. 

I wish the Senior Section well for the future, the section is a credit to the John O’Gaunt Golf Club, and it has been a pleasure and a privilege to play with you all.

 

Honorary Treasurer's report and adoption of accounts by Barry Donovan

So ends my first year as Seniors Treasurer. This has been an enjoyable experience, and I am pleased to report that the Seniors section is financially in a good place. I would like to record my thanks to my predecessor – Richard Coventry – for an effective hand over of the reigns.

I would also like to thank the Seniors Committee for their support and patience whilst I learnt the ways of their world! Lastly my deep thanks to Trevor Darrington who once again has provided his professional expertise to the Audit of these accounts.

The year started with a healthy Bank Balance of £2,183. Our first financial challenge was forced upon us by the festivities related to the 75 th Year celebrations. This meant several Matches being switched with home games being played earlier than normal. This presented potential cash flow problems but were overcome by good husbandry by the committee.

The approach taken in managing this year’s finances has been slightly different to previous years. The attached financial report illustrates this with Costs and Income split for activity categories, rather than the net impact being reported. We will continue along the same lines next year and this will hopefully help the committee manage Costs and Income in a clearer manner. Whilst the totals for Income and Expenditure look higher this year, the net position is inline. The statement identifies variances year on year.

During the year several finance process issues have surfaced mainly due to changes in personal. These have been frustrating, but I think we are all now the wiser for the experience! One downside some of you may have experienced has been very late charges made to your IG account for Matches and Competitions.

I’m delighted to inform you that we have managed to contribute a stunning £3,200 out of this year’s funds. Together with Jonathan’s participation in the Main Club fund raising efforts, which has generated £3,411.60 , means our Captains Charity will benefit by £6,611.60. This exceeds last year’s figure of £4,060. I hope everyone is as delighted as I that we have been able to do this particularly in such trying economic times. During the year a fund is established that takes a small amount from all competitions and raffles. In addition, we have had several contributions directly to the fund by members of the Seniors section. An excellent achievement for the Keech Hospice.

In addition to the Charity, we have also been able to repeat previous years donation to the

Juniors section.

After allowing for all inflight transactions, we will end the year with a positive bank balance of £2,418.28. Our net surplus for the year is £234.92 compared with a negative £1,183.94 last year. This provides a much-needed cushion for the Seniors section as we move into the new financial year. Our aim is to support the Seniors section in all its endeavours and provide the best services we can to our members and their golfing exploits for the year. To all those involved in contributing to the Seniors section in 2023 I thank you.

All the best for 2024.

(I was unable to attach the accounts to this blog but they are available from Barry Donovan for anyone who would like to study them (email: barrimar230@yahoo.co.uk)


10 Appointment of an auditor

Trevor Darrington was appointed Auditor

11 Appointment of Officers for 2024

All officers were appointed unopposed

Nominations:

 

Position

Nominee

Proposer

Seconder

Captain

Richard Westergreen - Thorne

Jonathan Lean

Algy Grimes

Vice-Captain

Tony Lloyd

Richard Westergreen - Thorne

Bill Walker

Honorary Secretary

Tony Lloyd

Barry Donovan

Jonathan Lean

Competition Secretary

Jonathan Lean

Tony Lloyd

Richard Westergreen - Thorne

Match Secretary

Algy Grimes

Bill Walker

Barry Donovan

Treasurer

Barry Donovan

Algy Grimes

Jonathan Lean

 

12    Address by the Captain, Richard Westergreen-Thorne

I am very pleased to be standing here as your new Captain and delighted that Jonathan decided to nominate me for the role. It is much appreciated, and I will have a very hard act to follow. I know that you will agree that Jonathan has been an excellent Captain for the past year being fully involved in what we do (I believe he played in all the competitions and only missed 1 match all season) and he has also worked tirelessly behind the scenes on our behalf and led the Committee very well. There has even been the odd good joke!

