In attendance
Tony Lloyd, David Barlow, Richard Westergreen-Thorne, Algy Grimes, Nigel Underwood, Dave Wood, Barry Donovan, Jonathan Lean, Warren Churms, Steve Mathers, Terry Domagala, Fred Williams, Nick Schumann, John Church, Bill Walker, Rafe Bateson, Anthony Bell, David Lincoln, David Tamsitt, Richard Newman, Graham Gadsden, Bob Isaacson, Michael Newstead, Chris Saunders, Paul Life, Steve Hobbiger, Trevor Darrington, Mehmet Osman, J. Thompson, Phil Armstrong, Gordon Goodchild, Paul Dobson, Colin Norman, Kevin Barbour, Jim Kerr, Tony Goodson, Andy Fage, Ian Riches, Richard Cobb, Alban Macdonald, Keith Fuller, Peter Salmon, Steve Luckman, Ian Maddison, Jed Isbell, Paul Fletcher, Peter Sweeney, Chris Roy, Geoff Elcome, Neil Pinnington, Paul Hitchcock, Tony McLean, Andy Brown, Mike Tipper, Paul Connibear, Pat Lloyd.
1: Welcome by the Captain - Tony Lloyd
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome the 2025
AGM of the Senior Section.
This is an occasion to look back at our achievements over
the past year and also look forward to better weather and an exciting new
golfing year.
And we’ll also have a couple of surprises for you, so pay
attention. No nodding off at the back!
It is normal at this stage of the AGM to present a cheque
to the representative of our chosen charity. However for the first time this
year the club adopted a One Charity approach to fund raising and the Senior
Section joined forces with the Ladies and the rest of the club in this
endeavour.
I will tell you more about this shortly but for now I can
tell you that a very large cheque will be handed over to the Alzheimer’s
Society on March 28 at the Captains’ Putt Out and Drive In ceremony.
And later in today’s proceedings David will announce the
charity that all four captains will be supporting this year.
2: Apologies for absence
Steve Collins, David Price, Daniel Enkes, Martyn Graham, David Gauge, Keith Howlett, Peter Imray, Gerry Degaute, John Whitbread, Bill Conway, Ken Wareham, Paul Jones, Peter Wade, Derek Weller
3: Minutes of the 2024 AGM
The minutes have been available to read on the blog and, as
we have received no comments, they will be taken as read.
4: Matters Arising
Again we have received no requests to discuss anything not
on this agenda so I will move on to item 5, my Captain’s Report
5: Captain's report - Tony Lloyd
My Captain’s report really takes the form of a very long
thank you letter.
Firstly, enormous thanks to my colleagues on the committee
whose unstinting work makes the Senior Section run so smoothly.
Thank you to Algy Grimes and Alban Macdonald for masterminding the matches and to the match organisers who I played alongside in 28 out of 30 matches. I hope it wasn’t too painful for you!
Thank you to our competition secretary Nigel Underwood for your tireless work throughout the year and for the imaginative changes you have introduced. More on that later.
Thank you to Dave Wood for making sure the correct trophy is always on hand for me to present to the winner. And for the magnificent job you do organising the Presentation Evening.
Thanks to Barry Donovan for keeping us on the financial straight and narrow - a task which has been made much harder this year because of changes in the club’s accounting system.
Thank you also to the roll-up organisers. Your help is absolutely critical and much appreciated. Twice a week we gather in ever-growing numbers for golf and camaraderie that is hard to replicate. And it is all down to your efforts.
Thanks to my excellent vice-captain David Barlow for all your support this year despite all the other calls on your time as club director, charity guru and trombonist extraordinaire. I know you will make an excellent Captain.
And a special thank you to Richard Westergreen-Thorne who has been the beating heart of this section for many years as both secretary and captain. You will be sorely missed. But as you step down from the committee we wish you well in your continuing and demanding role as a club director.
So to the first surprise I promised you.
