Women's Captain's Blog, 3rd April 2025

Wednesday was almost the perfect day for golf, if you could ignore a gusty wind that tossed the black, rag crows across the blue and cloudless sky. It was dry underfoot, apart from a quick-drying, light morning dew and the stubbornly remaining bog on the right of the sixth fairway near the green. (Why do I always seem to go in it?!) The greens are still bedding down and were a little unpredictable; and in some places on the fairway, it was hard to find grass, but I’m just being picky. The current conditions are, however, not deterring our golfers from getting high scores. We had 36 entrants in the April Stableford on Wednesday, which we combined with the Golf Foundation’s Make Your Mark competition. The winners were:

Division 1                   

1st Sarah Rees 39 points

2nd Louise Fickling 38 points

Division 2                    

1st Ozlem Orgen 36 points

2nd Mandy Lawson 36 points

Division 3                    

1st Gaye Illsley 40 points

2nd Shanta Balram 38 points

Three players scored a two: Lesley Avent, Margaret Herlihy and Ros Margey

There were four players in the 9-hole competition: Kathleen Hall and Sally Minks both scored 17 points.

Many congratulations and well done on all your high scores!

Next Wednesday, April 9th, it’s the Australian Spoons, a Foursomes Stableford, so you sign up in pairs. It’s open to those with a handicap index between 15 and 54. The winner of this competition has the opportunity to play in a regional final on July 22nd.

On April 16th, it’s the Veterans’ Cup, open to all those over 65, with an alternate Stableford for the ‘youngsters.’

There are also 9-hole competitions on each of those days; and a Sunday comp for the Vets/Alternate Stableford.

We will soon be asking you to sign up for late afternoon/early evening dinner after the Spring Meeting on May 7th. All women members are welcome to come for the meal and support our first prize-giving of the year. The morning competition is for Divisions 1 and 2 only and played in two’s over 18 holes. The afternoon 9-hole competition, played in teams, is open to Division 3 as well. Sign up will be in two’s via IG, the usual two weeks before the event. More information in due course.

Good luck to our Pearson team on Monday, April 7th, who are playing Sudbury at home!  It’s their penultimate match this season.

All the summer Knockout competitions, including the new Foursomes one for Divisions 3 and 4, are set up and you can view your playing partner and/or opponents on IG. You can also see the deadlines for playing each round. 

More congratulations are in order for the winners of the Winter Scratch Matchplay Ladder!

Ladder 1 winner:  Sue Nugent (from 10th position)

Ladder 2 winner:  Chris Mann (from 7th position)

Ladder 3 winner:  Ali Soutar (from 4th position)

Well done on climbing your ladder! Prizes will be presented after the Spring Meeting dinner.

And talking of prizes, Billie Newland will be providing the prizes at the end of the season for the person who has made the greatest handicap improvement in her division. Thank you, Billie.

My end of season Captain’s prize will go to the person who scores the highest number of two’s in competitions between 1 March and 30 September, 2025.

As well as the Women’s Captain having a special Women’s Charity Day competition (but not until July 16th), you can support the Club Captain’ s mixed one on Bank Holiday Monday, May 5th. Please sign up in teams of 4 to support the Captain and our charity this year, The Nightingale Cancer Support Centre. If you have any suitable raffle prizes or can donate a premium lot for the charity auction, please let Guy, or myself, know.

The delayed photoshoot for those involved in the Nightingale Hike on Friday, May 16th will be on Wednesday, April 9th at 2 pm. I hope you will be around to participate.

There are still some tickets available for the walk round the Kings Cross area on Monday, April 28th with Polly Schlesinger from the C20 Society. The £18 per head goes to the Captain’s Charity. Click here to book. Thank you.

I hope you will all have read Stewart’s recent email about our commitment to responsible fox management. It included a link to our Sustainability Programme and, within that, links to short videos about sustainable course management - all well worth watching and reading. We are fortunate to have our Club and Course management so invested in sustainability. As you have probably gathered, I am quite passionate about the wildlife on our course and delighted that the Club is a signatory to the Sports for Nature Framework. You may have heard that there has been a real decline in the butterfly population. I am hoping that as our eco areas grow again, we will start to see some butterflies on our course. (More on butterflies soon!)

Blog 26 today so I am halfway through my Captaincy. Hmm! Where do those weeks go?!  Carl Sandburg, American poet and journalist, had this to say about time: ‘Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.’

Spend your coin by playing more golf! You won’t feel short-changed!

Alison Towndrow
Women’s Captain

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