Captain's Newsletter - 29 September 2019

What a great day Saturday was!! The golfers set off as early as 8.00 a.m. with 88 of us playing in the Captains Day Team Alliance! The wind would be a challenge as it often is but it would not deter the overall winners, Joan W and Sue O and their partners. Sue O would go on to win the nearest the pin on the 12th. Well played to them all - amazing win! Amelia F would fire a long drive off the 6th to take away the Longest Drive for the ladies. Well done to her, of course! Most of us can only stand in awe of such ability!

The evening started off at 7 p.m. and over 120 players and partners would join us for a great evening of banter, good food and super entertainment. Of course, all such days can only be special with the support of some very important people, a big thank you to Barry and all his team, to Lee and the greenkeepers (the course looked great after such a lot of rain last week). As we said on the night, a special thank you to Jackie C whose support and organisation over the last nine months had been immense!! The silent auction of a 7-day membership was won by Helen L with a very generous donation to the Captains' Charities - THANK YOU!!! Finally, but no less importantly, a massive thank you to all the ladies of Chesfield Downs who supported the day/evening by attending and also those who couldn't be there but sent lovely messages of support for the day. How very special you all are!

I feel very honoured to be the Ladies Captain for 2019 in many ways! It is big occasions like Saturday of course, but also the smaller things which trigger this sense. Last Thursday, it was watching old friends come together over a coffee and a bite to eat, as the rest of us came in after our round! It was lovely to see Joan M, and Julia G come together to join our 9-hole ladies after their competition, we hope to see Julia back playing with them very soon. Pam B would come home with the highest points in their 9-hole Stableford followed by Jane S and Maureen M. Well done ladies. Mary H also joined us for a coffee and a chat and hopefully she will be back playing with us very soon. We've missed you all!

Thursday's result joined last weekend's to bring a great overall win for Nikki B with 36 pts in division 1. Anne L would take 2nd place with 33 points. In division 2, Lin G would take top place with 39 points from Linda B on count back. Three out of the four top places would go to the weekend ladies this time around, perhaps indicating the changing weather conditions as the week had progressed. Well done ladies some great scores!

A few on-going reminders for you all - get those diaries out!! The Ladies AGM is on Thursday 7th November at 7pm, please do come along to welcome the new committee and celebrate lots of successes from the past year. The Club AGM will take place the following Tuesday, again at 7pm. There is a sign-up for the Ladies AGM on the board, if you can let us know if you are coming or not. A similar notice for the Club AGM will go up in a few weeks.

I know the noticeboard is pretty full, but please don't miss the Christmas Party sign-up. It will be great fun and we would love it, if you would join us!!

FINALLY, the ballot for the CLUB CAPTAIN 2020 will open officially on Intellligent Golf on Tuesday October 1st. There will be the ability to vote manually at the club too, if you prefer, please ask at the reception desk. The ballot will remain open until FRIDAY 18th October. I would be very honoured to be the third lady at Chesfield Downs to be The Club Captain, following in the footsteps of Marica and Kathy D - but I will need your VOTE! THANK YOU.
Margaret
Ladies Captain 2019

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Captain's Newsletter - 23 September 2019

The Chris Leary Chalice presented by the lady herself!

What a very special day, last Thursday was, although many of you were away on your holidays! The sun shone all day, the course was looking great and even the sand on the greens didn't seem to affect the scores for the day. 37 ladies enjoyed the challenge of playing for the Chris Leary Chalice and with 11 of those ladies playing to 36 or better, it took something special to win the day. Linda B thought she had the main prize with a great score of 42 pts but just pipping her to the post, the Chalice went to Alison W after an amazing 43 pts. Well done to everyone. Well done to those who were able to receive their previous prizes and trophies from earlier challenges throughout the summer. Those of you away will be presented with your prizes at the forthcoming AGM on November 7th. A huge thank you to all those present for your support for my charities of the year and a further £200+ has gone into the coffers as a result of your generous purchase of raffle tickets. A further £100 has been collected by the regulars of a certain pub in Kimpton, thanks to Nikki B, and some very kind gents from Chesfield Downs who are also very supportive of the Ladies Section.

