Notes of the Senior Section Committee Meeting
8th November 2022
Attendance:
Algy Grimes (AG), Jonathan Lean (JL), Bill Walker (BW), Richard Coventry (RC), Richard Westergreen – Thorne (RWT), Tony Lloyd (TL) Andy Shilton (AS)
Apologies: Tom Simm (TS) and Mike Tipper (MT) sent their apologies
MT had been in discussion with AG prior to the meeting and AG updated the meeting regarding the Swap Day and Charity weekend.
Minutes previous and matters arising
Agreed with no matters arising not on the agenda.
Action Points from the previous meeting:
- meeting with Rob Bage was deferred
- reciprocal arrangements for matches
AG reported that the discussion related to one off events and not our matches with other clubs. We will need to be aware if the Swap Day goes ahead.
- Swap Day
AG updated the meeting on the current position where a proposal endorsed by MT, Lorna Jerome and AG would be going to the club committee for agreement in the near future.
- New Members Liaison role
It was confirmed that we would wish to have this new role in place for the new golf season. It will be an ex officio role that will be advertised to members. RWT will produce a draft role description and circulate to the committee. Once agreed we will seek expressions of interest amongst the membership with a view for the role being in place by the AGM.
- Courtesy Membership
Following email discussion amongst the committee it was agreed not to proceed with this idea.
- Dunstable Downs (DD)
RWT outlined the latest correspondence regarding DD and the circumstances leading up to DD not playing us in 2023.
Captain’s Report (AG)
Autumn Stableford Trophy – 18th October High scores were the order of the day on a beautiful autumn day for the Autumn Stableford Trophy played from the Carthagena white tees. The winner was Jeevie Jeeves with 41 points. In second place, on 40 points was Peter Wade, who scored 11 points on the last three holes alone. In third place, also on 40 points was Anthony Bell, whose game highlight was a birdie on the par 5 10th. Seven other players scored 36 points or more. Match v the Junior Section – 25th October. The Seniors meet some formidable opponents during the year, but rarely are they faced with such stiff opposition as John O’Gaunt’s very own juniors. Today was no exception. A total of five matches were played in good spirits on a fine October Tuesday. Conditions were very pleasant with the JOG Course looking as good as usual. Sue Lee welcomed everyone and thanked them for participating with a friendly smile on their faces, even if the Seniors were quietly grimacing to themselves! The trophy, which has been played for since 1982, was won very convincingly by the Juniors, some of them a joy to watch. One of those Juniors was only 8 years old and what a game he had, remember the name, Albert Watts! I announced the result as a whitewash defeat for the Seniors and presented the trophy to the Juniors Vice Captain, Nathan Church.
Annual Stableford Trophy – 26th October The Annual Stableford Trophy, postponed this summer because of a high-temperature weather warning, was finally played with 59 of the original field competing on the John O’Gaunt course. The conditions were perfect, but the course was playing quite long with some entrants falling prey to the autumn leaves. The winner, with 39 points, was Keith Fuller. In second place, with 36 points, was Peter Jarman and in third place, with 33 points, was Ian Simpson.
The result also decided the Golfer of the Year competition with Barry Donovan coming out on top with 77 points. Although Barry failed to record a first place in any of the qualifying competitions, his sheer consistency paid off. In second place was Club Captain Rob Bage, on 62 points, followed by Richard Herbert, 59, Peter Imray, 58, and Richard Cobb, 52.
Scramble with the Ladies Section – 1st November Sunshine and showers - or should that be squalls? - greeted ladies and seniors playing on the John O’Gaunt course. But the conditions failed to dampen the spirits of the 88 entrants in this ever-popular scramble. Four teams scored nett 60 points but on countback third place went to Christine Billington, Stuart Gardner, David McNair and Rhona Stallard. In second place, also on 60 points, was Clive Bassindale, Anna Hoad, Paul Jones and Hilary Pearmain. But the winners, on nett 59 points, were Val Cooper, David Crosby, Nigel Underwood and Graham Lewis. Thanks to David for finding his feminine side by standing in at the last minute for a lady who had to drop out.
Unofficial “gentlemen of the day” prize went to yours truly for breaking into a rare sprint in pursuit of Lorna’s brolly! The raffle raised £260 to be shared between the Ladies’ and Seniors’ captain’s charities. A great atmosphere in the clubhouse with so many around for the presentation.
