Seniors Noticeboard

Gentlemen,

            It is an honour to be asked to be Blankney’s 2021 Senior’s Captain and I would like to thank Ivor Samways for volunteering and agreeing to be my Vice-Captain for the coming year.

I would also like to publicly thank our secretary (John Wood) for all his efforts in running, so smoothly, all the competitions we completed since the end of lockdown 1 and for arranging a full and extensive fixture list for 2021.

I trust all our seasoned Senior Golfers and the number of new members, who joined us from various other golf clubs, also enjoyed these events. Unfortunately we were unable to fulfil any inter-club matches in 2020, but please be advised that we intend to play all 2021 matches, guided by the extant covid-19 rules, in place at that time.

Blankney Golf Club is a great golf course excellently managed by John Hart and his green staff who have worked hard to maintain the course, to (and above) its usual standards, under difficult circumstances.

I also thanks Graham, Alex, Tracey and Sarah and all their teams, for all the hard work in putting “into play” all the covid-19 regulations, therefore keeping us safe and allowing us all to enjoy our wonderful game!

My congratulations to this year’s winners of the Senior’s Order of Merit, Bob Manser and the Eclectic, Sid Hicks and to Derek Isaac of his usual excellent organization.

 In closing; I would like to thank Fred Fox for his Captaincy over this unusual year and look forward to his counsel, as I start my year in post. 

Here is to a better 2021,

Robby Boyce

Seniors Captain

SENIORS’ SECRETARY AND TREASURER’S REPORT 2020

Little did we know at the start of Fred’s Captaincy how different this year would be to the previous six I have reported on.

Once again we started our year in February with the excellent Saint Valentine’s Day Dinner, organised for what we were to discover would be Nev and David’s last time in the chair.  Seventy-seven members and guests enjoyed the evening with an excellent meal and good company.

As this would be the final Dinner organised by our two stalwarts, they returned the small float that they had been using, thus ensuring that the event returned a profit of £51. Our thanks go to Nev and David for their efforts during the last many years.  Retiring Captain Fred and Club Chairman Robin Selway, have intimated that they will take the reins for the next Dinner, although when that might be is currently up in the air somewhat.

Captain Fred had requested that his Drive-In be on the Monday following the Club’s Captain’s Drive-In at the start of March.  Fred drove the ball 171 yards resulting in a prize for Ken Rapley whose guess was nearest that mark. 

The Drive-In was followed by a Captain versus Vice-Captain Match which resulted in a win for the Captain 7.5 to 3.5.  The following weekend saw the traditional match against the Club.  Unfortunately, Fred’s Team was not as successful on this occasion.

Within three weeks things got even worse as we were plunged into lockdown by the Government due to the increase in the Cov19 Virus. 

We were not allowed to play golf, not as members, even allowed to walk the Course for exercise.

After twelve weeks the Government, in consultation with English Golf, realised that Golf could be played safely within the guidelines, allowing for the natural social distancing of the game and the need for exercise in the open air.

Once back playing, following a discussion with the Captain Fred and his Vice-Captain Robby it was decided that all the matches against other Clubs and the Open competitions would be shelved for 2020. The Senior’s Mixed Open was played albeit without any involvement from the Senior Section.

Prior to the lockdown, an away day at Kenwick Park had been organised by Ian Smith.  The original date was lost to the lockdown but once we were up and running again, we were given permission by Kenwick Park to take our forty-four Seniors to their extremely difficult Louth course.

We think Blankney with it’s yellow slope of 130 is hard but almost everyone suffered on their 138 slope track with only four beating 30 points. Thankfully we didn’t play from their white tees as the slope from them was 149.  Neil Day won the day with thirty-three points in a card play-off from David Holmes and Robby Boyce.  Neil also claimed the Team prize with help from his partner Sid Hicks, with a total of sixty-three points winning by one point from David Holmes and Steve Brown.

Kenwick showed us all what could be done under the restrictions, serving us with an excellent meal to go along with their warm welcome and difficult course.

As we had paid and accounted for the deposit (£100) in 2019 we came away with a profit on the day of £107.