Also enjoying their golf since the last newsletter, Julie P and Amelia F came together to compete in the Ann MacLaurin Trophy match last Sunday at Mill Green. Whilst they didn't achieve what they would have wished for, they both enjoyed the experience against some very low handicappers!

I have already made mention of the Ladies AGM on November 7th, please ensure you sign-up to let us know if you will be attending so that we can arrange the necessary refreshments (Sheet on the noticeboard). A further date for your diary is the following Tuesday 12th November - the Club AGM. As Section Captains and Vice Captains it is always nice to see friendly faces in the audience, so please do try to attend. I will ensure that there is a sign-up sheet in the locker room by mid October.

Arrangements are still in the process of being made for the ballot for Club Captain. Many of you have been asking me how and when this will be done. I am anticipating the ballot arrangements will come out via Intelligent Golf in early October. As soon as I am informed, I will let you know. Thank you once again for all your support.

The sign-up sheet for the Ladies Christmas Party on Friday 13th December, is beginning to get your attention. Please do come along, it should be a great night of fun and the more of you able to attend, the better it will make the evening!

Early October brings some winners' trophies for those lucky ladies who are eligible to compete in them. There will be a qualifying competition running alongside each one for those, like myself, whose year has not been massively successful golf-wise! Lin will be doing her utmost to keep this as accessible as possible for everyone, but we will all need to do our best to ensure we sign-up for the correct competition. Please do double-check when booking in on-line AND also when you check-in before going out to play!!

Finally, there are many bunkers now with Sand Bees nesting around the edges! With an ever changing situation, it has been decided that any bunker where there is obvious bee activity should be deemed GUR. Whilst the bees are very unlikely to sting, they will buzz around you if disturbed and their presence will certainly affect your attempt to get out of the sand! As the temperatures start to drop, they will cease to be active and disappear from sight!

With a week of unsettled weather ahead, lets hope our golf isn't too badly affected.

Yours
Margaret
Ladies Captain 2019

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Captain's Newsletter - 16 September 2019

Well what an amazing week we have had at Chesfield Downs this week, only to be topped by some great news this morning, more of which later!

Tuesday's game of a Gift, Wish and a Joker was a novelty to many who played, but great fun. Once again, many thanks to Hazel for organising these great activities for us! Prizes await the winners for the day and after great use of their jokers, they were; 2nd place - Jackie S, but grabbing 1st place on count back - Barbara B. Well done ladies, prizes when I see you next!

Thursday was the September Club Medal match and in great weather, Lauren came in 2nd in division 1, with a nett 72 but in first place after a great round, Kathy C beat her with a round of nett 70! In the 2nd division, well deserved handicap cuts again would be the order of the day. In 2nd place with a nett 71 was Karen M only to be beaten by Jackie S who came in with an amazing nett 68 and a handicap cut down to 32.6! Great golf ladies, well done to you all.

As with many matchplay competitions and the Solheim Competition at Gleneagles would be no exception, games are often very very close coming to the final holes! Back home at Chesfield on Friday 13th, our own 'Solheim' would be no different! The wonderful ladies of the USA (Chesfield) would be disappointed yet again, losing the match 8:2. although many of those matches went to the final one or two holes, so a tough result! Sometimes though it is not about winning or losing, it is about how you take part and everyone of the ladies who participated in the day, threw themselves into the occasion with gusto as you can see from the photo below!

Were we disappointed, of course we were! But we will dust ourselves off and be even more determined to get revenge next time around! A big thank you goes to the three gents who gave their time in the morning as the official photographer and our match starters, Gerry, Ralph and Clive - Thank you! Another set of thank yous from the players goes to their glamorous and motivating caddies, you were awesome, and finally to Rogie for all her hard work in organising the day, to Pauline, Lin and Linda who gave their time on Thursday evening to decorate the room - it was brilliant. A VERY SPECIAL DAY!

