CAPTAIN’S REPORT
Given at the County AGM
Good afternoon ladies. Despite our lack of a BBQ summer we’ve been most fortunate to have been blessed with some excellent weather for all our County meetings this year.
Going back to January, we had an excellent response to our Team’s availability letter with some new faces coming through which was most encouraging. Our 1st Team preparations for County Match Week began with 5 training days with Martin Cummins at Dudsbury and Bristol & Clifton GC, the venue for our match week. We had 3 warm up matches – the first we narrowly lost against Bournemouth University at Ferndown but halved our annual match against Dorset Boys at Weymouth. Importantly we won our annual derby match against Hampshire at Remedy Oak where we were treated like royalty, a most memorable day, with the 2 Captains enjoying courtesy use of the Ryder Cup buggy.
Our County Championship and Silver Spring Meeting were held at Sherborne where the weather was kind, the club looked after us superbly and we witnessed some tremendous golf over the 4 days. On the strokeplay day Melissa McMahon of Yeovil set a new course record of 75 in the morning round which Hayley Davis equalled in the afternoon. The Championship final was a repeat of last year’s between Hayley Davis of Ferndown and Melissa McMahon of Yeovil. After a closely fought final Melissa closed out the match on the 16th to retain the Huleatt Cup and her crown of Dorset Ladies’ County Golf Champion.
The Johnstone and Threlfall Cups were won by Christine Lawrie of Sherborne and the trophy winners were: Hayley Davis the Eleanor Morris Dish and Ivy Carroll Cup, Harriet Legg (F) the Carter Bowl, Amanda Wright (Y) the Dees Salver, and Janet Towers the Sugden Salver.
Our next event was the Bronze Spring Meeting at Weymouth and it was a great privilege to hold this meeting in their centenary year. The winners of the low bronze were: Banister Cup - Lynne Williams (S), and the Cox Cup - Jean Vile (Wey).
The high bronze winners were: Craig Trophy - Pat Russell (CD) and the De Gruchy Salver - Patricia Steer (KH).
Our two over 80s stalwarts – Doreen Green and Tod Hillyer, with combined ages of 180, played on the high bronze day – they are a wonderful advertisement for County Golf showing that County Golf is for all – from the young to the young at heart.
The Inter Club Foursomes took place at Bridport and West Dorset, where the sun continued to shine for us and we were made to feel most welcome.
Winners of the Bronze were Crane Valley, runners up Knighton Heath, the Silver went to Sherborne, runners up Lyme Regis, with the Scratch won by Weymouth, runners up Broadstone.
Particular congratulations go to the Weymouth Scratch Pairing – Mandy Hawkins and Fern Grimshaw for their third successive win, which is probably a record!
I now turn to what is our most important fixture of the year – the South West Inter County Match Week. This year it was Gloucester’s turn to host the week at Bristol & Clifton GC. With a 2 month gap between the County Championship and the Match Week, there were some inevitable changes to players availability which led to Fran Young from Ferndown and Dani Lown, Weymouth being brought into the squad comprising:
Going back to January, we had an excellent response to our Team’s availability letter with some new faces coming through which was most encouraging. Our 1st Team preparations for County Match Week began with 5 training days with Martin Cummins at Dudsbury and Bristol & Clifton GC, the venue for our match week. We had 3 warm up matches – the first we narrowly lost against Bournemouth University at Ferndown but halved our annual match against Dorset Boys at Weymouth. Importantly we won our annual derby match against Hampshire at Remedy Oak where we were treated like royalty, a most memorable day, with the 2 Captains enjoying courtesy use of the Ryder Cup buggy.
Our County Championship and Silver Spring Meeting were held at Sherborne where the weather was kind, the club looked after us superbly and we witnessed some tremendous golf over the 4 days. On the strokeplay day Melissa McMahon of Yeovil set a new course record of 75 in the morning round which Hayley Davis equalled in the afternoon. The Championship final was a repeat of last year’s between Hayley Davis of Ferndown and Melissa McMahon of Yeovil. After a closely fought final Melissa closed out the match on the 16th to retain the Huleatt Cup and her crown of Dorset Ladies’ County Golf Champion.
The Johnstone and Threlfall Cups were won by Christine Lawrie of Sherborne and the trophy winners were: Hayley Davis the Eleanor Morris Dish and Ivy Carroll Cup, Harriet Legg (F) the Carter Bowl, Amanda Wright (Y) the Dees Salver, and Janet Towers the Sugden Salver.
