Attendance:
Algy Grimes (AG), Jonathan Lean (JL), B ill Walker
(BW), Richard Coventry (RC), Richard Westergreen – Thorne (RWT)
Apologies: Andy Shilton (AS)
Mike Tipper and Tom Simm
Mike and Tom attended the early part of the meeting and discussed matters of general interest. Tom confirmed that he will set aside the studio again for the Senior Captain's Day. Tom also said that he will be looking for volunteers from amongst the club membership for ball spotting at the forthcoming Pro Am competition on 23rd May.
Mike was welcomed to his new role as club Vice Captain. As part of the discussion, he outlined to the committee that the club is 75 years old in 2023 and that more information about the planned events will be forthcoming later. Mike also referred to discussions to align the terms of office of the four Captains within the club. Mike was informed that we were having problems obtaining monies from competitions and matches from the club (see below).
Minutes of Previous Meeting
Agreed as a true record of the meeting:
Proposed by Algy Grimes and seconded by Jonathan Lean and agreed unanimously.
Matters arising
not on the agenda
New Auditor – Trevor Darrington has
kindly agreed to take on the role of Auditor
Captain's Report (AG)
It has been a very good start to my year as Captain; we have played our match with the Ladies where there were some very good scores, especially the 48 points by Robert Isaacson and Hilary Pearmain. This was followed the next week with our first Seniors Competition, 4BBB trophy, again a good scoring competition where 40 points won it for Michael Newstead and Andy Brown. Our next main competition was played today, the Rex Bullock.
The start of our interclub matches has resulted in a close loss (4.5/3.5) at Bedford and County where we were all treated to a drink courtesy of Terry Sweeney’s Hole in One. The next game saw us playing Saffron Walden at home, a very close match as it ended in a draw (4/4). The home match with Wellingborough last week did see us secure our first win of the season, (6/2).
Brian Gill
It is with enormous thanks to Karen Gill for the amazing gesture in donating the proceeds from the sale of Brian’s golf scooter to my Captains Charity. This has made an incredible start to the fundraising efforts towards Sepsis Trust; I cannot thank Karen enough, very generous of her.
The fundraising has also been given a lift with the proceeds from the sale of Ken Doggrell’s trolley.
At the last Golf sub-committee, it was suggested by Ladies Captain Hazel, that I invite senior ladies to sign up to our section to enable them to play in our competitions, I have held off doing this until raising it with this committee. There was also a discussion about the rules of each of the Sections as well as the club, I believe Andy Shilton is looking into this.
I clarified with Michael, that under the rules of golf, it is permissible to play stoke play competitions in 4 balls, Therefore I would like to make the Seniors Captains Day a 4 ball shotgun start similar to what David Gauge did a few years ago.
Something that Gordon would like us to consider is
a Memorial Space/Legacy initiative, not solely because we have had a request by
John Ellary’s family to add a ‘tribute’ to him on the course. Their ideas
include;
1) Block paved area and each block could have the
members name on it (Disney does something like this before you enter the theme
park and so does the Atlanta Olympic Park)
2) A trophy/ shield/ plate for the juniors to
compete in winning yearly as dad enjoyed playing along with the junior members
and enjoyed seeing their skills develop
3) A summerhouse/ hut on the course (I remember
seeing a few there when we were allowed to walk on the course during lockdown)
that has a dedicated wall to put small plaques up and for golfers to sit and
have a quiet moment
4) a small garden area with plaques in the flowers
Action Points:
Following discussion it was agreed that AG should continue the dialogue with the club regarding memorials/legacies and report back at the next meeting.
JL will set up the Senior Captains Day as a fourball event with a shotgun start.
It was agreed that AG would not initiate a specific invite to Ladies as it is already agreed that competitions are open to all seniors within the club and entries for all our competitions are labelled as such.
Vice Captain's Report (JL)
JL briefly reported to the committee on the members he has been in
contact with and where cards have been sent.