Swap Day The proposal has now been seconded by Club Captain Rob Bage and I think there will be no objections to follow and we await the outcome of the GCM confirmation. Donation of a 4-ball voucher for Cambridge Country Club - A relatively new member, Jed Isbell, is donating a 4 ball voucher for auction, the result of the highest bidder will be announced at the ‘Bring & Win’ day. Bids to be emailed to me by the 14th November, if there are more than one bid on the same highest amount, I will give them the opportunity of increasing their bid and if still the same I propose we have a draw for the winner.
Vice Captain’s Report (JL)
JL briefly outlined his contact with members since the last meeting.
Immediate Past Captain’s report
BW had nothing to report.
Treasurer's Report (RC)
RC explained that we are waiting for a number of invoices to be settled by the club and it was agreed that AG/RC would follow this up.
Otherwise, all is fine with the accounts and our balances.
RC is to have a discussion with another member shortly who has expressed an interest to take over the Treasurer role for 2023.
RC will organise an end of year gratuity for staff as is our usual practice.
Secretary’s Report (RWT)
At the last meeting I reported an increase in our membership due to the club opening some 5-day membership places to those on the waiting list for club membership. Several more new members have materialised since the last meeting and a number have attended the roll up. We also had an existing club member join our mailing list so we are up to 235 and will cross reference this with club membership in the new year when 2023 club fees have been paid.
With the withdrawal of Dunstable Downs from the match list and addition of Northampton being agreed we are now able to finalise our calendar. I have copied it to you as part of the agenda and would welcome an ‘expert gaze’ from the rest of the committee to see if there are any errors before I send it out to members.
The change to Northampton has skewed further the balance of home and away matches but we had no real choice given the lateness of the change and I appreciate Michael Grace helping to find a day that worked for us and the club for the home fixture as a one off. The good news is that we will need to find a Tuesday for the home game the following year. We will also need to switch St Neots, who kindly changed because of the 75th anniversary celebrations in 2023, and Michael and I hope to find a better day for the Beds and County game which is always affected by courseworks. This may give some flexibility to adjust the balance and I will attempt to start early on this to get ahead of other clubs getting other commitments in place.
As a rough guide I think that around 175 people have taken part in our competitions and matches this year. Whilst most people have participated multiple times, I noticed that there were 24 people who only played in just one GOTY event and it may be worth considering if there was something that we needed to be aware of to encourage greater participation.
Other items are covered elsewhere on the agenda.
Competition Secretary’s Report (JL)
Since the last meeting we have had the following competitions.
The Gordon Percival took place on 11 th October. There were 87 in the secret team competition with one spare who just played in the Martin Ives. The Martin Ives was won by Chris Roy with 39 points, second was John Sandland with 38 points and third was Graham Lewis with 37 points.
The Gordon Percival Secret Team winners were George Burnham, Clive Bassindale and James Stirling.
The Autumn Stableford Trophy took place on 18 th November with 87 entries and one late withdrawal. This was won by Jeevie Jeeves with 41 points. Second was Peter Wade with 40 points and third was Anthony Bell also with 40 points.
The rearranged Annual Stableford took place on 26 th October. Because entry was limited to those who were due to play on the original date and also because the revised date was not suitable for some of the entrants, we ended up with only 60 players and 2 late withdrawals. This was won by Keith Fuller with 39 points. Second was Peter Jarman with 36 points and third was Ian Simpson with 33 points. Only 2 players played to their handicap or better reflecting the difficult conditions on the day.
Although technically a match rather than a competition, the Seniors took on the Juniors on 25th October and came a close second in every match! A whitewash.
The Annual Seniors and Ladies scramble took place on 1 st November. Slight controversy when the winning team of Val Cooper, Nigel Underwood, Graham Lewis and David Crosby won with net 59. David stepped in at the last minute to replace a late withdrawal of one of the ladies.
Upcoming are the last 2 competitions – The Arthur Lucas Bring and Win and the Christmas Fayre. So far we have 66 entered for the Bring and Win so Shotgun start is no problem.
The Christmas Fayre is on CAR and because of the work on the 16th , I have discussed this issue with Michael and agreed that this competition should not be a Qualifying competition. As a rule, winter competitions should not be qualifying after around mid-November. The 16th will have a temporary tee at the top of the slope and will play at between 180 to 200 yards. As this is a fun competition, we can allow players to play this hole and Stableford points will still be calculated, but it will still show as a par 4 on the system.
I have now changed both of these competitions to be non-qualifying.
Action:
After discussion it was agreed that JL, TL and RWT would arrange for a list of the Senior Section 2022 winners is circulated to all members via the newsletter.
Match Secretary’s Report (AS)
We have now completed our matches successfully fielding full teams in all games.
