November 2025
Another year has gone by and this will be my last yearly report as I will be relinquishing my duties after the AGM. There will be a report prior to that but as an introduction to the AGM and 2026. As Bob says in his report it has been a very successful year for the Association and in particular his 8 wins out of 12 matches.
It has also been a sad year as we have lost 2 longstanding members in Roger Harham and Derek Hill. We were well represented at their funerals. Many of our current members did not know Roger and Derek but both were past Captains of the Association and gave us good support in their time. Derek was my predecessor as Secretary and passed on to me most of our historical records. I will pass these on to Terry after the AGM.
We were all very pleased when Rod stood in as VC when Gerry had to give it up. So after some searching the committee are pleased to announce that Gordon McMurdo has agreed to be VC to Rod next year and be Captain in 2027. We are also expectant that another member will come on to the Committee all to be revealed at the AGM.
It has been a successful year for me as a player having won the Autumn Meeting at Dunstable Downs and coming 3rd in the Spring Meeting at Sandford Springs. That enabled me to win the Order of Merit again but I expect Tony Jeffries would have beaten me to it if he had played on Captains Day at Whiteleaf (No Buggies!!). I also witnessed Henri Bothas Hole in One on the 9th at Dunstable Downs although we couldn’t see it go in but heard it hit the hole. Trevor insisted we took this photo for posterity.
I cannot remember another Hole in One in my time as a member but if any of you who were members before 2007 please let me know.
Back to membership. With only 97 members on the database we are still declining in numbers and need to recruit more. We have only had 6 new members this year but pleasingly 2 of these are from Princess Risborough GC and are our first members from there. Only about 60 of our members have actually participated so as Bob says we did really well in matches with such a small number of members to pick from.
You will see from Doug’s Financial Report that we are increasing the match fees in 2026. This has been coming for a couple of years as costs from clubs have been increasing, It has got worse in the past year and one of the reasons is that many of our clubs are no longer letting their manager determine the fees and they have to get approval from their Board. It has always been important to build a relationship with the manager and office staff as they were aware of us as past captains and we were treated as different from their other societies, We were able to get good discounts. Unfortunately it seems to me that the boards are only interested in the bottom line and don’t see us in the same light. This is happening at other Counties now but some are still given courtesy for the green fee element of the fee. In all the time I have been doing this job we have always had the highest match cost for our members and that is still the case now but others are getting nearer to us. Fortunately we are in a good financial position and are continuing our policy of subsidising one of our internal competitions and that will be Captains Day at Gerrards Cross next year.
The latest Booklet is available on the memberdownloads part of the website, If you want to contact another member or anyone on the committee you can find their details there. You can also see a list of the past Captains which is quite interesting to read. Our Constitution is also there.
Rod continues to do an excellent job as Match Secretary and you will shortly receive the 2026 Subs and Match form. Please return this as soon as possible and if for some reason you are not rejoining please let him know. It is important to put your selections in your diary even if you do not get selected. Reserves and last minute replacements are often needed so he will know you could be available from your original selections.
That’s all from me except to say I hope you have another enjoyable year with our Association and I can meet up with many of you in 2026.
Peter
Secretary