Secretaries Report
Another successful year for the Association is almost finished. Where does the time go! Colin clearly had a good time as Captain as can be seen reading his Captains Corner. Rod did very well in his new role as Match Secretary with everything going very smoothly. If you wish to see how you did in the order or merit this year I have added a page with the results. Congratulations to Bob Barnes for winning it again.
I indicated in my August report it was more difficult to book venues for 2025 but it is now all in place and the fixtures are already on the website and also in this newsletter. I did manage to get some reasonable deals and as Doug has said in his report, we can keep our match fee at £55 for 2025. However, it is likely to have to go up in 2026. Talking to other County Secretaries they are experiencing the same problems, and their fees are moving up towards ours now.
There are a few new venues for us next year as I had to create 6 more new golf clubs on the website. If you click on the club it will give you their details and directions if you need them. I have also booked Winterhill GC for the first time, so I hope to get to this one as I have never played there. Bobs tour is at St Pierre a course I last played in the early 80s when the horse chestnut trees were only about 9ft tall. I suspect they are huge now.
From this photo, it looks like there are some nice views on the course. He has kept to the 1 night and 2 games format which was popular this year and I hope we can get a good response again.
We only had 7 new members this year and I reminded the Club Ambassadors in October to try to recruit more and that did prove successful. However perhaps all of you could try to encourage new and old Captains of your club to join. With only 103 members with 30 not playing we are one of the smallest counties in terms of numbers. With 14 matches and 7 other events we really need more members as at present we are relying on a core of about 10 members to ensure we can get a team out for the matches.
So, when you receive the subs/match form from Rod in late December please put down for as many as you can and put them in your diary. I know plans change throughout the year for us all, but we do get a large number of withdrawals for whatever reason and it makes it difficult for the Match Managers to finalise numbers. You will be informed of your matches by late March as usual. We are still surprised at the number of members who don’t respond to match invitations resulting in having to send out reminders. If you cannot play please let us know as soon as you know.
We have had 3 committee meetings this year and discuss membership, costs, clubs, clothing matches and a range of other issues. We are looking for more members to join the committee which is normally a forerunner to being Captain in a few years forward. It is an honour to be asked to come on the Committee to be Captain, but I am surprised that it does get turned down sometimes.
I have updated the Members Handbook which is on the website on the memberdownloads section. Please let me know if your entry is correct as I know some of you have changed clubs and phone nos.
I had an email from Roy Matthews earlier who is an Honorary member. He is in his nineties and doesn’t play golf anymore but still likes to keep in touch. He was sorry not to be able to come to Burnham Beeches for our Cambridgeshire match on 24 July but we hope to see him on 20 August 2025 at our Warwickshire match.
I also heard from Mick Morris who was Captain of the Association in 2008. He doesn’t play either but is still on the board at Ellesborough.The recently Ken Heaver got in touch, He was Captain in 2013 and one of the first Captains I dealt with. He moved to Ely a few years ago and has just had a pacemaker put in. He can only play in the better weather and needs a buggy.
Its good to hear from our older members whom we dont see much nowadays.
Next year will be my last year as secretary but I will still be an active member henceforth. I do hope that you all have a good time with us in 2025 and I look forward to meeting up with you during the year.
Peter Short
Secretary