Treasurer's Report (RC)
The seniors currently have around £2,000 in the bank alongside the
monies so far collected for the captain’s charity.
RC reported that the club have yet to hand over funds collected via the
club system to the seniors for the competitions and matches played to date this
year. RC has an up-to-date record of transactions but needs the payments of
funds with the club to be processed and paid. RC will not make any payments to
the club until the matter is resolved and invoices paid.
Mike Tipper has been informed of our concern (see above) which was also
an issue in 2021.
Hon. Secretary's Report (RWT)
After
several weeks with no new members joining the Senior Section we have had three
people join in the past week or so. One by contacting myself, one new member of
the club via Gordon and one long standing club member who signed up for a
competition and so I contacted him. This gives us a current list of 220 seniors
who receive the weekly newsletter.
I have taken
off the list several people where I have been made aware that they are no
longer at JOG but I am yet to go through the club membership list and compare
with our list for a final check. As a reference point, we ended 2021 with just
over 190 members.
We have
completed the matches with new members that we organised and many thanks for
helping by taking part. The feedback I have received was very positive and it
is a very effective way to engage with new members who would like to get to
know people and ask questions, etc. One game was not able to be held for a
range of reasons but both new members were happy to cancel rather than wait
until later in the year.
I have been
working on the Calendar for 2023 and have had contact with all the clubs we
play with. As always things are fine until there needs to be a change which can
lead to a domino effect if not careful.
Current
challenges are:
-
Wellingborough
cannot come to us when they usually do as their club have decided to introduce
an event that cuts across it. I am still trying to find a solution.
-
As
for the need to move the Senior Captains Day that we have discussed as JOG is
hosting a national competition in its normal slot, I have proposed the solution
we agreed to move the date by a couple of weeks. This has been accepted by
Michael in principle but he will not look at the 2023 club calendar in detail
until August and so we cannot get confirmation until then.
I have been in contact with Northampton about the
arrangements and catering options, etc.for the Swap Day which we are holding
this year for the first time and we have this on the agenda for discussion. We
have also agreed a date in 2023 for a Swap Day with St Ives.
The Newsletter continues to generate a number of emails each
week from members and there is always a big spike in entries for competitions
each time it is published. I am also very pleased to see that the blog
continues to get hundreds of hits each month. Tony Lloyd is also doing an
excellent job putting news items on to the club website to raise our profile
and reach fellow seniors with what is going on.
Competition Secretary's Report (JL)
Since the last meeting we have had the
following competitions.
The Green Tilley Singles Knockout and
the Foursomes Knockout are up and running.
Greensomes with the Ladies. A bit of nimble footwork needed to get the
right numbers, but we got there in the end.
Sadly, I had to miss out and keep myself in reserve. This was won by Robert Isaacson and Hilary
Pearmain with 48 points!
4BBB Trophy. This was won by Michael Newstead and Andy
Brown with 40 points.
Jock Allan Prostate Cancer Charity Day. This was won by Ian Riches and Andy Brown
with 49 points!
The Rex Bullock was played today. There were 14 on the reserve list who we
could have accommodated if it had been changed to a one tee start. 81 players competed.
The next competition is the Ken
Robinson Scramble on 3rd May.
This is limited to 92 entrants playing in teams of 4. 2 tee start at 10 minute intervals.
As decided, I have now changed the
Annual Medal Trophy and Jubilee Trophy, the Rex Cleaver Championship Trophy and
the Annual Stableford to be a one tee start from 7.30am with a limit of 102
players. If these fill up, then I will
change future relevant ones to be the same format.
I have not been inundated with
volunteers to take over Competitions Secretary duties next year.
The role of Competitions Secretary was
discussed and JL will take away several suggestions to follow up.
Match Secretary's Report (AS)
Matches are now underway with three having been played to date and four more matches to played in April.