Some say that if we were to tot up his lifetime intake of green tea it would fill the lake on the John O’Gaunt 4th hole several times over.
So as a small thankyou for your efforts I would like to present you with this – enough green tea bags to last most people – but not you - a lifetime.
But that’s not all. We also have a box of Pro V1s and a framed citation to mark your years of service to the section.
When I stood before you a year ago as your new Captain I laid out my priorities for the year ahead. Firstly, to increase participation in everything the senior section does and secondly - perhaps most importantly - to have fun.
We definitely saw participation increase. And we welcomed a lot more members to the Senior Section.
But did we have fun? I do hope so. I certainly did and as I was writing this report I was reminded of all the great experiences that came my way during my year.
I have conveniently forgotten the details of my first match as Captain at Bedford and County. Let’s say the nerves got to me. But if you really must know, just ask organiser Terry Domagala when I’m out of earshot.
And playing with Paul Jones at Gog Magog where we again romped home 6&4 winners. Even their pars and birdies weren’t good enough to beat Two Shot Tony as I have been nicknamed by Richard Coventry.
Anyway, suffice to say that overall we won almost as many matches as we lost. David your challenge this year is to do better. Usually playing off scratch. Good luck with that!
And no one was more surprised than me when after two practice shots the ball soared 175-yards down the right hand side of the fairway. Thanks to Jonathan for shouting: “Aim left Tony, aim left.” And congratulations to Ian Simpson who correctly guessed the distance.
So with that monkey off my back my handicap fell by four shots in the space of two months - albeit from a ridiculously high level.
Anyway, enough about me, let’s get back to the Senior Section – a Section that never stands still.
Charitable fund raising is always high on any Senior Captain’s agenda and I am pleased to say that you have been every bit as generous this year as you always are.
As a result you have raised the magnificent total of £3,500 which is boosted by a further £3,250 as our share of overall club fund-raising.
As you know, this year for the first time the club has adopted a One Charity policy and the charity chosen by a poll of members was the Alzheimer’s Society. So the money raised by the seniors will go into an even bigger pot including money raised by the Ladies Section and the Club as a whole. The lion’s share will go to the Alzheimer’s Society with the remainder invested in the Pauline Aubigne Community Fund which has already begun supporting worthwhile local causes.
It has supported a charity which helps men with anxiety, depression and grief and even made a small donation towards a Christmas Party at Stratton School.
This fund is available to support any worthwhile local cause and if there is something dear to your heart that would like considered do please contact our new Charity Champion Lorna Jerome who will discuss your request with the charity committee.
The incoming Captains have chosen their charity for this year and David will tell you more about that soon.
This year’s competition is on Monday April 13 so please put that in your diary and help us raise even more money for this very worthwhile cause. And I’m pleased to say that the Man Van will be back.
So I think we can look back with pride at another great year for the Senior Section. I am sure it will continue to go from strength to strength.
Thank you all once again for making this such a memorable year for me. And good luck to David as you embark on your year as Captain.
I will now hand over to Richard to present his Secretary’s report.
6: Honorary Secretary's report - Richard Westergreen-Thorne
It has been
a very good year for engagement within the Senior Section.
Very
healthy fields for competitions and sign ups for our events meant that around
170 members participated during the season.
35 people joined the mailing list and a handful left but I know that
there are some on the list simply because they have not asked to be withdrawn.
The number
receiving the Newsletter each week is now 315 and on a rough calculation I
would say that 170 are active participants and on top of this there are at
least 50 additional members receiving the Newsletter to keep up to date with
what is happening. There are also some who have moved away or have stopped
playing through injury and want to keep in touch with the life of the club.
The
calendar for 2026 follows a similar pattern to 2025. The Tour will be two days
rather than one last year and the number of competitions and matches remain the
same. The change by the club to dates for coursework which took effect in 2025
has led to some juggling around as has our moving all home events to a Tuesday.
This is a good long-term move but, as there are only so many Tuesdays, we have
had to shift the Bailiff Shield into October. However, plans are in place to
move it back to its usual slot earlier in the season for 2027 onwards.
