Captain's Newsletter - 29 July 2019

Wow!! What an amazing season 2019 has been for the Scratch Team! Above, and rightly, looking very proud of themselves, the Scratch team won all of their matches at East Herts last week, to finish the season with only one match lost and 5 wins! They now have to be patient to see how competitors Verulam fair in their remaining matches. This has only been the 5th year Chesfield Ladies have been in the Ovaltine Scratch League, so it is quite something that they have achieved so much in those years. Well done to all the ladies who have competed in their matches over the season and to the two captains during those 5 years Kathy D and Sarah F. Brilliant achievement!

As we suspected the weather this last week was incredibly HOT with temperatures on Thursday reaching into the high 30s! Tuesday had been the 5th round of the Stableford League and whilst it was still hot, a fairly full tee sheet of ladies went out to compete. Temperatures continued to rise and by Thursday, many ladies took the sensible decision for them, to duck out of the July Stableford competition and stay in the cool! This was the main day of the competition and the previous Sunday had seen some good scores come in. Would the top places go to the weekend ladies or the Thursday players? How those ladies could even hold onto their clubs in that heat, I have no idea, but they certainly did, with some handicaps tumbling too!!! Winner of Division 1 from Sunday, with 40 pts was Pat W, second place went to Hazel B with 39 points. 5 ladies in that division played to their handicap or better!! In Division 2 and in the scorching heat of Thursday, Helen L came in with an incredible 41 pts and a well awaited handicap cut, taking top spot from Megan B on 34 pts. Well done to all those ladies who competed!!

This coming week is our Away Day at Bourn Golf Club and the Kelland Pairs competition. It looks like we might even need our umbrellas to hand, but hopefully it will be a great day! See you there!

Looking forward in the diary, the sign-up sheet for people interested in playing in the Solheim Cup competition on Friday 13th September is now up on the noticeboard. Please do consider putting your name down, the final selection will be made in the coming weeks! A further sheet will go up soon for those who are interested in donning Hilary's marvellous waistcoats and being caddies, etc etc for the day. This is a great day of fun as well as competition and of course, coincides with the real match being played out at Gleneagles that week!

Les and Pat Ward are organising the first of what is hoped will be many years of pairs competition for the Ward Trophy on Sunday 8th September. There are lots of guys from the Club looking for a female playing partner, so if you are free and would like to compete, the sign-up is on HowDidiDo. Alternatively, have a word with Les or Pat for more information about the event.

With several ladies mentioning they have golf gear which they would like to find a new home for, I am putting together a rail of Nearly New Golf Items in the Changing Room, this week. The intention is that the monies raised goes into my Charity Funds, so please pop your contribution into Pat's black box clearly marked 'Charity Donation'. Thank you in advance. If you have anything that might be suitable please do bring it along with a simple label re size etc and we will see if we can increase our 'charity pot' and find your items a loving home! Thank you.

Lastly, Lin has been doing a great job at moving tee times around to aid speed of play etc. As you can imagine, this is quite time consuming for her, but you can help by checking the sign-up sheet, particularly the night before play to see if you have been moved. This ensures that we can get as many ladies out there playing as we can. Thank you!

I think that's it for today's newsletter. My boxes of goodies are pack ready for Bourn, so all we need is fine weather. Don't forget there will be a putting competition to take part in either before your tee time or when you come in!

Looking forward to it!

Yours
Margaret
Ladies Captain 2019

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Captain's Newsletter - 21 July 2019

With temperatures reaching into the 30s for much of next week, please make sure you are well protected when you go out on the course; lots of water, an umbrella, sun hat and sun cream are the order of the day!!

Nine ladies will venture out today for the Alternative day for the July Stableford, so good luck to them all. Thursday will see the Main Day for that competition and we will be certainly needing lots of water on board if the forecast is to be trusted! The sign-up for Thursday looks pretty full at the moment, but if you still want to play email Lin and she can hopefully find you a slot near the end of the field. Good luck everyone! Pat P looks like she might be going out alone for the Nine-hole competition that day, so hopefully someone will be joining her!!

