Hello and welcome to this week's newsletter.

First of all Eleanor and I would like to thank you all for the emails and cards that we received over the past week after the birth of Johnny. Everyone is doing well if a touch on the tired side of life, and so far we haven't left him anywhere.

Due to Johnny's arrival I was unable to attend last week's Slade meeting but they found a solid replacement in Charlie from the 8 Bells. As he is not in any of the photographs he must know the score and finished in mid table obscurity. I was pleasantly surprised when I got the photos through to see a pair of new winners in Mike Hayden and Terry Wilby.

I was equally pleasantly surprised to see who was holding the P Pot at the end of the evening. With the lowest points tally of the season Patrick Ray and Mike Price. It was a surprise to see Mike propping up the field as he normally hones his game around Slade meetings, and the Saturday before he managed 45 points in a 4BBB.

Yesterday I attended the PGA East Region AGM at Bishop's Stortford. Over 100 Pro's from the region turned out for the day to play in a 4BBB competition in the morning and then have the AGM and discussion of how the state of golf is in the UK at the moment. The AGM and development meeting that followed was very interesting. In years gone by when I've attended these things it seemed the powers that be didn't understand how the profession was changing at the coal face. Now the PGA are tightening up the qualification process and are looking to work more with clubs to ensure that our skill set fits the modern day requirements of being a club professional.

On a separate note, when I play other courses at the minute I realise how fortunate we are with the condition of ours, and it is with good reason that Ray and his team have had the course voted best in Cambridgeshire so big congratulations to them.

Yesterday we started with carry only and on 3 temps so when the rain started the greens quickly flooded, so much so that you couldn't take relief on some of the greens and by the middle of the back 9 the course should have been closed. This is a course that is little over 10 miles away from us.