Captain’s Corner
I have been incredibly lucky to be Captain in our 40th anniversary year and have been overwhelmed by the support you have given me.
My Captains Day at Harleyford has been the highlight of the year so far but there have been many others. The weather was amazing and Harleyford did us proud on the day. Surprisingly most of the winners were from Harleyford but congratulations to John Pettitt for being the winner of the Brian Roake Trophy. I have received many compliments about the day,particularly from our guests, and all mentioned the half-way house provided by my wife Sue and our lady friends.
Another highlight was my Captains Tour at Belton Woods. Despite the rain on the Tuesday the 20 of us had a really good time although it was tiring for some. There was a 3 way tie for the Miners lamp with Alan Rose winning on countback. I would encourage more of you to participate in the tour to experience the golf, venue and banter that makes it really enjoyable.
The first event of the year was our 40th anniversary meeting at Buckingham GC. I booked this for the exact day of the anniversary at the same venue. I had invited 5 of the existing founder members but in the end none could come due to holiday or illness. Sadly founder member Alan Wells died in July and Lucky Bali is now in a home. Also Jim Shepherd has recently died and that leaves Mick Greaves as the only founder member still playing and Mick gave a toast to the Association at my captains day dinner. Then just recently Fred Pritchett died aged 98. Fred was a founder member and Roy Matthews sent me the following
“Found out today at BBGC about Fred who was the Club Treasurer for many years. I used to pick him up when I was on the ABGC Committee and he was ABGC Treasurer as he lived in Beaconsfield and when I took him home he always got out the whiskey which a group of them used to buy, a very strong specialist scotch and ‘demanded’ that I had a drink! I don’t remember how I got the ½ mile home after some of those evenings! He mentioned that he was to resign, as he was moving to Surrey initially, at one of our internal meetings at Mentmore in 2001 when I was Captain and I asked for anyone who would take on the job to speak to me and Derek Williams was the first to volunteer. How time flies .I shall always remember him with great affection, he had a great accountancy mind and was well known at the Club as well as ABGC for his Treasurer’s reports from the back of an envelope!, but our finances were always in his good hands.”
The most amazing highlight was our win at Wychavon GC in the 4 Counties South match in July. The winning team is on the front cover with Roger and Rod proudly showing their overall trophy gained with 50 pts. I thought Brian and my 47 pts was going to win it!.We achieved 219 pts which was 11 more than Oxford in second place.It didn’t work out so well in the 4 Counties North where we came third just losing out to Hertfordshire for second place and the Harleyford Trophy by 1 point.
The past Captains competition was held at Ealing which turned out to be quite tough on the day. Brian Rogers just pipped John Ketley with 30 pts. John Pettitt and Louisa Barrego won the Ladies competition at Harleyford and Mark Williams and Liz won the Mixed at Drayton Park.
We have done quite well in matches this year. We have won 4, halved 2 away matches and lost 4. With just 1 match left together with our Autumn/AGM meeting at Woburn, the season is almost done.
I would like to thank all the team managers, the players and reserves, many of whom filled in at short notice. Without you we would not have much of an association. Please read David’s notes on this point in his report and I would like to thank him most sincerely for his hard work and assistance during the year and wish him well as Captain next year.
Peter