Bedfordshire Golf Club - Men's Seniors' Section
Men's Seniors' Winter League
White Tee Winter League starts in the 2nd December - last chance to sign up!
'Ruby' on the look-out, in case the weather gets a little tricky!
The nights may be drawing in and the weather gettting colder, but there is plenty to look forward to in the BGC Men's Seniors' section. This year, we are introducing 2
Men's Senior Section News - Oct 18
Ladies Night - Following a great Captains Day, there was no stopping our Seniors Captain Tim Bailey with his Bright and Beautiful and Loud and Proud theme.
Great fun for all & an excellent evening.
Tim with the Ladies
Enjoying Dinner with partners
And again...
Match reports and competition results
Captain versus Vice captain was won by the Captain so enough said about that!! Following that defeat, Phil took some coaching lessons from our very own Mr Motivator – Jim Heaney who kindly took him under his wing for the home match against Aspley Guise. Jim knew exactly how to get the best out of Phil ….. promised him the match ball he found in the woods on the 14th. The photos:
– Jim presenting Phil with that ball after he sank the match winning putt.
- and Jim does it again against The Bedford. Motivating Ding with the ‘hidden 6 iron technique’ – legend!!
Presenting Jim with that ball!
Motivating Ding!
With Jim’s help, our Inter-club Matches are going rather well this year. As of 28 September 18 we have played 23. Winning 12, Halved 4 and lost 7 with 2 matches left to play - Buckingham and The Bedford away.
Some Important Announcements from the Senior Section Committee
AGM and Trophy presentation
Due to very poor take up of the AGM dinner, the Captain and Vice captain have decided to cancel the AGM dinner and switch it to the 5th December immediately after the 9 hole Stableford and Christmas lunch. This should ensure that we have a wider and more representative attendance at the AGM.
Seniors Subscriptions due on the 1st November 2018
Senior subscriptions will be held at £5 and should be paid from the 1st November 2018. Senior membership will allow you to enter all Senior competitions including the additional 18 qualifiers of the yellow and white tee winter leagues. So it’s great value for money!! Payment can be made in either of the following ways:
- Cash placed into a brown envelope and put in the seniors box in the men’s changing room. The envelope must be clearly marked with your name.
- A bank transfer to the senior account at HSBC number 13814262 sort code 40-10-02. Please ensure that your name is quoted
Seniors White and Yellow Tee Winter Leagues – 18 new qualifiers for Senior Section Members
Please sign up to one or both leagues as entry will closes on the 31st of October. Signing up means that you can play as many or as few of these handicap qualifying matches as you wish. You will also be eligible for any prizes/trophies and SJT points. This is just a great way of maintaining your handicaps with qualifying scores from white or yellow tees during the winter. For further details, please see the sign-up sheets on the Seniors notice board.
Men's Seniors’ Newsletter June 2018
Welcome to the Seniors Newsletter covering the 2nd Quarter of 2018.
Just 12 weeks ago we cancelled the first Seniors' Club Match of the season due to snow on the course at The Bedford. We finally played our first match away at Kettering 2 weeks later in wind and very heavy rain on a waterlogged course in what were some of the wettest conditions many of us have played in. Then, within 8 weeks, we are in a prolonged glorious and dry summer ..... joy! It has been a great couple of months for the Bedfordshire seniors with some of the highlights and photos below:
Senior Competitions results:
White Tee Stableford - 7th March
1. Tony Marsh 37pts
2. John Cribb 34pts
3. Steve Coppock 34pts
The photos here are of a group of the Seniors' in March and Winner of the
White-Tee Stableford, Tony Marsh.
Tony Marsh.
The March Hare Trophy - 21st March
1. Peter Gill 73
2. Nick Serrecchia 73
3. Richard Suthers 73
The Ken Saville Salver – 4th April
1. Barry Sullivan 71
2. Kevin Dunbar 74
3. Rob Mayfield 74
Brian 'parting the waters'!
Peter Gill with Nick Serrecchia
Seniors' President's Putter winner John Cribb with The President
Senior Section President's Putter – 16th April
1. John Cribb 40pts
2. Tim Whitwham 37pts
3. Tim Bailey 36pts.
White Tee Stableford – 17th May
1 Ted Hall 34 points
2 Jim Godfrey 33 points
3 Roger Willis 33 points
Senior Section Championship 14th and 23rd May
May saw the new re-vamped Senior Championships take place and a re-arranged White Tee Stableford competition.
Round 1 of the Senior Championships saw 44 players ‘squaring up’ to the white tees. After some great golf throughout the field, 4 players finished the day on 71: Martin Allen, Richard Suthers, Ian Thody and Adrian Lennox-Lamb.
Barry Sullivan shot the best gross of Round 1 with 82.