Still leaving you waiting for the exciting news awhile longer a few notices. There are notices on the boards about the forthcoming AGM, if you can let us know whether you can support us on the day. There are also notices about eligibility for the Kathy Dale (Medal) and Lauren Pitcher (Stableford) Trophy/Plate competitions. You will recall you are eligible to play in these finals if you have won one of the relevant monthly qualifiers. Lin has put a list up so you should be able to see your name there if you think this applies to you.

A Rules Roadshow organised by the Hertfordshire Golf Union, is being held at the Welwyn Garden City Golf Club on Friday 18th October if you are interested. The poster will go up on the board later this week for more details.

So what was I so excited to hear about this morning...…… Our wonderful Scratch team have won their division and secured promotion to Division 3 after only a few years of competing in the Ovaltine Scratch League. After a nail-biting few weeks awaiting the results of our closest rivals, Veralum, the team were finally able to relax after a great season, winning all but one of their matches. This result will now see them competing in a play off against Letchworth B squad, to see which club can claim overall winner of Division 4. The match will be played on Sunday 13th October at Harpenden GC. Congratulations to the whole squad who have taken part this season - a brilliant achievement!

It always feels good to finish on a high, so enjoy the golf this week. I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed for some lovely weather Thursday.

Yours
Margaret
Ladies Captain 2019

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Captain's Newsletter - 9 September 2019

As Captain it is always nice to go and play other courses and last Thursday Vicky invited Pat, Rogie and myself to be part of a team supporting the Garden House Hospice Charity event at Letchworth Golf Club. Football fans amongst you will have known the names of the Tottenham and Arsenal stars that were there supporting the day, but to be honest it had little impact on the four of us! We were still laughing as we left the Club that evening as we had been the ONLY LADIES there!!! Great day and a very worthy charity of course!

So to the news of last week back home at Chesfield. Last Thursday saw the second and final round of our Eclectic Cup. The final merged results are yet to be released but we will be doing that soon. However, some good scores came in and hopefully improvements for many of you. A very impressive gross score of 80 brought Sally first place for the 2nd round and a handicap cut to 12! Fantastic round, well done. Numbers on Saturday were low with only three of our ladies going out, I guess you were all saving yourselves for the Ward Trophy on the following day! Well done to Olive though who came in with the best score of the day. 

Saturday had been a bit cold, but the sun came out for Les and Pat and 48 players joined in the fun of the Ward Mixed Pairs Trophy. A great field for the first year saw Steve H and Olive come in second place with Steve getting nearest the pin for the men on the 9th hole, an achievement Jean R would mirror for the ladies. But coming in first place with a joint score of 47 points was husband and wife duo Linda and Ralph B. Brilliant day and a well deserved win guys and girls.

Other news of the week, Rosie was certainly not going to let the grass or fairways grow under her feet and after just introducing her to you last week, she now has her first handicap! Brilliant start Rosie, well done!

Several of you brought items to the Committee Meeting last week and your comments and concerns particularly about the course, its bunkers and greensides were discussed. It was agreed that these concerns would be forwarded on to be tabled at the forthcoming Club Committee. The greenkeeping staff have acknowledged the great effort the Ladies Section go to in order to support their work, so please do keep it up! One small thing that always helps the speed of play is, of course, ensuring that trolleys, whilst you are on the green, are left in a position as far away from the on-coming players as possible. It is a small thing but it makes a big difference! Thank you for your help with this.

The Solheim Cup is only a few days away now. We have found those stars and stripes socks, leggings etc and now can't wait for the day to come! There are still places for caddies, so if you would like to join us please let Pauline or Rogie know asap.

Looking at HowDidiDo there are still a few places left for next Thursday and the Autumn Meeting. Please don't forget that although the sign-up sheet might appear to be full, Lin can generally find a slot, so do email her. If you are unable to play but would like to join us for lunch, we would love to see you.