I have had
the usual range of member queries during the year and a number of thanks to
pass on to committee members which is always a pleasure to do.
The
Newsletter remains the key element of our communications with members augmented
very successfully by the blog that continues to provide a feast of news and
pictures of our events and evoke good memories when we look back at events of
the past. Thanks, Tony, for all your work on this.
I joined
the committee originally as Match Secretary and became Hon. Sec. in 2019 and so I think I have sent out over 300
Newsletters to members in that time plus numerous ‘specials’ and pleas for
help. Tony took over last year when I was Captain and coming back to it I have
enjoyed compiling the news and will miss my weekly ritual getting it ready for
Sunday morning.
Thank you
for the support I have received during my time in post – in particular the
kindly nudges pointing out when I have made a mistake or missed something. Appreciated.
Finally,
many thanks to my Committee colleagues for all your help, support and advice.
7: Competition Secretary's report - Nigel Underwood
Support for our competitions remains very
good, total entries across all comps was up by just under 3% on 2024, although
the number entering at least one GOTY event was down by 2 on 2024. (I can verify the GOTY figure having
accidentally wiped the statistics and had to go through all 9 GOTY events old
school with pencil, paper and tally sheet to work out who qualified for the
Christmas Fair !) The nine GOTY events produced nine different winners but by
winning the final event of the year, Ian Simpson clinched the title. Paul Jones claimed the Green Tilley ko,
overcoming Tony Walters in the final, Ken Wareham took the Holmwood Plate
(holing from 30 feet at the 18th to beat me on the way !!) with Ian
Maddison runner up. Jed Isbell and Tom Walker took the Foursomes ko with Trevor
Darrington and Barry Donovan runners up. All results can, of course, be seen on
the club and IG sites.
In his report 12 months ago, Jonathan touched on slow play. I know that certain formats are difficult to play at pace but as a rule of thumb, you should always aim to be just behind the match in front, NOT just in front of the match behind. We all know the fixes to slow play, it’s just about employing them. On the question of pace of play, can I add that it is quite permissible to start a competition round before your allotted time; if the match in front is clear please get under way; at the very least you are helping avoid backlogs on the first tee. He also mentioned withdrawals and it is encouraging that we did not have any unexpected “no shows”. Individual events are not a major problem from that point of view but pairs and team events are. Of course some are inevitable – I’ve done it myself – but at least please only enter a comp if you are sure you can play barring unforeseen issues. I am very grateful to those people who have agreed to be on reserve lists and/or entered competitions at the 11th hour following an appeal in Richard’s newsletters. Thanks are also due to those who have mastered IG for entering scores, especially 4ball better balls and shotgun starts. I am always happy to help – it’s a lot easier on my laptop than your phone !
You will be aware of some tweaks we plan for
this year’s competitions. More of those anon. In the 2025 season we have
increased the number of prizewinners in singles competitions with divisional
prizes and introduced extra prizes for the top 5 in the “Bring and win” while
halving the entry fee for that event.
Finally, abandonment of play . Having
been in a Senior’s comp during which the course became unplayable and watched
players come in soaked to the skin it occurred to me that maybe the Club rules
were a bit too much “one size fits all”. So we now have a procedure whereby play
can be stopped if conditions become unreasonable. To conclude I just want to
talk this through….in the hope that we never have to use it !
8: Match Secretary's report - Algy Grimes
Overall, our season performance was Played 30, Won 13, Drew 2,
Lost 15. This was a better win ratio to 2025. Overall we lost 127.5 to 108.5
with the best win being a 7 - 1 at home to Bedford & County, the worst results were four times
losing 7 - 1, however one match saw the opposition having 147 shots to our 49!
Season in numbers
We had 70 players signed up last year, 4 less than the previous year.