After the third Dubai holiday of the year, round 2 saw a refreshed Captain Tim Bailey shoot the best net round of the Championships to win with a 69. Barry Sullivan improved his gross score by 1 to record 81 and win the Howard Clark Trophy. The second round saw a consistent Lennox-Lamb shoot a 72 and winning the overall title to become Senior Champion for 2018. Runner-up was Captain Tim Bailey with a 144 finish and the best net of the year so far. Richard Suthers was third with 147.
The Top 3
Stewart Kenny Trophy - 13th June
1. Mick Field 67
2. Tommy Taylor-Dowson 67
3. Hetti Weerasinghe 68
Senior Section Charity Open Day in Aid of the Willen Hospice Charitable Trust - 20th June
After much deliberation and a rush of last minute entries the day itself was, by all measures, a great success. Compared to previous years, the open and flexible format led to significantly more entries with a total of 84 on the day. Captain Tim organised some fantastic prizes including a round for 4 at Woburn Golf club. There was also a raffle and an auction which raised significant amounts of money for the charity – a grand record total of over £2,000 on the day. Tim would like to thank the committee for all their help, guests and members for entering and contributing to the day, the club for the catering, bar, organisation and our green keepers for the wonderful condition of the course.
Winners Phil & Tim.
Charity Open Day results:
1st Phil Rajotte & Tim Lenihan 44 pts
2nd Peter Hancock & Hetti Weerasinghe 43pts (on count back)
3rd Nick Serrecchia & Mark Lewin 43pts (on count back)
4th Richard Suthers & Robbie Brown 43pts (on count back)
5th Martin Allen & Adrian Lennox-Lamb 43pts (on count back)
Our Matches – a report from your very own Phil Rajotte (VC and Seniors team coach!!)
The match season started in mid March. However, 2 of the first 3 matches at the Bedford and Brampton were cancelled due to snow/waterlogged courses. We just about managed to play away against Kettering Golf Club but that was in appalling conditions on several temporary tees and greens. We have a re-arranged the match against Brampton but not against The Bedford!
So far at the halfway point in the season we have played 9 matches. We have won 4, Lost 4 with one matched Halved. Although the matches are well supported we would still like to see more names on the board. So far we have used 42 Seniors for the 9 matches. Top tip - it’s OK to work as a team and help each other line up putts etc. especially when playing away!!
The results of our Seniors' Club Matches so far this year are as follows:
Away - March 28 v Kettering Golf Club - Won 5.5 -2.5
Home - April 25 v Leighton Buzzard Golf Club Won 4.5 - 3.5
Away - May 2 v South Beds Golf Club – Won 4.5 - 3.5
Home - May 18 v St Ives Golf Club – Won 6-2
Away – May 24 Pavenham Golf Club – Lost 6-0
Away – May 31 v Wellingborough Golf Club – Lost 4.5 -3.5
Home – June 6 v Luton Hoo Golf Club – Lost 4-2
Away – June 12 v Luton Hoo Golf Club – Lost 3.5 - 2.5
Home – June 18 v South Beds Golf Club – Halved 4 – 4
We still have 14 Matches to play (9 at Home and 5 Away) with 1 Away fixture still to be arranged.
Our seniors having fun at the matches!
Tim Bailey nearly drives the 3rd hole against South Beds to temporarily scare the competition... then came the chip – said photo duly censured by Captain Tim!
Looking ahead to the next few months, we have inter club matches almost every week, a host of knockout competitions to complete, mixed matches and our Captain’s day in early September. We wish you all a great summer of golf and social events.
With best wishes
The Seniors Committee
June 2018
Enjoying the after event speeches!
Tim's big drive at South Beds
BGC's John Haines Takes Over as County Seniors' Captain
Bedfordshire Golf Club will host the first of a series of county senior matches on 30th April against Norfolk and BGC has no fewer than 5 members playing in this match.
It is also the first match in which John Haines takes charge as the new County Seniors Captain, which is of course a great honour, both for him and the club.
In the first match on the 30th April at Stagsden, Messrs Brown, Hollands, Marshall, Sullivan and Haines will all be playing, so why not come along and cheer them on.
Later in the season we will host Middlesex and BB&O, and hopefully both Colin Beard and Richard Harris will have joined the ranks by then!
Seniors’ Newsletter - March 2018.
We are hoping to post regular items of news, results, messages and the odd fact on our website on a regular basis. We start this month with an opening message from your Seniors Captain - Tim Bailey.
“Gents - Hi, and l hope you are all well and looking forward to some nice spring weather. It is becoming a very busy time down at the club with lots of comps, matches and sign up sheets on the board.
When we sign up on the board can we please make sure that we have read the date, place and time then print your name clearly. If you have to erase your name make sure it is thoroughly crossed off but leaving enough room for somebody else to sign up if needed. Please read the no show ruling which is at the top of board. We are having a good response to our senior matches so please do not be too despondent if not selected, but do keep signing up. As for some of our other sign up comps please make sure that if you are the first name/names down, it is up to you to contact your opponents giving them at least 3 dates and times to play your matches.
