Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have had the honour of being the President of the Cumbria Union of Golf Clubs for
just under one year now and what a year it has turned out to be!
It is universally acknowledged that Cumbria is now a force to be reckoned with on the
fairways of England.
Our County Squad , of whom 15 were called up for duty this year won the Northern
Counties Daily Telegraph Salver for only the second time in its history. This time we did
the clean sweep, beating all 5 other counties on the way. The closest results were against
Cheshire and Northumberland where we won 10-8, but against the might of Lancashire
, Yorkshire & Durham we recorded bone-crushing defeats in the ratio of 2:1.
Overall we won 65% of our Foursomes, in itself a splendid achievement and 62% of our
Singles matches. Quite remarkable!
William Bowe and Grant Little shared the James Salver, recording the best individual
performances in the county matches, and James Atkinson was only ½ point behind. It is
no coincidence that in the Green Jacket Competition played over the County’s 36 hole
competitions, William Bowe again led with Grant Little second in the overall standings
with John Longcake third. In the second division, Andrew Millray was first with Sam
Doidge and Darren Whitfield filling the rostrum places.
It is with sadness, that I understand that John Longcake has decided to hang up his
county boots after a long and distinguished career, with 122 appearances,(.
W-51 L-41 H-10 EGU-20
Our other major triumph this year was to win the Big 6, EGU Qualifier at Seascale, for
the first time ever. This was the result of a campaign spearheaded by Captain Cliff
Heath, aided and abetted by a team of determined golfers with a back up squad from
the Executive and Seascale Golf Club. We can be proud of this achievement for many
reasons, not the least of which was setting the standard by which this competition
should be run!
The lads powered through this competition winning by 5 clear shots and in the words of
the Press report, they were never in danger of being headed after the first round.
The lads then went on to Chipping Sodbury and were indeed unfortunate to meet Essex
as their first match. They lost this one with the last putt on the last green to a side ,
which could be politely described as worldly-wise and in your face. We did well to finish
third on our first visit. The lads were no doubt disappointed but they will have learnt
from this experience and look forward to trying again!.
Individually, this year , one can highlight the successful defence of the Logan Trophy by
John Longcake at Silloth, who conducted a complete master-class of how to play Silloth
in the wind to record his third win in the mid-amateur competition.
Our up-and-coming star, Seb Crookall-Nixon also recorded his successful defence of his
Under 16 English title, the MacGregor at Radcliffe-on Trent, fighting his way
successfully through a five -way tie shoot-out. Seb also played and Captained the
England U 16 side and played for the U18s . He is in the England U18 squad for 2010.
Our County’s success story does not end there!
The Workington Club team, of William Bowe, Mark Cowen & Seb Crookall-Nixon,
which won the Inter-County Strokeplay, represented Cumbria at the English Champion
Club at North Hants and went one better than 2008, by winning the event , thereby
qualifying for the European Champion Club. It was no disgrace to come 7th in Europe!
Workington also won the Inter-Club Matchplay.
Modesty also prevents me from saying that your President came 2nd in the Presidents
Tournament and teamed with Alan Shaw, we came third in the team Competition. It
would have been seck a grand speech!
Our County’s success was recognised at the Cumbria Sports Awards in Windermere,
when the Big 6 team won the award for the best individual performance in 2009 and
Seb Crookall-Nixon was acclaimed as Most Promising Junior of 2009. We narrowly
missed out on the Team of the Year to Barrow Rugby League, which is of course a
Professionally run outfit.
2009 was of course a fantastic year for William Bowe. I have already mentioned his part
in the Northern Counties League win and the Big 6 , and the Workington team success.
Will also won the County Masters Title and who will forget his phenomenal string of 4
holes at Brampton with 2 birdies , an eagle and an albatross bringing him the County
Strokeplay as well. Will tried for his pro ticket in Spain but was unsuccessful, so he will
be with us for another year.
It would be remiss of me if I did not take this opportunity to recognise the hard work
and dedication of our retiring Captain Cliff Heath. He tells me that his team only lost 4
times in 4 years - which is an outstanding achievement. There is no doubt that through
his and Team Cumbria is alive and well and looking forward to doing big things next
year. We wish Cliff’s successor Martin well in his endeavours as Captain. Being a
working man will present a different challenge but I am sure that Martin is up to it.
Not everything in the garden has been rosy this year, however. The County has suffered,
as Treasurer David will relate, from a sharp fall in County Card income, which I guess
is a story repeated in the clubs- a fall-off in visitor numbers. We will need a concerted
push this year to get sales back on line and we will be asking clubs to make an effort as
well. Without this income, there is only one alternative , the subscription will have to
rise.
We also have to be aware of imminent legislation coming into being on such matters as
equality and protection of Children & Vulnerable Adults . As John Petrie told us, old
established customs such as special discounts will go out of the window and along with
the Head Teachers organisations, will we find volunteers harder to come by because of
excessive zeal in trying to be all things to all men? There is going to be a challenge for all
clubs to face.
Membership retention is an issue as well, as redundancies start to bite. The County Golf
Partnership can help in many ways and Jo will be addressing us later in this meeting
The EGU
We have been represented at the EGU by Immediate Past President John, our Voting
Member and Mike Bland. This does involve a lot of travelling and we should thank
them for their efforts on our behalf. John is now a member of the Greenkeeping
Training Committee, dealing with education etc. John has also been involved with the
latest Coastal access exercise.
I would like to mention the hard work of the Course Assessment team yet again this
year, manfully ploughing the fairways on many a bad day weather-wise.
2010 is our Centenary Year and we intend to involve clubs and county players in our
celebrations. Details will be circulated in due course. In 2010, we shall also be taking
over the Chairmanship of the Northern Counties, which is an honour which comes
round once every 15 years.
Finally , at this stage, I would like to thank the players for making 2009 rather special. I
must thank the Executive who have pulled out all the stops to support the team and
have been just ly rewarded. They have also carried out all their duties throughout the
year, always with a smile! I would also like to thank all the Clubs involved in staging
the events this year. Without fail, every club involved has jumped through hoops to see
to it that the event went well.
To you all, I say well done and thank you.