In looking forward to the year ahead I wanted to choose as my charity something that makes a difference to people’s lives and which we can all relate to. At a time of massive advances in medical science I feel that our money will be very well used by the British Heart Foundation who will spend it on life changing and life saving research. I hope that you will be able to support my efforts for this charity during the year. I plan to play in as many events as I can this year but may not be able to match Jonathan’s achievement. With the additional matches this year there is only one week between the start of April and November where we do not have a competition or a match – and that is in the middle of October

In thinking about what to say today I came up with three key things I would like to see this year:

- I would like to see as many people as possible involved in what we do playing,

competing and helping

- I would like to see us continue to develop what we offer our members

- I would like us to enjoy the golfing year that lies ahead – even sometimes despite the golf

Thank you again for electing me as your Captain for 2024.

 

13 Address by the Honorary Secretary, Tony Lloyd

Well what a turn-up for the books!

I’ve faced a few probing questions in the past few weeks from friends trying to find out who Richard’s Vice Captain would be. I had no idea, as I kept telling you. So imagine my surprise when Richard rang me last night and said: “Tony, what are you doing next year?”

I’ve never lied as much in my life. I feel as though I have been living through an episode of The Traitors.

Naturally I said yes because it is a privilege and an honour to serve on this committee representing the best and most vibrant senior section out there. And thanks everyone for taking up this ultimate Buy One Get One Free offer by electing me both Vice Captain and Honorary Secretary. The first thing I must do is thank Richard for carrying out this role for the past three years and wish him well in his year as Captain. I am sure you will all agree with me that he has done a remarkable job in ensuring the smooth running of the section and keeping members up to date through his weekly newsletters which I plan to copy and paste going forward. Hopefully, like Ernie Wise’s hairpiece, you won’t see the join. These are huge boots to fill but I will strive to reach the high standards set by Richard. And thank you Richard for putting your faith in me as your Vice Captain. We can be rightly proud of the way the Senior Section conducts itself and with your help I am confident that we can keep up the good work next year. Thank You and happy golfing.

 

14 Address by the Competition Secretary, Jonathan Lean

I would like to start with a large vote of thanks to Tony Lloyd for standing in for me over the past year. He has done an excellent job, and I am very grateful to him for all his hard work. I think that he will agree with me that the Competition Secretary position would benefit from support in terms of an assistant to ease the large workload around the times of the competitions and also to act as a replacement in the event of holidays etc.

I hope that you are all looking forward to our upcoming programme of competitions and will be diarising opening dates as well as actual competition dates to ensure they do not clash with doctors’ appointments, holidays etc. Just a reminder of the usual requests. Particularly applicable to late starters, please can you all ensure that, once you have finished playing, your score is entered, and cards put in the relevant box or handed to a committee member before you do ANYTHING else. The competitions cannot be finalised until all the results are in and leading scores checked against the score cards. Also, don’t forget to sign your score cards!

If anyone has to withdraw from an event, please can you make every effort to do this before the draw is done. I understand that some situations cannot be foreseen or controlled but please ensure that every competition you enter is clearly marked in your diaries or calendars to avoid clashing with other events that you have to attend. If you must withdraw, please can you contact me – not Gordon, Nigel Tarne or Richard Westergreen-Thorne. Text or email is preferred as I then have a record of the withdrawal and can act on it when I am next at my computer. Phone calls are OK provided they are confirmed by text or email. Some of you have contacted me through the IG messaging system. This is OK but a bit cumbersome so if you can text or email please do so.

If any of you have inflexible tee time requirements in order to allow doctors, dentists appointments etc. please let me know before the draw is done. It is much more difficult to do this after the draw when everyone has been advised of their tee time.

Finally, the objective is for everyone to enjoy the competitions as much as possible no matter how well you perform in them. I will continue to do all I can to ensure that this happens and all constructive and helpful comments as to how to improve will be very welcome.

15 Address by the Match Secretary, Algy Grimes

One of the last things Andy did as a member was to nominate me to replace him, I will let you know in the months ahead whether to thank him or not. We have about 60 players signed up for the first tranche of matches, so we are in line with last year.

I will aim to make selections as even as possible to try and give 60% to 70% success rate on selection. You are asked to sign up for at least two home and two away matches over the year as a minimum. I will be taking this into account throughout the year as other tranches open. As far as Brockett Hall away is concerned, we have had about 35 people sign up for 12 places, so about 66% of you will be disappointed, but those who play this year and who played last year, will be ineligible next year.

