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MATCH SECRETARY’S NOTES

Another year has almost passed. Where does the time go? This will be my final year as your Match Secretary, because next year, hopefully with the consent of members at the AGM, I will be your Captain. I regard it as a great honour to have been Match Secretary for the past two years and it will be an even greater honour if I am elevated to the captaincy.

As we know, it has been 40 years since the Association was founded, which was marked by a return to Buckingham Golf Club, where it all began. Normally, the Spring meeting is out of County, followed by an in-county meeting for the Autumn meeting. A venue such as Woburn, for our Autumn meeting in the 40th year of our existence is entirely fitting and we hope for a record turn out.

I have mentioned before the importance of reserves remaining available for matches, even though, they haven’t been selected for the actual match initially. That was even more important this year, when in our first few games of the season, we had members withdraw, having only made themselves available for selection a few weeks previously. Not only did we use up all of the reserves in these early matches, but we had to contact people on the ‘late list’, i.e. those members who are happy to contact them at short notice to see if they can play.

This really puts pressure on the Match Managers, who have to make many phone calls in order that the Association can produce a full complement of players. I can understand that difficulties can arrive at the end of season matches, because if you put your name down in January to play in a certain match, events can overtake you and make you unavailable when the date for the match arrives. But in April and May, to have so many members withdraw, was disappointing. I am very grateful to the Match Managers, some of whom were doing it for the first time, for all of their efforts and I am pleased to say that we produced a full team every time. So thanks also to those members who are happy to be contacted at short notice.

This brings me on to a touchy subject. Our rules say that members who drop out at late notice for any reason, will be asked to pay half of the match fee. This allows the replacement to only pay the other half of the match fee so that, overall, the Association still receives the full fee for each match. To me, this seems reasonable. However, in the past some members have felt that this is not reasonable, especially if they have had to withdraw for a very good reason, such as injury, family concerns etc. So, if you must withdraw, albeit when you receive your invitation or at late notice, please be considerate of the pressure you put on others.

For Match Managers, you need to be aware of this situation and if a member withdraws at late notice, you must make them conscious that they may have to pay half of the match fee as compensation. Too often, this is left to the Treasurer or Match Secretary to deal with, who may not be aware of the full story, and this also can cause unnecessary problems.

Overall, though I can say that I have very much enjoyed my year and I look forward to 2020.

I wish all of our Members good health and fortitude for next year.

 

David Liston