Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter,

As you will read from Ginny's report and many of you will have played in, it was club championship weekend last week. The course was presented as very in good condition with the greens just under 11 on the stimp (please see Jay demonstrating if you want to see how high tech it is) and the weather was indifferent.

The Ladies Thompson Trophy, for the best nett score, was tighter, as Charlotte Pienaar, with a handicap of 30, scored a nett 148, only 1 shot behind Justine. Helen Porter won the Bronze Salver for players with handicaps 21 and above.

David Burt carried off the Senior Championship with a gross 75, 3 over par, for the forth time. He attributed his win to playing steady golf, with his putter 'purring like a Rolls Royce.'

In the Junior Championship, Jamie Price was 7 shots behind after the first day, with a gross 85. However he dug deep in the second round, and, helped by back to back birdies on the 8th and 9th holes, and holing some long putts, his second round of 73, 1 over par, left him 1 shot clear of Jacob Gamble, who had to settle for the runner up spot.

The new Mens' Club Champion played outstanding golf over the 2 days. Mark Reeves and Callum Brookes were neck and neck with only 1 shot between them at the turn on the second day. But, when Reeves scored 4 consecutive birdies on the 10, 11th, 12th and 13th holes he became unassailable, and his winning score of gross 140, 4 under par, couldn't be bettered by Brookes, who finished runner up with gross 143. He was also pipped at the post for the Summer Cup, awarded for the best nett score, finishing 1 behind Reeve.

Report from Ginny Eley

Seniors Captain Annual Away Day

Last Friday saw 43 Seniors and Ladies made it to Brickendon Grange Golf Club, Herts for the Seniors Captain annual away day and we were delighted to be accompanied by our pro Rob, GM Jonathon and current captain and vice-captain Gary and Graham.

With a two tee start first groups were off by 8.45 and I must say I think we all enjoyed the course very much. With water in play it was often a question of getting your ball in the right place!!
The first match was halved, Brandon Chapman and Liz Stewart v Peter Still and Elle Mansfield. And as results came in it was close. Present captains team beating past captains team 17 to 14. Nearest the pin on the tricky 18th went to David Wiseman and best result from the winning team was 5 up from Tony Clarke and John Stewart.

Brickendon Grange will feature as a regular inter club match for the seniors from next season and many will relish the thought.

Report from Malcolm Thorne

Jean Wilkinson Trophy

After a disappointing result at Royston the Team of Sangdao, Jackson, Angela Reed,
Sue Gunter, Alex Sparrow, Hettie Carter, Jan Rackham and Caroline Peat rallied to win their final league match at St Ives by four games to three, giving an overall winning result of 16 points to 12.

Hettie Carter followed up her success at Royston by winning 7&5 at St Ives and Alex Sparrow, who was three down after eleven, fought back to win one up on the 18th. Sangdao and Sue Gunter also has close matches winning one up and two up respectively.

As part of a long term plan, Lady Captain Melissa Jones set up a Development Squad earlier this year to further encourage players of all ages to improve their golf and match play skills - Caroline Peat, Alex Sparrow and Hettie Carter have all joined the squad via this route and have earned their Team Colours having played in at least two county matches. Jan Rackham and Christine Noakes will also receive Team Colours at the ladies Annual Meeting to be held in November.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part again this year - players, squad members, caddies and supporters and for all the help and advice we have had from our professionals, Rob and Sarah. Together we make a great team and with the enthusiasm and team spirit we have, I am confident the ladies team will be back in contention for county honours again next year

Report from Vivienne Dondi

Plenty of Playing Action

We've had a busy week playing in Pro Am’s and Open qualifiers charity events and away days. Thanks to Peter Still for inviting me on your Captains away day, hopefully Geri has recovered from playing with me, it’s the first time I've had to concede 62 shots in a round to my playing partners and it certainly kept the math’s interesting all the round.

The day before I played in the Ethan Linwood charity day at the club with 95 others. We had a crack junior team of Charlie Carter, Jamie Price and our secret wean Katie Stevens. Sarah and I tag teamed 9 holes and we finished with a total of 118 to win the team prize, the highlight of the round was Charlie’s tee shot on 18 with the yellow ball, a pitching wedge which rolled perfectly into the cup for an Ace. I was told to inform Steve Plumb that this was Charlie's second hole in one and he's not yet an adult member of the club.

Onto this week and Sarah unfortunately didn't do enough on Monday at Hankley Common in the ladies Open qualifier, the course must have been playing tough as the cut mark was plus three. Aaron made his debut at Kings Lynn on Monday and came back saying the same everyone else does "it’s very tight isn't it."

I played our regional Lombard qualifier at Sandy Lodge yesterday with Jeremy Taylor, who was much more appreciative of my music than last year’s winner Mr. Ludden, though apparently he's not a fan of my LCD sound system as he frantically tried to skip to the next record. We got off to the perfect start as I made birdie on one but we failed to capitalise on great chances on the front side and only went out in 33 with a couple of handy nett birdies from Jeremy. The back nine was steady, the only shot we picked up was a kick in birdie from me on sixteen. The par fives took their toll, despite hitting cracking drives on all of them we walked off at two over. We finished with a 70, respectable but were left to mull over what could have been. The winners came in late with a 61, which made us feel a bit better as we would never have achieved this unless it was played over 16 holes. For those of you who have not played Sandy Lodge it’s just over an hour away and is certainly worth a visit. Thanks Jeremy for an enjoyable day and hopefully we will be back next year to give it another go.