Our next event was the Bronze Spring Meeting at Weymouth and it was a great privilege to hold this meeting in their centenary year. The winners of the low bronze were: Banister Cup -
The Inter Club Foursomes took place at Bridport and West Dorset, where the sun continued to shine for us and we were made to feel most welcome.
Winners of the Bronze were Crane Valley, runners up Knighton Heath, the Silver went to Sherborne, runners up Lyme Regis, with the Scratch won by Weymouth, runners up Broadstone.
Particular congratulations go to the Weymouth Scratch Pairing – Mandy Hawkins and Fern Grimshaw for their third successive win, which is probably a record!
I now turn to what is our most important fixture of the year – the South West Inter County Match Week. This year it was Gloucester’s turn to host the week at Bristol & Clifton GC. With a 2 month gap between the County Championship and the Match Week, there were some inevitable changes to players availability which led to Fran Young from Ferndown and Dani Lown, Weymouth being brought into the squad comprising:
Melanie Buxton & Marketa Mann (BS), Hayley Davis, Georgia Hall, Harriet Legg (F), Carly Cummins (P), Fern Grimshaw (WEY), Melissa McMahon (Y)
Our Day 1 opponents were Gloucester who we identified as being our toughest opponents of the week. We won 2 of the 3 morning foursomes which was a tremendous start, but sadly Gloucester went on to win 4 of the 6 singles which meant they won overall by 5 matches to 4.
On Day 2 we played Somerset and narrowly lost 5 matches to 4. While disappointing, we still had all to play for and on Day 3 the team really dug deep and we had a good 5 to 4 win over Devon. On the Thursday and Friday we won both our matches against Wiltshire and Cornwall.
Overall result for the week: Gloucester 5 points, Somerset 3 ½ , Dorset 3, Devon 2, Cornwall 1, Wiltshire 1/2,.
All the matches were played in excellent spirit, at times birdies were insufficient to win holes, and we witnessed some remarkable wins and hard fought fight backs. As the second smallest County in the South West, Dorset did very well to finish in the top 3 behind Somerset. Our two youngest players, Hayley Davis (16) and Georgia Hall (13) won all their 5 singles matches, which is a fantastic achievement.
Particular thanks go to the Yeovil, Broadstone, Ferndown and Sherborne ladies who came to support the team and their presence was much appreciated.
In late July we were the host County for the Divisional Final of the Australian Spoons which was held at Ashley Wood.
Our Autumn Meeting was held at Chedington Court in early September and we’re most grateful for the very warm welcome and excellent support the Club and Ladies Section gave us.
In mid September the finalists of the Interclub enjoyed a closely fought match at Sherborne with Broadstone winning and Knighton Heath the runners up. Wareham hosted the finals of the Humphreys Bowl and Parkin Cup. Ferndown won the Humphreys Bowl from Crane Valley with Broadstone winning the Parkin Cup from Parkstone.
Our final County Event of the year was the Centenary Countdown. As we had many more ladies wanting to play in this than spaces available at Broadstone we decided to run a tandem competition at Lyme Regis. Both these events were most successful – raising X amount for the Centenary fund.
We are most grateful to all the clubs who have been kind enough to host County events and our warm thanks go to all the Club Secretaries, Managers, Ladies Captains, County Delegates who have worked so hard to make our events a success. Thank you so much.
Our Dorset players have also had a most successful year at regional and national events. We had 7 Dorset Girls playing At the South West Girls Championship held at Bude. For most of them this was their first taste of Links golf and they had a good brisk wind to contend with. They all much enjoyed the experience. Georgia Hall (F) played brilliantly with rounds of 78 and 76 and fully deserved to be the Championship Runner Up which is a fantastic achievement for a 13 year old. Georgia’s and Melissa McMahon’s combined scores of 312 were good enough for Dorset to win the County Trophy.
The next stop for our stars was the SW Championships at High Post. Hayley Davis won the Katherine Cairns Trophy for the best gross score of 146 and she was runner up to the winner of the match play phase. 14 year old Fran Young (F) had a day to remember as she had a hole in one on the 8th. Hayley, Georgia and Fern Grimshaw’s combined strokeplay scores resulted in the award of another County Trophy for Dorset.