Earlier in the week, we will be putting in another card for the Tuesday Stableford League, this week its round 5! Hopefully some good scores for that one too.

Tomorrow sees the final match for the Scratch Team, when they travel to East Herts for the final match of their season, They have had a brilliant season, with some amazing results so we all wish them well! Some of you may remember that Sarah competed in the Regional Final of the England Medal and finished in the top 10. She recently received confirmation that she has got through (as she had hoped) to the National Final to be held at Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire on Thursday 15th August. An amazing achievement and one she should be very proud of! We will be wishing her well again nearer to the date!

So back to the highlights from last week! The Friendly Squad visited Heydon Grange and were blessed with beautiful weather. With big teams from both clubs, we were able to put out five pairs and whilst each individual game was close and in some, Chesfield were giving away a lot of shots, the overall result was a win for Heydon 1.5 v 3.5. Well done to all the ladies that played. Mowsbury Park away is their next challenge!

The Lorraine Palmer Cup took pride of place on Thursday and once again, it was a big field of players in almost perfect conditions. Coming in second on the day was Jean P and her partner Linda B with 43 pts, but with an even more impressive 44 pts, the Cup was won by Pauline H and Annette G. Great scoring ladies and a well deserved win.

There are one or two places left for the Palmer Cup (Senior Men v Ladies) on Wednesday 7th August and a few reserves would be very welcome. Please do check those diaries and see if you can support us towards a win against the 'Chaps'.

In the meantime, take care, enjoy the gorgeous weather this week and having watched lots of the Open over the weekend, no doubt, we all know where we are going wrong!!! Poor Rory - what a great 2nd round though!!

Yours
Margaret
Ladies Captain 2019

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Captain's Newsletter - 14 July 2019

With no photos taken this last week, I thought I would give you an insight into part of the course from the air. In fact, from a drone that the greenkeepers sometimes use to get a different perspective of the course! An interesting view isn't it, but can you place it?

Some small changes that The Club Company promised a few months back are beginning to be seen! This week the new 'Costa' coffee machine took pride of place in the clubhouse and all the staff received their training on it Tuesday! New menus are now out on the tables, with a separate one for Breakfasts for those who like to partake before a round! Think you will agree they look tasty and there are certainly some welcome additions. New mats have arrived for the Driving Range and I believe they are now in place. No time to take advantage of them for me this last week, although I could have done with it! We have been informed that Intelligent Golf and the electronic booking system it supports, should be up and running by the first week in November. All concerned thought it sensible to delay the coming on stream until the important matches; championships, medals and cups/trophies etc are largely out of the way thereby avoiding any difficult moments!! Our new membership cards should be out soon, but I have no definitive date as yet, your balances will move across for you. I should have more news after Monday 22nd when we have our first club committee meeting with the new team. In the meantime, I will keep you as informed as I can!

This coming week sees the Friendly team away at Heydon Grange, good luck to all those playing! Its a great course as long as it stays dry!! Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.

There are still a few places left on Thursday for the Lorraine Palmer Cup, so do sign up and fill up the spaces please! The Palmer Cup competition against the Senior Men on August 7th still has a few spaces too and a reserve or two would be perfect! This competition is open to anyone and is Pairs Stableford Betterball, so we are all equal and there are no handicap restrictions! Check your diary to see if you can join us! A general point about signing up on the computer please, whilst Lin is always willing and able to move people around to avoid gaps in the tee times we use, it would save her time if you were able to do this when you consider booking yourself in. Its always good to sign up with different people and pick up a few tips as you go along! Thank you.

Thursday of last week saw just 3 nine-hole ladies venture out, with Pam B taking top spot with 15 pts on count back from Pam W and Pat P. Don't forget if you decide that you would prefer to play only 9 holes on a given day, for whatever reason, please do sign in to play with them. I know they would welcome you!

The main competition that day saw the Ladies' Champion playing to her best again! Kathy D came in with an impressive nett 71, just beating Jean R on countback and winning Division 1. Division 2 was won by Ann G with a nett 72, just ahead of Jean P and Julie R, all in with a nett 72. Great playing ladies! Personally, I must go away and get my head together after a disaster in the bunker on the 15th and ending up 'picking up' - what was that all about!!!

