MATCH SECRETARY’S NOTES
I am sure there will be a number of members saying who is this “new boy” as David calls me. For those that don’t know me, I will provide a short synopsis. I am now in my 50th golfing year having started at the tender age of 9. My first club was Chesham and Ley Hill GC where I played both junior and intermediate golf before joining Whiteleaf GC in 1994 when I moved to Princes Risborough. I was given the honour of being WGC’s centenary captain in 2007 and currently sit on the board as chairman of greens. Playing off a handicap of 10, I enjoy playing in national competitions and qualified for the English Golf Captains Final at Woodhall Spa last year finishing 8th overall. Before I retired in 2017, I ran my own distribution company in Aylesbury with my wife Carolyn. I have two children, Mark (29) who works and lives in Norwich and Jess (27) who is a teacher, living in London.
As you may remember, David’s report last year stressed the need for more members and unfortunately nothing has changed this year, so if you know of somebody at your club who is a past captain but not a member of the association of Buckinghamshire Golf Captains then please ask them to join. Better still invite them to be your guest at the Spring Meeting at Aspley Guise.
It is very important to continue to recruit new members because for every match, we require not only a minimum of 16 playing members but also 4 available reserves for those that drop out for a variety of good reasons at short notice. Interestingly for the majority of matches last year most of the reserves actually played. If you are picked as a reserve for any match please do not immediately withdraw because there is a good chance you could still be invited to play. We also have a “late list” of members that are prepared to play at short notice so if you would like to be added to this list please contact me at stuartrivett60@gmail.com
In my first year as your match secretary I have one request from my time as a match manager. When you receive a match invitation please can you confirm your availability to the relevant match manager as early as possible preferably by email. This saves the match manager having to chase up invited players to check availability and also enables them to secure reserve players in good time, for those that are unavailable.
Finally, I look forward to getting to know and hopefully playing with a significant number of members next year. I also hope you will all support David our captain by adding your name to as many fixtures as possible and I wish him a very happy, enjoyable and fun year.
Stuart Rivett