Most players getting selected for around 60% to 70% of the matches they had
made themselves available for based on the mean selections overall
Of the 70 players only 37 used their Joker. The most popular joker
fixture was Saffron Walden with 11, followed by a few on 6. But no Jokers were
played for Bedford & County, South Beds and Cambridge Country Club, which
is the same as the previous year.
Last year withdrawals numbered 51 which is just two less than withdrew
in 2024. There were no particular fixtures suffering from withdrawals more than
others. However I think the Batch selections system we used again this year
worked well and is the best way forward. The system makes it very easy to
ensure fair selections are made throughout the season.
My thanks especially go to the players that responded to our calls for
help and stepped in during the season, some at very short notice. It was much
appreciated.
Costs
At £24 for the match fee, we were able to keep it the same as 2024,
however, whilst the fees charged at other clubs vary, it should be noted that
some of them also treat us at their halfway house.
The system to ensure players are charged for the matches in a timely
manner was improved by using Wendy Ashcroft as the contact following the
departure of the Clubhouse Manager, I think most costs were charged to our
cards on the day of the fixture.
One thing that caused some concern was where players signed up for only
away matches and no home, or only one match, they were not selected (even when
a Joker was used) It needs stressing again that we require players to sign up
for at least two home and two away matches to ensure fair play overall.
Selection system
We will continue with the batch selections using Google Sheets which has
proved to have worked very well once people got used to the system, thanks to
Alban Macdonald for all the hard work he has put in creating it and the help he
gave me throughout the year.
Finally thanks to all that played and, again in particular to my ‘back
pocket’ players that stepped in at short notice.
9 Honorary Treasurer's report - Barry Donovan
Attached to this report are the Audited Accounts for the
last Calendar year, Balance Sheet, and Prior year comparison. In addition, the
current view of 2026 Budget is also attached.
-
To ensure we support the section's many
activities and continue to make a small contribution
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To support the Seniors section committee on all
new ventures and challenges
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To continue the simplification of the accounting
processes and provide more rapid insight onto our financial activity
Before I go further, I’d like to extend my gratitude to Trevor Darrington who once again has provided his professional expertise to the Audit of these accounts. This year – probably more than at any time in the recent past – Trevor's technical skills have been leaned on to interpret the year's activities. His unflustered advice has been invaluable, and I am very grateful to him. His knowledge and experience in managing accounting processes is without peer.
|
Category |
Expenditure |
Income |
Contribution |
|
Competitions |
£2,270 |
£5898 |
£3,628 |
|
Matches |
£10,215 |
£11,520 |
£1,305 |
|
Events |
£7,354 |
£7,626 |
£272 |
Ensure we support the Sections many activities and continue to make a small contribution
Support Seniors committee on all new ventures and challenges
Replace our Bank Account
Replace our accounting methods with more appropriate book-keeping and reporting tools
Acceptance of the accounts
Bill Walker proposed and Chris Roy seconded a proposal to accept the accounts and this was carried by a show of hands.
10: Trophy Custodian's report - Dave Wood
The Trophy Custodian now has responsibility for 26 Trophies which includes the Captains Gavel and the four new Seniors Honours Boards. 2024 saw the Jock Allen Prostate Cancer Competition adopted by the Seniors Section with the Trophy becoming the responsibility of the Custodian. The trophies are stored securely in a trophy cabinet situated in the Committee room at the club.
We are proud to be able to allow trophy winners to take the
trophies home following the competitions and after the Presentation evening. I
will contact the winners prior to the anniversary of their win to request the
return of the trophy to the club in time for its presentation when the
competition is played again. All trophies must be returned to the club by 1st
November each year for engraving with the winners’ name(s).
The Baillif Shield, our largest shield, lacks space for new
cartouches. Myself and Wendy are searching the internet for a large shield to
attach to the rear of the shield to prolong its life. Current prices are around
£100 for an appropriately sized shield – we will continue to search for a more
acceptable price. I have contacted Jim Kerr and will be meeting him this week to
discuss whether he is able to make a large backing shield and will report back
when I have any further information.