The English Girls’ Championships were held at The Wiltshire and North Wilts in late July. They played in some of the worst torrential rain I have seen on a golf course – and I really took my hat off to Fran Young and Sarena Bosch who went off in the worst of it with smiles on their faces. In the Under 13s Sophie Keech (LR) came 9th and the Champion is Georgia Hall – Fantastic! Meanwhile at North Wilts Hayley Davis and Melissa McMahon qualified in the top match play flight with Hayley winning through to the semi final. Another fantastic performance. The English Women’s Open Strokeplay Championship was held at Enmore Park in early August – Melissa McMahon finished 19th and Fern Grimshaw 32nd.
Hayley Georgia and Melissa played in the British Girls Open Championship at West Lancashire. Hayley qualified 20th and lost in the quarter finals to the eventual winner.
Hayley’s excellent year continued with selection for English Girls where she contributed to England’s win at the Home Internationals and their 4th place in the European Team Championships. She and Georgia are now members of EWGA’s top 2 Elite training squads.
We also have another national champion and that is 13 year old Sarena Bosch from Weymouth who won the grand final for her age group at the National Skills Challenge held at Woodhall Spa in September.
Now a brief switch to my USGA Course Rating Report. Nationally 73% of courses have been rated and the aim is to complete as many as possible by the end of 2011. In Dorset we’ve rated 3 courses this year – Ferndown Old and The Presidents, and Broadstone. We’ve 11 courses left to rate. My thanks to the Assistant Raters – Karen Ellis, Liz Lloyd, Sue Dean, and Eileen Carter Westcott. If anyone is interested in assisting with the rating task please let me know. That’s the end of the commercial.
This has been another busy year for Dorset. Much work goes into running all our events . None of this would have been possible without your Executive Committee who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to ensure that all our events ran smoothly. They have given me enormous support and I can’t thank them enough. My thanks too to Karen Gray who is brilliant at keeping our website up to date and for sending all our newsworthy items to the local press.
Our junior girls golf has been organized this year by Fred Brown (Hayley’s granddad) and Deryn Bosch and we’re most grateful for all the time and effort they have put into this. Neither of them can be here today but I gave them your warm thanks last Sunday at the girls County Championship.
There is another lady who deserves a very special mention today and that is Kay Everett whose 2 years as County Secretary is up. She has done a brilliant job, nothing is ever too much trouble for her, her sense of humour is always bubbling away and she has that wonderful knack of remaining calm at all times. My sincere and warm thanks to Kay for all the work and time she has given to the County.
I’m also most grateful to Karen and Jenni who both work tirelessly behind the scenes. I have been most fortunate to have received outstanding support from our County Coach Martin Cummins, from Jean Pomeroy, Jackie Wilson and last but by no means least from Liz Lloyd. In particular I’ve valued the friendship, wise counsel and sense of humour of all the Execs. I’m more than confident that I’m handing over the county reins to a most competent and capable lady and I wish you Liz every success for the next 2 years
Lastly and by no means least I’m also most grateful for the excellent support I’ve received from my friends at Sherborne and for the remarkable fund raising raffle they organised for County Finals last year. In sum it has been an enormous privilege and honour to Captain Dorset and our County Team and I am so, so proud of their wonderful achievements over the last 2 years.
On Day 2 we played Somerset and narrowly lost 5 matches to 4. While disappointing, we still had all to play for and on Day 3 the team really dug deep and we had a good 5 to 4 win over Devon. On the Thursday and Friday we won both our matches against Wiltshire and Cornwall.
Overall result for the week: Gloucester 5 points, Somerset 3 ½ , Dorset 3, Devon 2, Cornwall 1, Wiltshire 1/2,.
All the matches were played in excellent spirit, at times birdies were insufficient to win holes, and we witnessed some remarkable wins and hard fought fight backs. As the second smallest County in the South West, Dorset did very well to finish in the top 3 behind Somerset. Our two youngest players, Hayley Davis (16) and Georgia Hall (13) won all their 5 singles matches, which is a fantastic achievement.
Particular thanks go to the Yeovil, Broadstone, Ferndown and Sherborne ladies who came to support the team and their presence was much appreciated.
In late July we were the host County for the Divisional Final of the Australian Spoons which was held at Ashley Wood.
Our Autumn Meeting was held at Chedington Court in early September and we’re most grateful for the very warm welcome and excellent support the Club and Ladies Section gave us.
In mid September the finalists of the Interclub enjoyed a closely fought match at Sherborne with Broadstone winning and Knighton Heath the runners up. Wareham hosted the finals of the Humphreys Bowl and Parkin Cup. Ferndown won the Humphreys Bowl from Crane Valley with Broadstone winning the Parkin Cup from Parkstone.