I trust that this year, by signing up in tranches of six matches at a time, that there will be fewer people drop out once selected, I know some of you don’t like this approach but people should be able to manage their diaries over the shorter time scales to keep this at a minimum. In due course I will give the selections to the Match Organiser and they will be touch with those selected to play or as a reserve. They will choose the playing pairs and will hopefully be able to ensure the shots end up about even with the opponent teams once their handicaps are known. I thank all organisers in advance for their help.

Now an apology to you all, following a trial run of the system with the committee I deleted the wrong information which led to you being given the wrong link for signing up. A huge thank you must go to Alban Macdonald for sorting me out and giving me a new link to share with you all, he has spent many hours working on our system. We will be keeping the cost per match at £24.00 following some help an negotiations with the Clubhouse Manager, Paula.

Should you have any issues do feel free to contact me after the AGM and I will as best I can.

 

16    Other Agenda Items

A proposal to co-opt two additional members to the Senior Section Committee from within the membership for 2024 to provide help and support for the work of the committee on behalf of the membership was approved

17 Close of Meeting

 

 

 

Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Captain's Corner November 2024

 The following is a message from Senior Section Captain Richard Westergreen-Thorne



As we approach Christmas and the end of the golfing year, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for taking part in our competitions, events and matches this year. It has been great to see so many people getting involved, and I hope to see many of you at our final events of the year.

The thoughts of the Committee are now turning to the golfing season in 2025. Tony Lloyd has already circulated a draft calendar and, following very positive feedback to the recent members' survey, we have just invited you to take part in our first ever Seniors Tour. Places are filling fast and I hope that you can come along.

A key date for your diary is the Senior Section AGM on Tuesday 4th February at 2.30pm in the Burgoyne Suite. All are invited and your committee will take the opportunity to run through the events of 2024 and look forward to 2025. The AGM also includes members voting in the new committee and Tony Lloyd announcing who he is proposing to be his Vice Captain - so not to be missed.

You will shortly receive the official Notice of Meeting for the AGM and this provides all members with the opportunity to raise matters for the agenda. Just before Christmas the AGM Agenda will be published along with the official invitation to attend.

Dave Wood currently holds the role of Trophy and Presentation Organiser and we feel that it would be very helpful to have this role recognised as a full part of the committee in the future. The role is a key part of our work and the committee will put forward a proposal to add the Trophy and Presentation Organiser at the AGM. Secondly, Jonathan Lean will be standing down as Competition Secretary at the AGM (many thanks for all your hard work, Jonathan) and we would like to keep his expertise available to the committee for a further year. Therefore, there will be a proposal to co-opt Jonathan to the committee for 2025.

Finally, I am very pleased to let you know that the Executive Board of the club have agreed to a Staggered Start for our home matches with other clubs from 2025 onwards. This is great news and many thanks to the Executive Board for, firstly, agreeing to a three-match trial and subsequently agreeing to this permanent change.

Finally, finally, entry is open for the Christmas Fayre on Tuesday 17th December (shotgun start on JOG and a non-qualifier).

Thanks again for all your support of senior’s golf during 2024 and look out for the email with the Notice of Meeting of the AGM which will be circulated shortly.


Richard Westergreen - Thorne

Thursday, 14 November 2024

Minutes from the Seniors Committee meeting Nov 5 2024


Present: Richard Westergreen-Thorne (RWT), Tony Lloyd (TL), Jonathan Lean (JL), Algy Grimes (AG), Barry Donovan (BD), Nigel Underwood (NU), Dave Wood (DW), Bill Walker (BW) for one item

 

1 Stableford roll up

BW attended for this item at which the success of the Stableford roll up in 2024 and the shape of the series in 2025 was discussed. It was decided that the series would continue next year with eight dates as a further trial. Roll up entrants wishing to submit a card for their handicap would be required to declare their intention to their playing partner before going out.

Action point: RWT to contact Peter Imray to discuss the viability of an eclectic or aggregate competition with a trophy at the end of the season.

