Another fascinating year after the traumas of the preceding one! Thanks to the worthy efforts and financial support from two of our past captains our financial position was stabilised and we enjoyed a full list of fixtures at a varied selection of mostly new courses.
For the Spring Meeting we visited the magnificent Felixstowe Ferry course. The attendance was understandably small but the day was blessed with lovely spring sunshine. The Jack Ryman Cup was won by Chris Phillips with a creditable 34 points. At the Annual General Meeting our long serving Treasurer, David Morgan, retired after 37 years of service. He was presented with a memento in thanks for his efforts over the years. David Littlechild was elected Captain and David Stride became our new Treasurer. As the position of President was recently vacated by Peter Mines it was unanimously voted that David Morgan take his place.
We moved on to East Herts, a lovely, long testing course. In warm sunny conditions the John Bond Cup was won by the captain David Littlechild. Next was a scorching day at the undulating downs course of Guildford. The ball was travelling immense distances on the baked fairways and one of our’ long lost’ ex-captains, Chris Lee, returned to triumph with 36 points on a countback from Peter Jones.
On 12 September we embarked to the northern environs of Paris for the annual Captain’s Outing. Day one was a team event at Bethemont played in overcast conditions on rock hard fairways won by the all lady team of Judith Smith, Nicola Phillips and Julie Hall. The weather improved markedly for our visit to Domont Montmorency and, again, a lady triumphed in the person of Julie Hall with 29 points to take the Captain’s Salver. This was a stunningly beautiful course. Another pleasant autumnal day greeted us at Apremont and the team event was won by Conway Hall, John Sear, Nicola Phillips, Karen Stride. Another memorable overseas trip expertly organised by the captain.
Our final meeting was the now traditional invitation event for the Peter Tilley Trophy and we were again blessed with a beautiful sunny autumnal day. The venue was Nevill, a delightful and testing course played on some of the fastest greens in our experience. With 41 points the winners were Peter Jones & Richard West.
So, against many expectations, we completed our 84th year and although attendances were down those who made it were rewarded with excellent courses and fine weather. I thank David Littlechild for not only taking on the captaincy but making a thoroughly professional job of it! In particular his witty summaries of each meeting were a pleasure and well deserved their publication on our website. Thanks again to David Morgan for his assistance and a smooth handover to David Stride who now assumes the responsibilities of Treasurer. Our website: www.londonstationersgolf.org.uk is a comprehensive source of information, worthy of a much larger organisation and this is down to Geoff Fowler – who I am happy to say seems to have overcome the trauma of extensive hospital treatment and is now fit enough to attend meetings. I am so grateful to those members who helped us out by sponsoring the meetings, namely Gordon Lamb, Nigel Tollit, Warren Evans and Hugh Sear. Warren has already agreed to sponsor the Temple meeting and I am hoping others will assist with the Abridge and Leatherhead meetings.
Congratulations to our 2018 aggregate trophy winners: Chris Lee (Spicer) David Littlechild (Liberty & Watkins) and David Stride (Conlon, Tolley and Guildford).
Finally, a warm welcome to our incoming captain Judith Smith (like Eric Smith & David Littlechild now a two-time holder of this position). She has decided to make our 2019 meetings 18 hole events with a late morning start. A sensible decision which solves the problem of travelling in the morning rush hour with inevitable delays at that time on the motorways. She has a great turn out for her outing to Cornwall in September which is very reasonably priced, see the website if you would like to join the crowd!
I look forward to seeing many old friends in the new season.
Richard Johns
5th March 2019