Our final set of 6 matches had 5 away games in them and unfortunately, we won 1, drew 1, and lost 4, including finishing with a whitewash at Leighton Buzzard. This meant that our season ended with 9 wins, 4 draws but 13 losses. The final 6 results skewed the overall picture considerably.
We have used 59 players of the 73 registered on the system. Everyone that wanted to play got games. Though some of the members with lower availability only played in 50% of the games they put themselves in for.
Things to improve.
We need to improve the use of the technology by our organisers to aid communication, but most importantly we need to get our selection and team sheets posted somewhere that everyone can find it. If we could get a spot on the web-site then it would help this process greatly. I will be renewing efforts.
Other observations
From anecdotal observation at £22 we have been the most expensive team for our members of any. Considerably more than the £17 that Leighton Buzzard get charged.
I believe that in every match we have given away more shots than we have received. Sometimes many more.
There was a discussion about the points raised by the report and this included discussion about match fees. We do seem to be about the most expensive of the clubs we play but it is difficult to compare like with like. For example, some clubs have a halfway house where their members pay for refreshments on top of their match fee, we make a small contribution from our match fees to senior’s funds, menus are different at each club, etc.
There was also a discussion about the number of people dropping out of matches after being selected to play. Whilst some withdrawals will be unavoidable there does seem to be more cases of withdrawals than in the past. This will be factored in to the communications with members for 2023 and monitored during the year.
Action:
It was agreed that RWT and AS will liaise about publicising matches for 2023 and encouraging members old and new to take part.
It was agreed that we would like to have a fixed cost for match meals in 2023 with a choice within this price as this will make the administration easier for both the club and the seniors. AG subsequently raised this with the General Manager and the club will get back to us.
Annual Dinner and Trophies
Dave Wood (DW) attended for this item and outlined the current position regarding numbers and the arrangements for the evening.
It was agreed that the Roll Up organisers who are not committee members should be invited to attend if there were available places.
RC outlined the arrangements for the prizes and the costings.
DW confirmed that all trophies are at the club at present and the Arthur Lucas winner needs to be asked to leave the trophy after the presentation for engraving.
Action:
AG subsequently met with the Ladies Captain and she has agreed that we can use the table centres prior to their dinner two days later.
AGM
RWT confirmed that the Notice of Meeting will be circulated at the beginning of December. The arrangements for the meeting will be the main item at the next committee meeting in January.
Prostate Day
Jim Kerr and Tony Goodson have written to the committee stating their intention to stand down from organising the day. It was agreed to minute the committee’s thanks for their hard work and efforts to make the day a success.
It is yet to be confirmed if, with the planned club charity weekend likely to take place in 2023, the event will be able to take place. AG agreed to follow up with the club as a matter of urgency.
BW and David Barlow would be willing to organise the event for 2023 on behalf of the club if it is given the go ahead and sufficient golf vouchers will be available for the auction.
Action:
To be returned to at the next meeting and as noted above, AG to follow up with the club.
Roll up
With the work taking place on the 16th on Carthagena it was confirmed that:
In the roll up we play the 16th as a par three with the same handicap index as usual and scores should be recorded based on it being a par three so if you get a shot on the hole then a 3 is 3 points, a 4 is 2 points and so on.
RC raised the fact that whilst we do not run a roll up when we have a competition some members would probably like to play in a roll up if they were not taking part in the event. The current practice is to organise a roll up if there is not a seniors competition on that day or if the numbers taking part are relatively small such as the match v Juniors and the Away Day.
It was agreed that this would continue but that a note should be placed in the Newsletter to the effect that members, on those occasions, are welcome to go to the Conservatory and informally arrange a game amongst those who turn up.
Action:
As the next such event is next Tuesday RWT agreed to put such a note in the Newsletter this coming weekend and again whenever the same circumstances occurred in the future.
AOB:
Peter Imray asked that the committee consider changing the format of the Match v Juniors to a 4 Ball Betterball format. After discussion it was agreed that TL would discuss this with Sue Lee next year.
Chris Roy asked that we pass on a concern to the club about the slope of some of the bunkers when getting in and out of them. The committee agreed that we should monitor and raise with the club as necessary.
AG subsequently spoke with the General Manager on the matter whose view is that these are hazards of the course and people need to pay attention when near them.
Gerry Degaute raised a a point about having ‘Super Seniors’ tees to encourage older members to continue playing. This was discussed and AG subsequently raised with the General Manager who suggested AG raises the point with the Golf Committee.
Date and time of next meeting
19th Jan - major agenda item is the AGM.
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