2 Minutes and matters arising

Minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

Matters arising: Handicap divisions for the Club Senior Championship to remain as they are

3 Captain’s Report (RWG)

Since we last met, we have played a couple of competitions and have also participated in the annual match with the Juniors. There are just two further competitions to follow before the end of the year.

It was good to be able to play the 4BBB after it had been postponed earlier in the year and the weather was kind to us this time. Looking, on the day, at the TSB  Trophy awarded to the winners of the match with the Juniors it was interesting to see that this was the 42nd year since it was first awarded. This means that a junior who played in the first match would have just become eligible to play in the seniors team this year!

As well as playing golf I have attended several club meetings over the past month. Tony and I attended the recent Captains Committee which we can update you on at the meeting. I have also attended a Golf Committee Meeting and been involved in the discussions concerning the Code of Conduct and Discipline Policy which have been revised for 2024 and will be circulated to members.

At the Golf Committee meeting we confirmed the changes in the entry requirements for club competitions discussed in the previous session to align more closely to the entry requirements pre WHS which will come into operation for the 2025 season. We also discussed revisions to the Dress Code and expectations of golfers on the course and this will be revisited at the next meeting which will be take place the day before we meet so I can update you then. The aim is to republish for the new golf season alongside the Code of Conduct.

I was very pleased to be informed that the Executive Board had agreed to us having a staggered start to our matches from 2025. I have circulated the official email to that effect from the executive Board to the committee outlining exactly what has been agreed. We can now plan on the basis of organising our matches with other clubs in line with the arrangements at the three trial matches held at the end of the 2024 season.

My thoughts are now turning to the end of year and the arrangements for the handover to Tony and the arrangements for the AGM in February.

RWT explained that he had attended a presentation on club facilities etc to prospective new members including potential new seniors.

4 Vice Captain’s Report

TL had sent out get well cards to two members and had had a conversation with another who had been unable to play for some months for health reasons. He was asked to send a card to another member who was struggling with an injury

5 Immediate Past Captain’s Report

Nothing to report

6 Treasurer’s Report (BD)

1.      Financial position. At the end of October, we have just over £9k in our account. The attached schedule shows the Income & Expenditure to date this year.  A few notes:

a.      There are outstanding invoices and costs amounting to £1080 at this stage. This positively increases our cash position.

b.      There are further revenues and costs to come before the end of the year covering events such as Christmas Fayre, Presentation evening and year end donations. This amounts to a net £191.

c.      Additionally, we have a commitment to the Captains Charity to be paid from this year’s cash position. Our Budget for this is £3000. Based upon a count of £1 entries made this year into Competitions our minimum commitment would be £1675. Last year we paid £3411. In addition, the main club Charity made a contribution to the captain’s fund for the 3 rounds in a day event. We need to agree a figure for 2024 – I would recommend £3500.

d.      Any other known costs for 2024 – please let me know asap.

2.      Budget 2025. Initial preparations for next year are attached. We need to agree:

a.      Entry fees. I would suggest these remain unchanged

b.      Food costs for Matches. Paula advises no cost increase for 2025.

c.      Member & Guest Day budget. Working assumption is the same as 2024.

d.      A Budget for Match Day wine / prizes. Can we move to a ‘stock’ purchase?

e.      Any other events.

f.        Use of Captains Honorarium to fund Captains Day and M&G 

g.       Delegation of Budget to Match Secretary, Comp Secretary and Special event coordinators

3.      Bank Account. Lloyds have advised that with pretty much immediate effect our account will attract charges. Not penal but there are principles at stake! I will continue to research other options and advise the committee at a future meeting. My intention is to look for an interest-bearing account – currently not offered by Lloyds.

 

 

 

 

7 Honorary Secretary’s Report (TL)

I have prepared new drafts of the Notice of AGM and the AGM agenda for your consideration.  These include the proposal to make the Trophies and Presentation Officer a permanent committee role and a proposal to co-opt Jonathan to the committee for one year to assist the Competitions Secretary.

I have sent out two consecutive newsletters without any technical problems and I think the reason is that I have cut down the links to the bare minimum. It is not ideal but seems to be keeping the gremlins at bay.

At our last meeting I said I would investigate using IG to distribute the newsletter so I sat down with Caitlin Thomas to explore the possibilities.