In previous seasons we have held a handicap Qualifier each month between March and October.  These had been in the form of a roll-up with a small entry fee and the money being divided between the winners.  We missed the first three due to the lockdown but on returning to golf we were given permission by the Club to try to run all of our competitions inhouse.

We set about doing a little catch up.  Before the cessation of play at the end of March, we had decided to utilise the new ClubV1Hub for bookings into the Board competitions so decided to use the system for bookings into the Qualifiers as well.  This proved very successful, resulting in random computerised draws for the first time ever. A few members who had no “technology” had a problem but this was soon overcome with a phone call or social distanced face-to-face discussion and we intend to continue using this system for all qualifying events during 2021, subject to no ongoing restriction.

The entries were well up on previous years due possibly to having tee times booked for the competition, saving on the normal 6 o’clock scramble for times and the fact that members were working from home or furloughed, making them available for some Monday golf. These extra entrance fees enabled us to use the first £100 for prizes and put any surplus  into our Charity account.  We also ran a “2”s competition for the first time in the Qualifiers.

We held two Qualifiers in the July (June’s & July’s) and then one a month until October, five instead of eight.   Winners as follows:

June           Entries 62   Stephen Collett     36 Points               £24 to Charity

July             Entries 67   Ian Garner            39 Points               £32            

August         Entries 56   Paul Findley            84-16=68              £12 

September  Entries 67   Robby Boyce          40 Points               £32

October      Entries 65   Neil Day                37 Points               £30                               

Not as many takers for the Medal Qualifier, but we will return to two again next season provided we are allowed to continue of course. Total to Charity £130.00.

In a normal year we run six board competitions during the season. We also organise the Bert Medhurst Trophy, a Sunday competition which we inherited from the Club but still run it on a Sunday.  One of these is the Reg Woolley Knock Out. Once we were given the go ahead, on the resumption of golf,  to try to organise as many of our competitions as possible we reorganised our calendar.  We decided that it would be difficult to run the knock-out due to the difficulty of booking tee-times.  We also decided to run the Senior’s’ Open as an in-house competition for this year only. With the Qualifiers and the Six Competitions it was certainly hectic, especially in September were we had an event on  each and every Monday.

A total number of 464 seniors entered these competitions, which was a big increase on the previous few years, where the numbers had been falling off.  Obviously the extended, enforced holidays and the welcome injection of new members had helped to push up the entries with on occasions more people playing on the Monday than in the Club’s competitions on the previous Sunday.

At the 2019 AGM the whisky draws had been discussed and it was agreed to replace the voluntary whisky with a charity draw included in the entry fee.  Half of this extra income has been added to the Charity account the other half was paid out as shown below.

Another advantage of the bigger entries was that we could increase the prize fund, paying out five places instead of the usual three (£150 up from £100).   As there would be no Club Presentation evenings this year it was agreed that all prize money would be placed into individual’s accounts held in the Pro-Shop.  (Apologies to those who can’t find anything they require).  Winners were as follows:

Competition               Winner                    Charity Draw Winner

Ken Williams Cup             Nigel Clarke    43 Pts      Cyril Bray              (£35.50)

Stuart Blytham Salver     Jock Gordon    41 Pts       John Somers         (£36.50)

Newman Charity Shield    Paul Findley     42 Pts      Carl Hill                 (£33.50)

Gilliatt Driver                 David Croft 80-11=69      Andy Craft            (£29.00)

Stroke Play Champion      Stuart Askew  79                                       

Bert Cawsey Cup             David Day        42 Pts      Brett Wooldridge  (£35.00)

Bert Medhurst Trophy    John Hawes     40 Pts      Nigel Bottomley     (£31.00)

Watson Trophy               Terry Bentley  40 Pts      Don Ridley              (£31.50)     

Congratulations to them all.                          Total to Charity  (£232.00)

In previous years the whisky draw income has been lost under the other headings, this year I have itemised the Charity Draw income and placed it within our Charity Account as follows:

                   Qualifiers                                          £130.00

                   Board Competitions                            £232.00

                   Excess from Eclectic & OOM              £  38.50

                   Donations from Away Day                             £  10.00

We sent out cheques to our eight Senior Charities to the net value of £450.00 resulting in a deficit of £43.50.

