Welcome

It proved to be a good decision to find a larger venue for our AGM as we were able to welcome over 160 members from 41 different clubs. Kingswood looked after us extremely well, serving a delicious three course meal. Our post lunch speaker Emma Carberry, Sussex County player, graduate of Baylor, Texas, PGA professional and winner of the Three Rivers tournament was very entertaining. She currently works for England Golf, supporting Clubs and the Women in Golf initiative in Surrey and West Sussex. A number of members asked for her advice about supporting their clubs at the end of the meeting. I am very grateful for her contribution to the day.

As usual, we have five meetings scheduled for the year, together with four Inter-County Matches.  The venues I have secured for our events this year cover at least two events in each of the four regions of the County, as grouped by SWG. Hopefully we will see members who are local to our venues taking part and joining with all those who regularly support our events. I am conscious that a number of events are quite expensive this year but I can assure you that I did my best in negotiating the pricing.

Our first event is the match with Berkshire, to be played at Reigate Hill, our President’s club, on Tuesday 23^rd April.  As usual we look for support from as many members as possible and from the widest range of handicaps for these friendly fixtures Please phone me if you would like any further information.

The Spring Meeting, which is a 4BBB stableford event is to be hosted by Tyrrells Wood GC, who have a long association with the Society and who are celebrating their Centenary. This is a lovely challenging course and the Club are delighted to host our society on Friday 10th May.

The Richmond is the venue for our Summer Meeting, which will include eligible members playing for the Veterans Trophy. It is on Thursday 13th June and is another 4BBB. I imagine this will be a popular event so make sure you apply early, as it is some time since we have been fortunate enough to host an event at the Richmond.

On Monday 1^st July we are hosting Sussex in a match, which we are playing at the Farleigh Club. On Thursday 18^th July we travel to Hartley Wintney to play the away match against Hampshire. Once again a reminder that these are friendly matches- a good day out, sharing experiences with other past Captains. The Golden Jubilee Claret Jug, our only singles competition is on Thursday 25^th July and is being played at Cuddington Golf Club, Why not sign up with two friends as the event is played in groups of three.

September sees us travelling to Chislehurst, a very historic club for our final match fixture against Kent, to be played on Monday 2^nd. Our 4BBB Autumn Meeting on Wednesday 11^th September is being played at Windlesham, who celebrate their 30^th Anniversary this year – another course not recently featured in our programme. On this occasion we are meeting later in the day, from 11am with a Danish and a fruit salad bar before play. The first tee is 12noon and as usual play will be followed by a two course meal – no need to cook dinner!

New Zealand Club; a course that needs little introduction is the host for the Mixed Invitation, on Tuesday 22^nd October. I hope that you and your guest will welcome the challenge. We meet for bacon rolls prior to play and a carvery lunch after play. I am sure you will all enjoy the post-match hospitality.

I hope you will be able to take part in our meetings and matches this year. We are so lucky to be surrounded by so many good quality courses, where the management is prepared to allow us to host events at their clubs. As you know everyone and anyone will be made most welcome at any of our matches and meetings. Please don’t think about it too long just apply! If you need any reassurance please give me a ring.

As always our Secretary has worked hard to produce our handbook which details the costing and organisers of each event, and of course these are also on the SLCS Website, where you will find it very easy to apply online.

We will be supporting our traditional charities; namely Battleback, raising money via the ball sweep at meetings. The raffle at the AGM raised £1200 divided between Surrey County Junior Girls and for my Charity the KSS Air Ambulance, which helps over a thousand people every year in our area.

I am looking forward to meeting as many Society Members as possible during the year. Let us continue to stay safe and healthy, play some good shots and enjoy each other’s company on the course and in the clubhouse.

Judy Searle: Captain – Surrey Lady Captains’ Society