While it is technically possible, it does present some problems. The biggest drawback is that by sending the newsletter to all seniors it will go to around 800 members, most of whom might not take kindly to having their Sunday morning privacy invaded!

The club regards anyone over 55 as a senior and to get around that I would have to strip out anyone who is not on our current mailing list -  a Herculean task. Caitlin has kindly offered to help me if we choose to go down that route.

I think the next move might be to investigate a google business account which Richard and I have discussed briefly already unless we just monitor the situation for a while.

TL added that Warren Churms had generously offered the senior section a bottle of 10-year-old single malt whisky as a prize. It was decided to make the most out of it by making it an auction lot in the Jock Allan Prostate Cancer Charity Day.

TL also added that one club had expressed an interest in joining us in a Swap Day in 2026.

8 Competition Secretary’s Report (JL)

Since the last meeting there have been three competitions and one match.

The rearranged 4BBB competition took place on 15th October and was won by Peter Jarman and Keith Howlett with 41 points.  This was the same total score as the teams in second and third places.

This competition was particularly stressful to arrange as it was important to have the correct number of total entrants.  Late withdrawals were a problem but fortunately there were enough emergency standbys to make the event go without a hitch.

The Autumn Singles Stableford took place on 22nd October and was won by Ian Riches with 41 points.  Chris Roy and Michael Newstead were in second and third places.

This was the final event of the Golfer of the Year qualifiers, and the final results were as follows.

1st – Graham Gadsden with a total of 68 points

2nd – Chris Roy with a total of 56 points

3rd – Cavan Kendall with a total of 55 points

4th – Peter Imray with a total of 50 points

5th – Geoff Scott with a total of 49 points

A total of 157 players played in at least one event.

96 players played in 5 events or more.  109 players played in 4 events or more.  This will become significant when entries to the Christmas Fayre open.

The Scramble with the ladies was played on 24th October and won by the team of Karen Beagent, Barry Donovan, Chris Hoad and Rhona Stallard.

The TSB trophy match Seniors vs Juniors took place on 30th October and was won by the Juniors by a score of 3½ - 2½.  The juniors fielded an impressive team with a lot of single HI players.

At the time of writing there are 61 entries to the Arthur Lucas Bring and Win.  There are rumours that there is some concern about the cost of entry of £5 on top of having to bring a prize.  If we are short of entries this might need to be reconsidered for next year.

Entries for the Christmas Fayre open on 10th November.

BD added that all 75 prizes for the Christmas Fayre had been either purchased or ordered.

Action points: Arthur Lucas to be agenda item at next meeting

JL to email all Arthur Lucas entrants with information on what to do on the day and TL to remind entrants in the newsletter that practising on the course before a shotgun start is forbidden.

9 Match Secretary’s Report (AG)

Overall, our season performance was Played 30, Won 7, Drew 7 Lost 16.  This was a slightly lower win ratio to last year. Overall we lost 127 to 101 with the best win being a 6.5 to 1.5 home to Gog Magog, the worst result has to be the 6 nil at Brocket Hall (including the home match they won 11.5 to 0.5!)

Season in numbers

We had 70 players signed up early on but it only went up to 74 which is a few more than last year. Most players getting selected for over 70% of the matches they had made themselves available for based on the mean selections overall.  There were a few outliers caused by late additions and withdrawals and long-term illness/injury. 

Of the 74 players 52 used their Joker.  The most popular joker fixture was Wellingborough 13, followed by Saffron Walden 10, Northampton 9, Aspley Guise 6, Gog Magog 4, Letchworth 4, Harpenden Common 2, Leighton Buzzard 2, Millbrook and St Neots 1 each. However 7 of those withdrew from their match. But no Jokers were played for Bedford & County, South Beds and Cambridge Country Club.  There were no Jokers allowed for Brocket Hall or Luffenham Heath, players that played in these matches will be ineligible next year

Last year withdrawals numbered 101 but we had an improvement this year with only 53 withdrawing over the course of the season. The largest number of withdrawals was for Gog Magog (away) numbering 10. Some of this was caused by illness and injury and some by changes of circumstance.  However I think the Batch selections system we used this year worked well in the end.