I didn’t submit anything for my printing costs and Phillip Johnson once again produced the yearbooks for free.  Instead of putting any gratuities (only Greens Staff this season) down to our Open Competitions, I have put them under Miscellaneous Expenditure and will continue with this into the future.

We therefore had an Excess of £153.62 this year giving us a closing balance of £1424.73.

Despite the restriction imposed upon us all this season I have enjoyed the extra work of running all of our competitions and Qualifiers in the truncated time that was available to us.  A big thank you to Graham and his Team for the extra work they undertook to ensure that we could play safely and for taking all the entry fees.  A special thank you to my better half Angela, who helped me decipher the cards and then load all of the scores onto the system. Also thank you to Captain Fred who has not had the enjoyable year that the Captaincy of the Seniors should bring.

I look forward to working with incoming Captain Robby Boyce and his Vice Captain Ivor Samways.  Virus permitting, we have arranged a full Diary for next year.  We are unsure how our twenty-four matches will pan out.  What the format will be we are not certain. Already we have agreed with Woodhall Spa to reduce the size of the teams, down to six pairs each, in line with the Club matches.  What form the catering will take and how will our new handicaps effect the results, especially at Louth whose Slope is 137 or Belton Park’s 117 but not surprisingly, Carholme who’s slope is the same as ours!!

And of course thank you all of our Seniors the majority of whom gave me great support during 2020.

John Wood

Seniors Secretary

01526 321438 / 07824990639

jiwseven@gmail.com

SENIOR SECTION WINTER COMPETITIONS

             Gentlemen with Covid-19 restrictions limiting the number of people allowed to meet up, i.e. “rule of six” play safe rules from the EGU and the Club’s efforts to ensure we can continue to enjoy our game in a safe and secure way. Reintroduction and running the Senior’s roll-ups, on a Monday & Friday remains not an option for the foreseeable future and an alternative method to give our Section some sort of friendly competition over the winter months was discussed by the Senior Executive Committee during our last meeting.

            Continuing on the excellent work our Secretary, John Wood, as done over the past weeks running all the comp’s through the Club V1 booking system we have decided to run some “fun winter comps” on a Monday while Fridays will remain a book your own tee time day.   

These will range for individual stapleford to team games, i.e. waltz, traffic lights etc. Members will book themselves onto the comp as before on the Club V1 system and a draw will be made accordingly. We were looking to start them after this year’s last qualifier and planned for 2^nd Nov but due to that being World Handicap Day, the system won’t let us! So we are now aiming for Mon 9^th Nov.

We have spoken to quite of few of you over the past weeks and I hope you can all support our efforts. We are initially planning to have 2 booking time slots of 08.00 -09.00 & 09.08-10.00 and adjust then accordingly, once we have an ideal of number, time slot preferences and sustainability. Anyone without access to the booking system will be able to book themselves into the comps, as before, by contacting John Wood and options / rules to compensate for frosty morning and a trolley ban will be published before we start.

Robby Boyce

V/Captain

NOTICE OF SENIOR ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Following a meeting of the Senior Executive Committee it has been decided that due to the current Virus situation the AGM of the Senior Section will be delayed until further notice.

The following reports will be displayed on the Club’s website as and when they have been completed:

Captain’s Report

Incoming Captain’s Report

Secretary/Treasurer’s Report

Annual Audited Accounts

Despite there being no actual AGM any Senior Member wishing to have a matter discussed by the Senior Executive Committee should submit their proposal in writing before the 30^th November.

The hand over of the Senior Captaincy will take place after the Christmas Greensomes on Monday, 7^th December 2020.

Any Senior who would like to be considered for the position of Senior Captain, either next year or in the future is asked to make the Senior Executive Committee aware of their wishes.

John Wood

Seniors Secretary

jiwseven@gmail.com

01526 321438/ 07824 990639