I know it is still three months away, but the Committee have been thinking about Christmas Celebrations this year and it has been agreed to subsidise the ladies attending the Club's Christmas Party on Friday 13th December. The details will be going up in the locker room sometime soon, but I wanted to give you plenty of notice so that you can keep your diary free for that evening and join us. We have already reserved some tables, so there will be plenty of room. This date of 13th will be mean you will have plenty of time that day and there will be no rush back from your golf! SAVE THE DATE!!

This week, I met with the nephew of our much loved Kay Baker. The family and I have agreed that room will be found in the trophy cabinet and our future diaries for The Kay Baker Memorial Bowl. The Bowl will be played for as near to her birth date of 3rd April as possible. The competition will be run as a Stableford competition over nine holes to ensure that as many of Kay's friends will be able to compete as possible. Ladies who would like, can continue to play the remaining nine holes outside of the competition, if they so wish.

FINALLY, after a lot of thought, I have decided to put my name forward to be CLUB CAPTAIN for 2020! I believe strongly that as a progressive club, the ladies should be continuing the great work that Marica and Kathy D have done in the past, in putting their names forward for this position, wherever possible. It would appear that this will result in a vote, as it has done in the past, and I hope sincerely you will support me!

Yours as ever
Margaret
Ladies Captain 2019

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Captain's Newsletter - 3 September 2019

A big WELCOME to the full complement of greenkeepers at Chesfield Downs!! With staffing levels now where they should be, we can look forward to seeing the course move from strength to strength. The bunkers all have 2 rakes in them (and some of the larger ones, 4) so there are no excuses!! If you do see players walk away without raking, please do speak to a marshall! I know this would never happen from any of our ladies, but some people are unfortunately not so responsible. The team are keen to respond to any information we give them, so please let me know. The bunkers are on their radar already!

So what else has been happening over the last week or so? Well, she missed my deadline last weekend but I feel that this particular bit of news should not be left out however late in the day! The celebrations are probably still continuing in a penthouse in Watton and the bin will be full of those empty fizz bottles very deservedly!! If you have been on Mars or away on holiday you may have missed the news of Megan's amazing round last weekend for the Denis Flynn Memorial Trophy. Scoring 46 points and bringing her handicap down to 18, Megan took 2nd place on countback from Rob W in this mixed event. Amazing Golf and well done to her.

Last week's Eclectic Cup Round 1 results are on HowDidiDo and have Virginia in first place so far, with Sarah close behind. Well done also to Maggie T whose great score of gross 99 gave her a 5 point handicap cut!! Impressive and very well deserved. Remember there is a Gross and a Nett winner of this competition, so there is still a lot to play for this coming Thursday in the final round. There are still quite a few spaces available and you don't have to have played last week to enter so get your name down if you are free. Good luck everyone!

Today (Monday) we saw the last of the Friendly Matches for 2019 at home against Knebworth. A great result of a 3 and a half win against 1 and a half was well deserved.

A big thank you to Kathy M for organising these matches this year.

Looking forward to the weekend, good luck to all those playing in the Ward Pairs Trophy. Both Les and Pat are thrilled at the number of players joining this inaugural competition. The weather looks fine and it should be a great day!

Friday 13th September and the Solheim Cup match against Mill Green is just 11 days away and we are all getting keyed up, practising hard and finding those stars and stripes socks!! We would still really love some more caddies to share the day with. Please do sign up to join us if you can.
I have put the blue charity box out again in readiness for the Autumn Meeting. If you do have any small items which could be used as raffle prizes it would be much appreciated. We already have a lot of alcohol (what does that say about us) but other bits and pieces would be lovely - thank you! The sign-up is getting full but there are still spaces so get your diary out and check out whether you can play.

Finally, I am thrilled to be able to welcome two new ladies to our section. Rosie is getting her handicap cards signed off as I write this and is keen to get her golfing career going and Wendy is joining us from Whipsnade GC after a house move. Already an experienced golfer, Kathy C will be looking to seek her out for the Pearson Squad next season! I know you will make both ladies feel very welcome as you always do!

Hope to catch some of you briefly on Tuesday, before the committee meeting! Enjoy your golf this week.

Yours
Margaret
Ladies Captain 2019

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