My thanks especially go to the players that responded to our calls for help and stepped in during the season, particularly for the South Beds away match.  It was much appreciated.

 

Matches by availability

Players available

Beds & County ( Home ) 12 a side

15

Brocket Hall (Home) 12 a side

16

South Beds ( Home )

18

Millbrook ( Home )

18

St Neots ( Home )

19

Cambridge Country Club ( Home )

20

Millbrook ( Away )

21

South Beds ( Away )

21

Harpenden Common ( Home )

22

Leighton Buzzard ( Home )

22

Leighton Buzzard ( Away )

24

Cambridge Country Club ( Away )

24

Luffenham Heath (Home) 12 a side

25

Northampton ( Away )

26

Letchworth ( Home )

26

Harpenden Common ( Away )

27

Beds & County ( Away ) 12 a side

28

Northampton ( Home )

28

Saffron Walden ( Home )

28

Gog Magog ( Away )

29

Gog Magog ( Home )

29

Saffron Walden ( Away )

30

Luffenham Heath (Away) 12 a side

32

St Neots (Away )

34

Wellingborough ( Home )

36

Wellingborough ( Away )

36

Costs

At £24 (and not charging a match fee), we were not the most expensive club for match fees and meal costs that was South Beds at £25, with Leighton Buzzard, Northampton, and Saffron Walden still only charging something like £17 and seeming to be able to supply a meal of equivalence.  And others charging £18-£22. It has to be noted that some clubs also treat us at their halfway house.

The system to ensure players are charged for the matches in a timely manner needs to be improved, the instructions to the organisers has been amended to ensure there is improvement next year.

One thing that caused some concern was where players signed up for only away matches and no home, they were not selected (even when a Joker was used) it was discussed with the individuals and they accepted the decision taken. It needs stressing again that we require players to sign up for at least two home and two away matches to ensure fair play in overall costs.

Selection system

In my view we should continue with the batch selections using Google Sheets which, after an initial teething problem, has worked very well, thanks to Alban Macdonald for all the work he has put in to creating the system and the help he gave me throughout the year.

Finally thanks to all that played and in particular to my ‘back pocket’ players that stepped in at short notice.

RWT thanked Alban MacDonald and Algy Grimes for the huge amount of work they had put in to organising the matches this year.

10 Staggered start report

RWT reported back on the Executive Board’s decision to approve a staggered start for our matches next year.

Action point: TL to write to all clubs informing them of the decision, particularly those with a later start who might benefit from the staggered start by bringing the start time forward.

TL to write to all clubs after the AGM with new contact details

11 Presentation Dinner

DW gave an update on progress and latest number attending. Wendy Ashcroft had been asked to produce certificates for the top placed GOTY players

12 2025 events

Seniors Tour

BD gave an update on the Seniors Tour at Forest Pines on May 18/19 next year including prices and timings. It was agreed that JL would set up a competition on IG and TL would publicise it in the next newsletter

Calendar update

TL presented an update on the 2025 calendar with one minor alteration.

Competition arrangements

It was noted that numbers of entrants was down in some competitions, notably the 3 Clubs and a Putter and Arthur Lucas (Bring and Win)

Action point: January meeting to discuss possible reasons for this and ways of encouraging more to take part

Budget, costings, entry fees for 2025

BD said he did not envisage us having to increase the cost of competitions next year.

Action point: January committee meeting to discuss Bring and Win costs and prizes.

13 Captain’s Charity

TL reported back on his meeting with next year’s Club and Ladies Captains to discuss the “one club” approach to charitable giving. The three, with input from the juniors, had come up with a shortlist of five charities which would be put to the entire membership in a poll in the New Year. Running in tandem with the main charity would be a local community fund which would provide small amounts of money for local groups and administered by the club’s charity committee.

14 AGM

TL had circulated the latest version of the invitation to members and the AGM Agenda and minor changes were agreed.

15 AOB

It was agreed that gratuities for staff next year would be £250 and the donation to the Junior Section to be £125.

Keith Howlett to be invited to the next meeting to discuss handicap etc

Date and time of next meeting: 2.30pm Jan 14 2025