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
