Captain's Report 2007

I begin my report with our step into the 21^st Century.

After several months of preparation, we were able on February 10^th  to go live on the world wide web. Whilst we appreciate that many of you do not have Internet access and indeed I’m told, would not want internet access, we cannot afford to lag behind our “younger golfing counterparts” and we felt the time was right to take the Cheshire Seniors forward with the aid of a little technology whilst still retaining the basic traditions of the Association. The Website is still of course, very much in its infancy, but we are hoping it will grow with the Association to continue to provide information for our members. If you have any suggestions for improvement please let us know via the “contact” page or even by more conventional means of communication like the telephone! For those of you interested in statistics, we have had almost 2000 visitors to the site to date and if curiosity were to overcome those of you without a computer, you could always add to that tally by a visit to the library. Pass on one of the little cards you will find on the table by the door and the Librarian will log on for you to have a little peek.

We have further tried to reduce our carbon footprint this year by the extensive use of email which has proved of paramount importance in spreading information across the County and helping to make us a more “paperless” Association.

We were very fortunate earlier in the year to acquire a laptop computer from our County Colleagues and we were also gifted a printer by our President, Shirley. We wanted the computer to help our Competition Secretaries run our Medal competitions and produce the results sheets which now under the Congu system, have to be returned to each Club. However, the versatile computer software is such that I am hoping sometime in the future, all our competitions will be run using this method.

On the 21^st of March, I was privileged to be invited to the County Centenary Lunch and Book launch at Mere Golf Club. It was a lovely day, enjoyed by all and if anyone has not seen the Centenary Book, I can strongly recommend it as an enthralling insight into the history of Ladies Golf in Cheshire. My congratulations to all concerned with its production.

We started our season of matches with the game against the Cheshire Senior Men at Sale Golf Club. We negotiated five shots from them and won the match by four games to two. The men were understandably disappointed but very gracious in defeat and I suspect that next year the shots may be a little harder to come by.

Our Championship was held at the end of April and “summer” came to Sale for the three days. Major re-furbishment meant that we were without our usual changing facilities but at the eleventh hour the men’s changing room was made available for our use. Vandalism on the course ten days before the Championship meant that we had to play two temporary greens but everyone seemed to take all the difficulties in good spirit and produced some good golf out on the course. For the first time, last year’s Champion did not have automatic qualification and a cold wind on the first day made the golf tricky with some surprisingly high scores. Conditions were calmer and warmer for the final day and Barbara Laird was a worthy winner in her first year as a Senior, beating Alanna Vine in the final by 3/2.

The match against our Welsh counterparts took place on May 15^th at Sale. We still had to be content with the men’s locker room and two temporary greens and two days before the match we played host to a herd of cows who had strayed from a farm in Hazel Grove. However, on the day of the match, I was assured they had gone. Our team played well against a stronger than usual Welsh team and the match ended in a draw.

At the end of May the Northern Division Championship was held at Ilkley Golf Club. Twelve ladies from Cheshire made the trip to Yorkshire and Sue Dye, Barbara Laird and Luci Foster qualified from the first day’s medal round. Luci won the 2^nd Handicap prize with a 75 nett but Yorkshire took all the remaining prizes. Luci lost her first round of matchplay to a very “on form” Julia Smith of Yorkshire. Barbara won through to the semi finals where she just missed out on a place in the final, losing to Elaine Elliott of Northumberland by one hole. Sue got through to the final and played under par golf to beat Elaine by 3/2 and become the Northern Champion.

At the beginning of June we travelled up to the North East to begin our defence of the Richardson Trophy against Durham and Northumberland. On a very cold June morning we beat Durham at Durham City Golf Club by 4 ½  to 2 ½ . A good start! We moved on to Northumberland later in the week to play at Hexham Golf Club. The match was very close towards the end but just didn’t go our way and we lost by four matches to three.

The game against Lancashire was played at Worsley Golf Club and followed several days of high winds and torrential rain. The games were fairly even at the half way point but the back nine holes seemed to take their toll on our team and although four games went to the eighteenth we lost the match 6/1.

At the end of July we were host to Cumbria at Sale. Glorious sunshine greeted match day and we were privileged to witness some great golf. Almost all of the matches were very close with five of them going to the eighteenth and it ended in a draw against a much improved Cumbrian side.

The match against Yorkshire should have been played on 3^rd July at Sale but the torrential rain which had affected much of the country had made the course unplayable. The match was re-arranged for the 3rd August which turned out to be a glorious day and all the matches were close through the front nine. However, once again, the day was not to be ours and we lost by four games to three.

Northumberland went on to take the Richardson Trophy for the first time in twelve years.

Well, we may not have brought the Trophy home this year but Cheshire has had great success in the form of Sue Dye and Barbara Laird. I’ll just list their achievements to date:

·        Sue won the Northern Championship at Ilkley

·        She was the leading qualifier at Delamere in the English Seniors

·        She won the English Senior Ladies Strokeplay in Northumberland

·        She was picked for the England International team to play in Sweden where England won the Silver Medal

·        She led the Northern team to victory at the Jamboree in Cromer

·        And was part of the winning England team playing against           Ireland, Wales & Scotland, in Ireland in September.

Barbara, in her first year as a Senior:

·         Won the Cheshire Seniors’ Championship

·         She was semifinalist in the Northern Counties Championship at Ilkley

·         She came 4^th in the English Senior Ladies Strokeplay

·         She was picked as 2^nd reserve for the England team

·         She played for the North in the Jamboree team at Cromer and was   unbeaten, winning 3 and halving 2 of her matches.

I am sure you’ll agree that is quite a tally.

 Congratulations to both of you.

At this point I would like to present Team Colours to Barbara Laird, Sue Goulty and Karen Schneider all of whom have represented Cheshire in at least two Richardson Trophy matches this year.

The Northern Veterans Annual Meeting was held in Leeds in October and

Northumberland were congratulated on winning the Richardson Trophy with Yorkshire being the Runners up. Northumberland had won four of their five matches to take the Trophy. Cheshire were placed joint 4^th with Cumbria.

It was agreed at the meeting that in next year’s Championship in Durham, the 0--5 handicap players would, where possible, be given a later start time instead of the customary, “handicap order of play.” The subject of the cost of the Championship was raised, as it is at nearly every meeting. It was agreed that the dinner was an important part of the event but in order to try and reduce costs each County was asked discuss with their Committees whether or not they would be willing to pay for their Captain and President rather than the host County having to pay for 20 to 24 meals.

Cheshire put forward a proposition to make a few small changes to the  wording of the Constitution. This was passed unanimously. It was also agreed at the meeting that if extreme weather situations prevailed again in the future, an extension up to 10^th September could be given for all Richardson Trophy matches.

The Northern Championship in 2008 is to be held at Brancepeth Castle Golf Club, on May 13^th-15th and in 2009, Cumbria is hosting the event at Brampton Golf Club, on May 20^th-22^nd. The Jamboree in 2008 is being hosted by Scotland at Southerness on August 12^th-14th and in 2009 the Jamboree will be at Bath City Golf Club, on August 3^rd-6^th.

We were very proud to see Mrs Ruth Whitehead take over as Captain of the North and we wish her well in her defence of the Miller Sterling Trophy at Southerness next year.