2009 Report

 

 

The Spring Meeting was held in generally dry weather at Bramley Golf Club on 30th April and the meeting was kindly sponsored by Geoffrey Betts of Stewart Superior Europe.  There was an good attendance of 36 and John Sear emerged as a first time winner of the Jack Ryman Cup with 40 points, an excellent score taking into account the greens which were being renovated and not at their best. 

There followed the Annual General Meeting at which Chris Lee took over as Captain from David Cox and proposed Hugh Sear to be his vice-captain. 

Next up was a memorable visit to the glorious links at Royal Ashdown Forest on 3rd June. Gordon Christiansen of Red Box was our welcome sponsor. The weather was dry and very warm in the morning. The 32 who attended enjoyed one of the great inland courses, famous for not having a single sand bunker but with numerous compensatory hazards.

Keeping it in the family as it were was Hugh Sear with a creditable 37 points to take the John Bond Cup. 

July nowadays always takes us to Gerrards Cross and so on the 9th 32 attended the President’s Meeting.

It was dry with some sunshine but breezy with the greens not as fast as we normally expect. The course was however in it’s usual pristine condition which was to the liking of the Family Smith. The one-two for the President’s Trophy saw Eric with 37 points pipping wife Judith who had 35. 

And it is now becoming traditional that the end of September features the Captain’s Outing and Chris Lee chose to go ‘way out west’ for his trip.  We all met up at lunchtime at the Dartmouth Club and played a Four Ball Better Ball which was won, handsomely, by another family pairing: Chris & Nicola Phillips with 45 points. We then adjourned to the  rather classy Thurlestone Hotel.  The next day we drove down the hill to the Thurlestone Links. This is an attractive cliff-top course that opens with a most inviting downhill short par-4. Strangely, but happily for us, we played for the Captain’s Salver in an almost dead calm which is most definitely not the norm  for such an exposed course. Chris Phillips continued his good form by retaining the Captain’s Salver with 43 points. On the final day we entered the Bigbury Open four ball better ball tournament.  None of our teams featured amongst the leaders but our own competition was won with 84 points by David Cox, Alan Wood, Paul Cohen and Gordon Lamb. And so concluded another enjoyable outing with excellent accommodation, good courses and decent weather. 

Last season we had a late meeting at Tandridge and so successful was it the Captain decided to make this a regular fixture. It was cold but dry and the in-form ‘family’ pairing  of Hugh & John Sear were successful taking the Peter Tilley Trophy with 43 points.

 The winners of the 2009 aggregate trophies were: Nigel Tollit (Brian Tolley Trophy) Chris Phillips (Spicer & Liberty Trophies)  Paul Cohen (Reg. Conlon & Derek Watkins Trophies) and David Morgan (Guildford Trophy) Congratulations to them for their consistency over the season  

Chris Lee our Captain worked hard to ensure the year was well up to previous standards and our grateful thanks to him for a job very well done.  As usual my sincere thanks to our Treasurer, David Morgan for his continued sterling service – I’ve checked and  it seems I have been thanking him since 1982 !  Phew, how time marches on!  Also, many thanks to Geoff Fowler for his work on the website (soon to be re-designed and updated) and for checking the scores and producing his marvellous result summaries which save me so much time and precludes the awful possibility of awarding a price to the wrong person - a Secretary’s ultimate nightmare!  And, as usual, I am appreciative of the help other members provide when I need it.

So we look forward with expectation to a new season under the stewardship of our incoming Captain, Hugh Sear.

He has worked out an interesting programme including his Tour to Sussex where we will enjoy the delights of Crowborough Beacon, Piltdown  and the East Sussex National.  I am delighted to say that Hugh has managed to achieve sponsorship for all the main meetings this year. As I have said before, sponsorship enables us to keep the cost of meetings down thus enabling more to enjoy our days out, so this is really excellent news. The full programme is shown on our website.

Lastly, as all communication is now by e-mail can I stress again how important an up-to-date e-mail address is? 

A home e-mail is generally preferred as this tends to change less than a business one! 

Thank you so much for supporting our Society, it is very much my pleasure to work with such a grand bunch of members.

 Very best wishes

 Richard Johns

Hon. Secretary

25 March 2010

 

Secretary's Report