There were Medal matches all round this week and on Saturday, four ladies were out for their game. Nikki B came in with a nett 73 a convincing win for her ahead of Megan B, Lin G and Annette G. Well done Nikki!

Finally Friday September 13th 2019 is a HUGE day for Chesfield Downs Ladies!! While the biggest event in women's golf takes place at Gleneagles, this is the date for our very own biennial Solheim Cup Competition played against Mill Green Ladies. This year we will be at home and if you were not there in 2017, you simply can't imagine the fun we all have supporting the United States in this club v club day! (See 2017's photo below.) A notice will be going up on the board very soon for you to express an interest, your availability to play etc etc. We will then be looking for a squad for the day but also an equal amount of ladies to be caddies for our players. We obviously hope you can join in the obvious fun and challenge!!

Solheim Squad Members 2017

Finally, enjoy the week's golf and good luck in the Lorraine Palmer Cup, if you are playing!

Best wishes
Margaret

Ladies' Captain 2019

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Captain's Newsletter - 9 July 2019

Well readers, what an amazing week the Ladies of Chesfield Downs had last week!! The weather was very kind indeed to us but much more importantly the golf was FABULOUS!!

The Ladies Club Championship of any club is one of the major dates in the diary and the last two Thursdays saw the ladies battle it out for top place. Was their good score in the 1st round going to be enough or would they fall by the wayside?? Could they make up the shots that they needed? All thoughts in their heads as they ventured out no doubt! The weather was beautiful and the course amazing! For the last five years, the Club Champion Trophy has been held firmly by Virginia C, an amazing achievement indeed! This year, there were several ladies with other intentions and after a very close 1st round between several ladies, I am thrilled to say Kathy D took the top spot this year, achieving not only the best gross score overall (83 + 85 = 168) and taking the trophy but also coming in with the best overall nett score of 146 too! Quite outstanding and very very well deserved. Taking the Angela Chatterton Trophy with the next best nett score of 148 was Sally W just two shots behind Kathy. An incredible two days of golf! I know both ladies would want to thank their playing partners over the two rounds and the close competition they provided. Hope the celebrations are still going on!!

Whilst the previous Tuesday wasn't able to completely match the thrills of the Club Championship, around 30 ladies battled it out in the new Miss Designer Golf competition held this year. With a 1st prize of £100 to compete for the afternoon saw several ladies rush along after a hot day at work to get their entries in before the close of day. It was a great day and one we hope we can repeat next year. Coming in with the best score on the day was Diane C who takes away £100 of MDG gift vouchers, 2nd place went to Nikki B (it was worth the rush from work after all) and 3rd place went to Angela H, with smaller prizes for them both. Another great day!.

Looking ahead, we are not far away from the Away Day at Bourn on 1st August! Nikki and Helen will be looking to repeat their win from last year, of course and we will be doing our best not to let them!! Please pay the remainder of the costs to Pat now please if you haven't already. If you have any concerns as to whether you have paid or not please do ask her. Any other queries to Rogie or myself. The tee times are being done today, so the sheet will be up by Thursday hopefully.

The sheet is also up for our annual competition against the Seniors in the Palmer Cup on Wednesday 7th August. The competition is a pairs matchplay format, so lets see if we can get a big squad out there. Everyone is invited to join in and if we can get a bigger team together, the Seniors are ready to match us in number. Please see the sheet on the board.

With the Solheim Cup match being held on September 13th at Chesfield Downs and the new Pearson Season soon approaching, it is important that squads are as prepared as they can be! The matchplay format is not necessarily one we get a lot of practice in, and it is my intention to utilise some of the tee times on a Tuesday to provide the opportunity for those keen to refine their skills, to take advantage of, so please do keep an eye on the Tuesday board for a few changes to the sign-up sheets. The fun games that we are all familiar with, will not change but the number of tee times given to them will reduce just slightly!

Good luck to all those playing this week, lets hope the weather stays fine!

Take care
Margaret
Ladies Captain 2019

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