The Captains’ Gavel suffered some damage during 2025. This has now been repaired and is ready for a few more years careful use.
Honours Boards
The Seniors Honours Boards and the Senior Captains’ Board
will be updated with the 2025 winners on Wednesday 14th January.
Presentation Dinner.
The presentation evening this year was attended by 65
Diners, including 10 Captains’ guests. This is slightly up on last year’s
figures, but it is noted that 12 competition winners were unable to attend the
event. There may be scope to increase the numbers if proposed additional
competitions are added this year.
55 paying diners = £1650.00
10 Captains Guests = £300.00
Having received a number of appreciative emails and
comments, I believe it safe to say that the evening was a success, although there
were some comments about slow service of the meal for the higher numbered
tables. I understand that there was a shortage of staff on the evening. I will
liaise with the F&B staff before next years meal to see if something can be
done to alleviate this problem.
I am open to any suggestions to improve the event.
The Presentation Dinner raffle this year realised a total of £311.46.
Swap Day – Newmarket Links, 27th October 2025.
This year I undertook to organise the Swap Day with
Newmarket Links which took place on 27th October. Everything went to
plan until I arrived at Newmarket to find that a Traffic Accident on the A14
road works held up most of the players from JOG. My carefully prepared Score
cards were of no use as I had to rearrange each four-ball round using the JOG
players as they arrived at the Club.
Thankfully, with help from Committee members, the
rearranged matches were slotted in to our allotted tee times without too many
problems.
On the whole the day went well, with everyone enjoying the
golf and the meal.
We must remember to calculate playing handicaps to the
‘N’th decimal point in future!!!
Stoke Rochford: 2026
Confirmed in the Club Diary for 5th October 2026.
Richard has previously invited the club Captain and their swap day organiser to a round of golf at John O Gaunt to set things in motion and to discuss arrangements. I have asked Darrel and Steven Major for their availability and will arrange the round when I have their response. Darrel has responded saying that he will contact me for the round/meeting early in 2026. Following this meeting I will commence with the finer details of the swap day. I still await their reply.
I would like to thank everyone on the Committee for your support and encouragement in my endeavours in 2025. Thank you also to all the Seniors Section members for your support at the Presentation dinner I will do my utmost to serve you and work in your best interests in the coming year.
11: Appointment of an Auditor
Barry Donovan proposed and Oz Osman seconded the appointment of Trevor Darrington as Auditor for 2026 and this was overwhelmingly carried by a show of hands.
12: Appointment of Officers for 2026
Tony Lloyd proposed David Barlow as Captain, seconded by Rafe Bateson, and this was carried overwhelmingly by a show of hands, following which Tony presented David with his Captain's pullover.
Captain David took over chairing the meeting and, as his first duty, introduced his choice of Vice Captain, Terry Domagala. This was seconded by Warren Churms and carried overwhelmingly by a show of hands.
The following officers were then appointed unopposed:
Honorary Secretary - Tony Lloyd. Proposed by Paul Beck and seconded by Graham Gadsden
Competition Secretary - Nigel Underwood. Proposed by Jonathan Lean and seconded by John Church
Match Secretary - Algy Grimes. Proposed by Gavin Little and seconded by David Tamsitt
Trophy Custodian - David Wood. Proposed by Anthony Bell and seconded by Trevor Darrington
Honorary Treasurer - Barry Donovan. Proposed by Michael Etwaroo and seconded by Anthony Thurgood
13: Co-option of offers for 2026
A proposal to co-opt Jonathan Lean, Warren Churms and Steve Mathers to the committee to assist the officers in running the section and associated activities was carried unanimously
14: Address by the Captain David Barlow
It is a great honour to accept the Seniors’ captaincy for 2026. I am following in the footsteps of a long line of distinguished past captains.
I would especially like to extend my thanks and appreciation to Tony for his excellent leadership, friendship and good humour throughout last year
At this point David presented Tony with a thank you card signed by members of the section (plus a gift in the form of pro shop credit)
…. and to Richard as he hands over the Hon Sec baton to give even more time to his role as a director.
