Present: David Barlow (DB), Terry Domagala (TD), Barry
Donovan (BD), Algy Grimes (AG), Jonathan Lean (JL), Tony Lloyd (TL), Steve
Mathers (SM), Nigel Underwood (NU), Dave Wood (DW).
Apologies: Warren Churms (WC)
1 Minutes of AGM and Matters Arising. Accepted with no
matters arising
2 Captain’s Report
House and Social.
·
Half way house ‘cabin’ for JOG has been
purchased. The existing shed will be demolished. New cabin to be assembled and
fitted out w/c 18th March. The hope is that it will be up and
running for the Captains’ Putt Out / Drive Off Scramble on Saturday 28th
March. Plan is to have a few chairs and table inside and out, bistro style
The plan is to establish JOG first and learn lessons, assess the demand etc.
·
Remaining chairs for the bar area to be
delivered c19th February.
·
Various social night in planning including a
Race Night, singer (Stacey) etc.
·
Cellar upgrade being done 23rd/24th
February.
·
Bar prices adjusted +5%. Corkage prices adjusted
too.
·
Capital register created of all the Club’s
assets over £2.5k. Similarly, a full audit and inventory of all trophies will
be taking place in April (Dave W)
Golf
·
The call for volunteer marshals has gone
out. Around 19 volunteers so far. Likely
to be retired seniors who might be interested?
I have seen the list.
There is a benefits package of credit to
bar account / reduction of membership fee - to be confirmed. This is NOT a
wage, it is a reward / recognition
Weekend mornings and then random patterns of shifts in the week to catch
non-payers
Idea is to create a pool of people who might be assigned other roles e.g.
starters, ball collection. No number set on how many we might need. Needs to be
the right kind of person!
Soft launch 1st March. Full implementation 1st April
·
Agenda item about 6 card requirements for Club
competitions from 2027.
Long term aim is to go to 8, then 10 I believe.
I think I understand how the Club is managing it. There are one or two problems
between England Golf and IG. We can discuss the practicalities and potential
pitfalls.
·
Handicap reviews have taken place. Winners of
knockouts adjusted. (Algy) +
·
Course work.
A few comments from members along the lines of, ”…why weren’t we told?”
It’s not always practical for Nigel B to tell all parties about what is
actually going to happen each day as it is often last minute and down to the
weather and course conditions.
·
Possibility of season opening video(s) on things
like….”where to leave the bunker rake?” Contentious.
Also a possibility of a rules seminar built up on real JOG / Carthagena
rulings.
·
Nigel T is in talks with Top Tracer and Trackman
for the warm up bays / range.
The warm up area is doing really well.
On track for £15K in year 1.
The return on the investment is expected 7-10 years.
5000 new Titleist golf balls purchased. All
existing stock to be replaced. Do not put your own balls in there!
·
Work underway on design for new putting green
for Carthagena. Flat!
Hopefully ready at the end of this golf year.
Charity.
·
Lorna (Jerome) has clarified the splits of money
from 2025/26
10% to Pauline Aubigne Community Fund to give us something to work with in
2026. All other monies go to Alzheimer’s. Feeling was that the membership has
not been properly told where their donations were going to in 2025. This has
been clarified for 2026/27
·
40% to go to St John’s Hospice, Moggerhanger
40% to go to The Garden House Hospice, Letchworth.
20% to go to the PACF.
·
Alzheimer’s and the two hospices will be
attending the Putt Out / Drive Off Captains Scramble on Saturday 28th
March (me, Terry, Tony and Algy - camera
please?)
Electronic bag tags
DB outlined discussions taking place at club level around the possible
introduction of electronic bag tags to monitor course usage and
pace of play
4 Immediate past Captain’s Report None
5 Treasurer’s report (BD)
Cash position at end of Feb is £17,168.
Very little activity yet this year but final payments are
starting to come through for Nottinghamshire Tour. 16 of the 27 have paid fully
now - payment to the agent is due end of March.
I await a response from the Main club on the accruals
carried forward from 2024.
Book keeping is transferred to Spreadsheets from Manual
ledgers . This provides more flexibility in providing ongoing analysis of
Income and expenditure- particularly when Matches and Competitions start. The
learning process will hopefully help the ultimate transition to an on line
accounting package - probably in 2027.
Final budget is attached with a full breakdown for each
match , Competition and Event. Those responsible for each event should make
themselves familiar with the details in this report and they should advise me
of significant variations.
Bank Account. Initial re-review of the market has
highlighted that the options for us are limited. A formal legal status needs to
be clarified if we are to progress as a 'Business' or a 'Community Club'.
Further work is necessary for this but it seems the 'new generation' banks are
not interested !
Luffenham have confirmed non reciprocal basis for 2026.
B&C and St Neots - I believe are also non reciprocal.
First of all I would like to thank all Senior Section
members for the send-off I was given at the
AGM – the end of my captaincy year - and the incredibly generous gift of
pro shop credit.
My first job as Secretary was to compile the minutes of the
meeting and publish them on the blog. With my other hat on, as Blog Editor, I
also published a report of the AGM with photos.
I have published contact details of all committee members as
well as posting them on the Seniors notice board.