Match Results
We started with a narrow loss against Beds & County, improved on that with a draw against Saffron Walden, and finally got an entry into the win column last Tuesday with a comprehensive routing of Wellingborough.
We have fielded teams easily for all games with minimal changes to the selected squads. Future squad numbers look to be healthy. The only match which is slightly short of numbers is Cambridge Country Club at home, but I’ve got some reserves up my sleeve so I’m comfortable.
Due to Covid I’ve had requests to not dine at a couple of games. This is due to players having to have negative PCR tests before flying off on holiday. I have agreed that this is acceptable and asked the match organisers to discuss this with the opposition. This seems to me to be part of the new reality of post covid life. I would welcome any thoughts on this point, and I’m sure we will get feedback from the opposition clubs.
Things to improve.
I need to find a better way of sharing the squad selections than the Excel Spreadsheet as a number of our members were unable to access it. I’ve had conversations with Tony Lloyd and Michael Grace about securing a place on the web-site. This is not possible on the current site but may be on the new version which should be live shortly. Once we’ve migrated to the new site I will discuss again with Michael. If this doesn’t come to fruition then I will find a way of publishing the Matrix in a more user friendly form.
Some of the Match Organiser communication (with me) could be improved, particularly closing down the post-match tasks, but this will come with familiarity.
Other observations
It appears we are charging more for our meals than other clubs. For example Beds & County was under £17. I will keep a note of this as we go through the year (where we get the information).
Generally everything is under control with the next batches dues to be selected at the end of this month.
The report was discussed and it was agreed that it is difficult to
compare prices with other clubs on a similar basis. For example, some clubs
subsidise matches, some pay for prizes and tips in different ways, some hire in
outside caterers, etc. It was agreed that the cost of participating needs to be
monitored.
Immediate Past Captain's Report (BW)
Nothing to report.
Prostate
Day
A report was presented by BW
Lessons
learned
Acquisition
of Auction items:
- Much uncertainty regarding voucher policy: Who requests,
receives, allocates, by when?
- Auction item list needs to be finalised before auction goes live.
Running
the on-line Auction
- Interface between auction manager and Seniors’ Section web master
worked well but would be more efficient and effective if auction manager
could have web access.
- Connection procedure laptop to TV complex needs documenting.
- Did
chits on table work well enough? Need to publicise on Tables.
Payment
by winning bidders
Procedure
uncertain: when, to whom, by what means?
Other
aspects
Shotgun
start still resulted in time between first and last finishing over an hour apart.
More
help needed at end of round from non-playing members to:
- Check and collect cards. (Clearer instructions on card completion)
- Collate 2s Club results.
- Look after guests (Jock)
- Collect
collate Nearest Pin lists
Meal
arrangements still time consuming. Insisting on everyone finishing before meal
is served delayed proceedings by up to an hour and resulted in long queue at
servery.
Microphone
Very
unreliable. Needs to be repaired or replaced.
Tombola
Organisation
Tickets
were produced for 100 prizes without knowing how many prizes there were. This led
to some prizes being split into insignificant proportions.
BW was
thanked for his hard work on our behalf to support the organisers of the day.
Captain's
Charity and Honorarium
AG confirmed that the Longest Day
Charity Event for the four Captains within the club will take place this year
on 22nd June.
A discussion took place about the use
of the senior captain’s honorarium and associated bar card.
Action point:
AG to report back at the next
committee meeting on what he considers to be appropriate expenditure so that
the use of the honorarium and card can be agreed and confirmed.
A O B
AG reported that the Ladies have a Greenkeepers Revenge competition.
AG informed the meeting that it is permissible to hold Alternate Day Competitions
Date and time of next meeting
10 May after Annual Medal Comp
19 July after Annual Stableford Comp
30 August after Bailiff Shield Comp
11 Oct after Team Trophy
8 Nov after Roll Up before Bring and Win and discuss Annual Dinner
19 Jan 2023 (to discuss AGM) at 2.30pm
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