Also to the Seniors Committee - Barry, Algy, Richard, Dave, Jonathan, Nigel.
Without them, nothing that we all enjoy, whether it's competition or match golf would happen: they all do a wonderful job and they make the role of the Captain easy to execute. They are a great set of guys, always willing to put their hands up if something needs doing, but also not afraid to address some of the thornier issues that sometimes crop up. Thank you all very much and I look forward to not doing very much.
Charity for 2026.
David announced that the club's joint charity for 2026 would support The Garden House Hospice, Letchworth and St John’s Hospice, Moggerhanger. Money would also be set aside in the Pauline Aubigne Community Fund
Competition changes…
An example of change that your committee has positively embraced is an adjustment to the competitions for 2026. We have listened to your feedback and I’d like to thank all those who have contributed, especially Peter Imray.
We are a big section and last year with the large numbers taking part we were able to trial additional divisional prizes in competitions. That was a great success so we are expanding for 2026. Most individual competitions will now have divisional prizes (no two prizes will apply).
Significantly, Two GOTY competitions have been remodelled.
Following the template of the Annual Medal and Jubilee Trophy, the Rex Bullock will become The Rex Bullock (Stableford) and The Spring Medal.
The
Bailiff Shield will become a medal competition (The Bailiff Shield (Medal) and will
be partnered with The Bailiff Stableford Trophy.
I don’t expect anyone to be able to remember this, but I can give a reassurance that we are expanding the opportunities to win across all handicaps and are doing our very best to maintain a fair, but inclusive, balance between stableford and medal golf across the two courses. All you need to know will, of course, be communicated via the weekly newsletter.
I would like to welcome Terry, Steve and Warren to the committee, but also to extend a very warm welcome to anyone in the room, or reading the minutes, who is new to the Club or the Section and is feeling, “I don’t know anyone or I don’t know how it all works.” Rest assured, you are amongst friends and we will do everything in our power to welcome you to your first match, competition or roll up. If you are a veteran of all these things, I can assure you that things will continue to work as seamlessly as they do now. Whatever your circumstances, the Senior Section is a warm, welcoming, inclusive and supportive environment where we forge friendships on and off the course, have fun and make great golfing memories.
Finally… if I might embarrass someone in the room by reading his own words
Mr Gordon Goodchild … please come to the front for a brief moment in the spotlight.
David read out the following message from Gordon
It is with considerable regret that I have advised Wendy that I
will not be renewing my membership for 2026. As you can imagine after 40 years
this was quite a difficult decision. However, the deterioration in my general
mobility over the past year has seen my standard of golf move from very
disappointing to embarrassing and approaching my 85th year I am convinced this
is the sensible decision.
In my mid thirties I was persuaded to try golf and was attracted
to the game because I considered it to be an honest sport - a quality that is
increasingly disappearing in many other sports. Having been ‘deprived ‘for so
long my first challenge was to be able to walk a course. On reflection this was
always uppermost in my mind and golf although enjoyable and challenging was
incidental which led to many golfing defects most of which stayed with me.
I have nothing but praise for all the staff, the members I have met and the
friends I have made. The many happy hours spent at the club remain a lasting
memory. I can say with certainty that I have never played with a member who I
would not be happy to play with again. I cannot claim a deal of competition
success although I do still have a small glass which says Mid Week medal winner
and on just one occasion finished runner up in the division 3 stableford. Some
success in the Senior section with a stableford win (Honours board no less) two
four ball wins and part of a winning Texas scramble team. Perhaps the highlight
was my hole in one on Carthegena 11 in May 2022, had to wait
until after my 81st for that
Mr Gordon Goodchild. Thank you for your loyalty to this Club and
to our Section and for being exactly the sort of person we should all strive to
be.
At this point David presented Gordon with a small gift and a citation marking his long membership of the section.