I have also contacted all the clubs we play in matches to
share the same information and informed Millbrook that, sadly, we will not be
able to include them in our fixtures after this year because of calendar
congestion.
I have published a “competitions special” outlining the
changes to our 2026 events as agreed by the committee. Thanks to Nigel for
masterminding the changes.
I have now begun compiling a draft calendar for 2027 and
will be once again contacting the clubs we play in matches to agree dates with
them. Once dates for the matches and competitions are firmed up I will ask
Nigel Tarn to approve the calendar.
I have signed up one new member - Ian Dockerill, who is an existing club
member.
Tuesday of
this week saw the first competitive activity of this season, the Greensomes
with the ladies. 34 pairs battled it out over the JoG and the first card to be
returned proved to be the winning one. Third were Jed Isbell and Olga Ebsworth
(3pts), 2nd were Barry Donovan and Margaret Budgen (37) , winners
with 38 points were David Barlow and Jackie Lansdown.
The knockout
draws are scheduled to take place on March 4th along with the draw
for the 4 ball better ball which is the next competition, taking place next
Tuesday ,March 10th. At time of writing, there are 87 entrants with
a limit of 92.
The next
competitions thereafter are;
· The Rex Bullock Stableford and Peter
Imray Medal Trophy on April 7th (entry opens March 10th)
· The Jock Allan Prostate Cancer Day on
April 13th (79 entered, maximum 100)
· The Ken Robinson Scramble (entry
opens 31st March, maximum 92 entrants).
I will be
away in Egypt from March 12th to 24th inclusive (the
situation in the Gulf permitting !) ,
but will remain contactable by email if necessary, although there is a pause in
competitions now and I will be back well ahead of the next one.
Well here we are with a new season upon us, sign up for
matches has been a bit slow so far with only 49 entrants, 4 of which have not
signed up for any of the Tranche 1 matches.
Having said that all matches are well covered with the
exception of at home to Cambridge Country Club on 21st April, only
15 signed up as yet so will need to seek a few more.
Bailiff (Spring
Stableford Trophy)
DW outlined plans
for a new trophy – the Gordon Goodchild Trophy – following a generous offer
from Gordon after the AGM.
Competition is on
October 20th 2026.
New trophy will be
ready for the Insurance process
Peter Imray
Medal Trophy.
Has been purchased
by Peter and I have arranged to have it engraved “The Peter Imray Medal Jug”. I
have asked Jim Kerr to fashion a plinth and he is now in possession of the
trophy.
Peter has asked me
to send him the invoices for the plinth and engraving as he wishes to pay for
them – should the Seniors pay for this?
Competition is on 7th
April 2026.
Trophy will be
ready for presentation and for the Insurance audit process.
Baz Backhouse
trophy
Jim Kerr has asked
to be given a chance to examine the trophy with a view to making suitable
repairs to it if it is possible. I will get the trophy to him as soon as Trevor
Darrington has returned it to the club. If repair is not possible I intend to
utilise the 2017 Baz Backhouse trophy and to adapt it to fit the current
plinth, ( Using Jim Kerr again) in readiness for the Audit process.
Insurance
Audit Process
I have emailed all
holders of outstanding trophies to return them before the end of March 2026.
Trophies have to be in placed in the new trophy room before Monday 13th
April 2026.
10 Swap Days
Swap day 2026 –
Stoke Rochford Golf Club 5th October 2026
Confirmed at both
clubs and in diaries.
Awaiting suitable
dates from Darrell Knight for meeting at JOG to kick off arrangements.
Swap day 2027 –
Essendon Golf Club 11th October 2027
I have established
contact with Simon Harden their organiser, confirming the date and inviting
meetings at both clubs to kick off the arrangements.
Pending clubs for Swap Day
The Bedfordshire
This club would welcome a swap day in 2028
Brickenden Grange
Awaiting reply from this club with regards to 2028 and beyond
Spalding
Interested in a swap day 2028 and beyond
Wellingborough
Interested in a
swap day 2028 and beyond
11 Away Days
Action point: SM to seek meeting with Richard
Coventry for advice on running away days – this year to be held at Rutland
Water – and with Warren Churms to investigate a venue for 2027. SM also to
invite past senior captains to the Past Captains and Committee Away Day at
Rutland Water on June 4.
12 Qualifying cards for 2027 competitions
It was agreed that the Senior Section would adopt the club’s
policy of insisting entrants to all competitions from Jan 2027 have entered at
least six qualifying cards in the previous 12 months.
13 Senior Section’s 50th anniversary
2027 is the Senior Section’s 50th anniversary and
it was decided to mark the event with a special day including golf, catering
and entertainment.
Action point: TL to seek initial advice from Nigel
Tarn on the possibilities of an extra event in addition to our usual calendar.
Members asked to come to the next meeting with ideas for the event.
14 AOB
TL had been asked whether pick, clean and place (or drop)
could be extended to the rough at the twice-weekly roll-up. It was decided to
seek Bill Walker’s opinion.
Dates of future meetings
Thurs April 9
Thurs May 7
Thurs June 4
Thurs June 11
Thurs July 2
Thurs Aug 6
Thurs Sep 10
Thurs Oct 8
Thurs Nov 5
Thurs Dec 3
Thurs Jan 7 tbc
Tues Dec 2 AGM tbc
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