Each month, our three Captains will share with us their news from the previous few weeks and a quick look ahead to the upcoming month.

Men’s Captain, Norman Davidson

The beginning of the 2024 has seen our golf greatly affected by the weather and, for the first time in living memory, the decision was taken to close the courses temporarily at one point.
But we did manage to get some competitive golf in, starting with the New Year’s Day Scramble with Phil Read, Paul Gregan, Chris Perrin and Matt Tunstall taking the honours. It was after that competition that the courses were deemed unplayable and were closed.

We also managed to hold the Daily Mail qualifier, which was won by Kel Dixon and Daniel Bewg, with commiserations to Adrian Ault and Paul Sandfield who finished second. I’m sure everyone wishes Kel and Daniel all the best in the next round.

On February 17th we will be holding our Men’s Team get together, for those of you who would like the chance to play for one of the clubs many external team competitions. Handicaps vary from competition to competition, giving players of varying handicaps the chance to represent the club and experience competitive golf outside of the club. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact either myself normanjohndavidson@btinternet.com , or any of the team captains listed below.

Thornton Cup: Team Captains – Matt Wyatt and Steve Wood
Handicap – Scratch

Leslie Wood: Team Captain – to be announced
Handicap – 6 and over

Norman Plum: Team Captain – Steve Hale
Handicap – Pool A 11 to 17.5; Pool B 17.6 to 24

Essex Seniors: Team Captain – To be announced
Players must be aged 55 or over; handicap – scratch to 15

John Day: Team Captain – Allen Smith
Players must be aged 55 or over; handicap – 11 to 24

Curry Cup: Team Captain – Ian Thompson
Handicap – six players must be scratch to 10, six players must be 10 to 18

Jubilee Cup: Team Captain – Ian Smith
Handicap – Singles 10.5 and above. Pairs 14.5 to 20

Ladies Captain, Stella Hammond

Despite the weather causing us issues, we have managed to play some golf this year so far.

The winners of the 9 hole waltz were E. Davidson / C. Jackson / B. Jones and the two best from three were C Jackson / K Clark / S Hammond.

February 15th will be my Ladies Captain’s charity day. The format will be 4BBB and it would be lovely to see as many of you there as possible. After playing we will have coffee and cake and a hole in one and putter competition to raise funds for the charity Little Lifts. Entry will cost £5.
If you are able to able to make cakes for the event please let me or Jill Pottle know.
Hopefully the weather will be kind as February wears on so that we can have some qualifying games to keep up with number of cards we need to submit.

Glen and Corinne Jackson are featured in not one, but two, monthly golf magazines after Glen sent in an article about forming friendships in golf and how he met Corinne 29 years ago.
Complete with photo of them teeing off in unison as the first couple to be Captains at SbN – check out Golf Monthly or Golf Digest.

My golf jokes of the month.

The secret to missing a tree is to aim straight at it !!
I love golfing in the rain, nobody can see I’m crying !!

Seniors Captain, John Parkinson

2024 started off with our January Stableford falling victim to the weather, but as the month wore on we did get back to our regular weekly swindles.

Let’s hope the weather improves and helps our courses recover. There are three senior competitions to look forward to this month; February 7, Seniors 4BBB; February 14, 3 clubs and a putter; and February 21, the monthly Stableford.
We only have a handful of people still to pay their 2024 seniors subs, you know who you are … please can you pay or let me know if you do not intend to play in the seniors this year. Remember, you are ineligible to play in any of our competitions until you have paid your £10.
I look forward to improved weather and playing with as many of you as possible in the forthcoming weeks.
I think the following quote sums up the seniors at SbN perfectly.
“Golf is twenty percent mechanics and technique. The other eighty percent is philosophy, humour, tragedy, romance, melodrama, companionship, camaraderie, cussedness, and conversation”. Grantland Rice