15 Address by the Honorary Secretary - Tony Lloyd
Thank you
for electing me as your Secretary for the year.
I’m looking
forward to getting back behind the computer to write the newsletter.
Please keep
an eye out for it every Sunday morning so you know what’s coming up. And with
my other hat on please keep checking the Blog for regular reports on what we
get up to
Also If you
have any friends who are interested in joining in our activities do put them in
touch with me. I will send them some welcome information and put them on the
mailing list for the Newsletter. They are then welcome to take part in all of
our events and activities during the year.
If anyone
has any points that they wish to be discussed at a Committee Meeting then they
are welcome to contact me and I will add the item to our next agenda.
16: Address by the Treasurer: Nothing further to add
17: Address by the Trophy Custodian
Bailiff Shield
The Bailiff Shield, our largest trophy shield, lacks space for new cartouches. I have asked senior member Jim Kerr to have a look at the trophy with a view to designing and building an addition to the shield which will prolong its’ life.
The Baz Backhouse is unfortunately again in 3 pieces. This is a matter for discussion at the next Seniors Committee meeting.
Swap Day - Stoke Rochford: 2026
Confirmed in the Club Diary for 5th October 2026.
Richard has previously invited their Senior Captain and their swap day organiser to a meeting at John O Gaunt to set things in motion and to discuss arrangements. I have asked them for their availability and will arrange the meeting in the near future. Following this meeting I will commence with the finer details of the swap day and update you on the entry date and arrangements when they are confirmed.
I would like to thank everyone on the Committee for your support and encouragement in my endeavours in 2025. Thank you also to all the Seniors Section members for your support throughout the year. I will do my utmost to serve your best interests in the coming year.
18: Address by the Competition Secretary - Nigel Underwood
· To continue to encourage and facilitate the widest possible participation in our Senior’s competitions.
· To ensure the changes to the individual competitions, both the additions to the Rex Bullock and the Bailiff Shield and divisional prizes across most other individual competitions bed in smoothly.
19 Address by the Match Secretary - Algy Grimes
Having
now been in post for two years, I look forward to arranging matches again for a
third term. We continue to use the system developed by Alban Macdonald which is
proving its worth, the reports I can generate are most useful in ensuring fair
selections throughout the season. We have around 30
players signed up already for the first tranche of matches, last year at this
stage we had around 50 signed up.
Those of
you that have signed up should all have received an email from Google sheets
with this heading;
|
|
Thanks for filling in this form: JoG senior section, club match
registration - 2026 season.
|
|
You’re receiving this email because you filled in the
following form using your email address. Make sure that you recognise and
trust this form before copying or clicking on any links. If it looks
suspicious, report it. The content of this form is not created or endorsed by
Google. |
Here's what was received.
Please ensure you have saved it, and then you can use the tab ‘Edit response’ to sign up for future tranches. Never sign up as new a second time; you wouldn’t believe the issues it causes.
When it comes to selections, we will aim to make them as even as possible to give around a 60% success rate of your choices. To repeat myself, you are asked to sign up for at least two home and two away matches over the year as a minimum, last year we had to refuse some being able to play their choices because they did not meet the minimum sign up. I will be taking this into account throughout the year as other tranches open. There will be no restrictions for selection to Brocket Hall and Luffenham Heath away matches, but no Jokers can be played for these two fixtures.
Withdrawals are always a concern so changing to the tranche system for the last two years seemed to work slightly better than previously. We have had fewer withdraw, although still quite high. I trust that this year there will be even fewer drop out once selected, people should be able to manage their diaries over the shorter time scales to keep this to a minimum. In due course I will give the selections to each Match Organiser and they will be in 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.
A huge thank you must go to Alban Macdonald for all the time he has spent working on our system.
One last thing, unfortunately, due to an increase in prices from the club, the cost per match will be going up to £26.00 for both home and away matches.
Should you have any issues do feel free to contact me after the AGM and I will answer as best I can.
20: Captain David thanked everyone for their attendance and closed the meeting
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