Our final County Event of the year was the Centenary Countdown. As we had many more ladies wanting to play in this than spaces available at Broadstone we decided to run a tandem competition at Lyme Regis. Both these events were most successful – raising X amount for the Centenary fund.
We are most grateful to all the clubs who have been kind enough to host County events and our warm thanks go to all the Club Secretaries, Managers, Ladies Captains, County Delegates who have worked so hard to make our events a success. Thank you so much.
Our Dorset players have also had a most successful year at regional and national events. We had 7 Dorset Girls playing At the South West Girls Championship held at Bude. For most of them this was their first taste of Links golf and they had a good brisk wind to contend with. They all much enjoyed the experience. Georgia Hall (F) played brilliantly with rounds of 78 and 76 and fully deserved to be the Championship Runner Up which is a fantastic achievement for a 13 year old. Georgia’s and Melissa McMahon’s combined scores of 312 were good enough for Dorset to win the County Trophy.
The next stop for our stars was the SW Championships at High Post. Hayley Davis won the Katherine Cairns Trophy for the best gross score of 146 and she was runner up to the winner of the match play phase. 14 year old Fran Young (F) had a day to remember as she had a hole in one on the 8th. Hayley, Georgia and Fern Grimshaw’s combined strokeplay scores resulted in the award of another County Trophy for Dorset.
The English Girls’ Championships were held at The Wiltshire and North Wilts in late July. They played in some of the worst torrential rain I have seen on a golf course – and I really took my hat off to Fran Young and Sarena Bosch who went off in the worst of it with smiles on their faces. In the Under 13s Sophie Keech (LR) came 9th and the Champion is Georgia Hall – Fantastic! Meanwhile at North Wilts Hayley Davis and Melissa McMahon qualified in the top match play flight with Hayley winning through to the semi final. Another fantastic performance. The English Women’s Open Strokeplay Championship was held at Enmore Park in early August – Melissa McMahon finished 19th and Fern Grimshaw 32nd.
Hayley Georgia and Melissa played in the British Girls Open Championship at West Lancashire. Hayley qualified 20th and lost in the quarter finals to the eventual winner.
Hayley’s excellent year continued with selection for English Girls where she contributed to England’s win at the Home Internationals and their 4th place in the European Team Championships. She and Georgia are now members of EWGA’s top 2 Elite training squads.
We also have another national champion and that is 13 year old Sarena Bosch from Weymouth who won the grand final for her age group at the National Skills Challenge held at Woodhall Spa in September.
Now a brief switch to my USGA Course Rating Report. Nationally 73% of courses have been rated and the aim is to complete as many as possible by the end of 2011. In Dorset we’ve rated 3 courses this year – Ferndown Old and The Presidents, and Broadstone. We’ve 11 courses left to rate. My thanks to the Assistant Raters – Karen Ellis, Liz Lloyd, Sue Dean, and Eileen Carter Westcott. If anyone is interested in assisting with the rating task please let me know. That’s the end of the commercial.
This has been another busy year for Dorset. Much work goes into running all our events . None of this would have been possible without your Executive Committee who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to ensure that all our events ran smoothly. They have given me enormous support and I can’t thank them enough. My thanks too to Karen Gray who is brilliant at keeping our website up to date and for sending all our newsworthy items to the local press.
Our junior girls golf has been organized this year by Fred Brown (Hayley’s granddad) and Deryn Bosch and we’re most grateful for all the time and effort they have put into this. Neither of them can be here today but I gave them your warm thanks last Sunday at the girls County Championship.
There is another lady who deserves a very special mention today and that is Kay Everett whose 2 years as County Secretary is up. She has done a brilliant job, nothing is ever too much trouble for her, her sense of humour is always bubbling away and she has that wonderful knack of remaining calm at all times. My sincere and warm thanks to Kay for all the work and time she has given to the County.
I’m also most grateful to Karen and Jenni who both work tirelessly behind the scenes. I have been most fortunate to have received outstanding support from our County Coach Martin Cummins, from Jean Pomeroy, Jackie Wilson and last but by no means least from Liz Lloyd. In particular I’ve valued the friendship, wise counsel and sense of humour of all the Execs. I’m more than confident that I’m handing over the county reins to a most competent and capable lady and I wish you Liz every success for the next 2 years
Lastly and by no means least I’m also most grateful for the excellent support I’ve received from my friends at Sherborne and for the remarkable fund raising raffle they organised for County Finals last year. In sum it has been an enormous privilege and honour to Captain Dorset and our County Team and I am so, so proud of their wonderful achievements over the last 2 years.