My bridge construction on the 9th has been rejected, but thank you to all the people who had pledged money towards it.
Just a few tips to keep our course perfect Replace divots carefully, or alternatively fill your divots with Divot Mix from the bags supplied on both the 1st and 10th. Rake bunkers after use. Leaving rake with handle facing out of the bunker. Repair your pitch marks on greens
Please repair any bird damage to the greens (caused when they peck at them searching form grubs), as you would a pitch mark, as otherwise rabbits and other larger animals make them into much bigger holes. which take much longer to repair.
That is all from me so l hope everybody is happy and lets go and play golf.
Cheers - Tim “
Latest Competition results - February/March 2018
The weather has not been very kind so far this year but our hardy seniors have prevailed against the adverse conditions and filled the starting sheets with the early season competitions.
The 13 Hole Stableford on the 5th of February saw our national seniors Champion, Mark Lewin taking the title with an excellent score of 27 points followed by Andy Jones and John Bates on 26 points.
The Greensomes Stableford on the 12th February was won by Richard Suthers and Brian Ralph with a superb 43 points, with Dick Thompson and Andy Jones on 37 and John Duffy and Ray Gawn on 36.
The Betterball Stableford on the 19th February was a very close affair with Nick Serrecchia and Phil Rajotte winning on count back from Dick Thompson and rob Mayfield on 44 points and Barry Sullivan and Graham Crawford on 43 points.
The Yellow Tee Stableford on the 26th February was won on count back by Andrew Duthie 37, followed by Jim Heaney 37 and David Pattle on 36 points.
On the 7th March saw the first seniors White Tee Stableford played in tough conditions but, Tony Marsh ignored all that and pulled off an excellent performance winning with 37 points. He said he wanted to play off 18 in the future and Masterscoreboard duly obliged that very afternoon! The runner-up on count back from Steve Coppock was John Cribb with 34 points. Chips were provided by Jim Heaney ... see caption competition!
What’s coming up over the next few months?
We start the inter-club matches this month with an away fixture against the Bedford on the 19th of March. This is followed by regular fixtures at home and away. Please keep an eye on the notice board for the entry sheets. Our ‘coach’ who is responsible for team selection and match tactics is our very own Phil Rajotte. His motto is, ‘just don’t miss those short puts’ ... thanks Phil, we will try to remember that!!
We also have a full list of competitions and this year a new Seniors’ Club Championship format is introduced for the first time. This is over 2 rounds on the 13th and 24th May. Entry is for BOTH rounds. The other change this year is the revised format for the Seniors’ invitation day on the 20th June. This will be a 4 Ball Invitation charity Waltz. Competition entry is very flexible and can be made up entirely of members or up to 3 guests per team. The objective is to make it a fun day of golf with superb prizes and raise as much as possible for the captain’s charity – Willen Hospice. Your captain, Tim, has been working very hard to make the arrangements for this event and your support in both entry to the competition and the invitation of guests would be very welcome indeed. The entry sheet will be on the board shortly so look out for it and get your name down early!
There is a lot going on in our senior section and we want to capture those precious moments so please feel free to take pictures of our members at “work” on the golf course or, at play in the bar after a hard day’s golf. Send the pictures to me (your secretary) at nick9s@sky.com. They will be used to populate the gallery section which was recently introduced to our section of the website. Please check out the ‘romantic dinner for 2’ picture in the Seniors’ gallery. It deserves a good caption so any suggestions would be most welcome!
That’s it for this month. I look forward to posting your contributions in next month’s edition. In the meantime, if you have any worthwhile gossip please let me know. We fact check everything so no fake news please!!
Nick Serrecchia
Senior’s Secretary
March 2018
Tony Marsh - White Tee Stableford Winner
Terry & Jim - enjoying a Senior 'chips' moment
BGC Seniors' Section
The Men’s Senior Section is a very active section within the club with over 180 members over the age of 55.
There are numerous competitions throughout the year with a Seniors' Championship, Invitation & Captain's days. In addition there are over 25 matches per season played against other clubs on a home & away basis; all members are encouraged to represent the club. The 2018 match calendar is shown below.
There is a modest sub payable (£5 per annum), which covers entry to all Competitions and the engraving of the various trophies which are presented at the AGM in October each year.
The Seniors Section is an officially recognised group with the Seniors' Captain sitting on the General Committee.
Every weekday morning, there are groups of senior golfers offering friendly roll-up golf, to be enjoyed. All senior members will find a group to play with.
So why not join us? Further information can be obtained from Lynne or Mags in the General Office. Call 01234 822555 x2
Competition Results in Detail
2018 Seniors'Committee
The 2017 – 2018 Seniors Committee is:
Captain: Tim Bailey
Vice Captain: Phil Rajotte
Treasurer: Rob Mayfield
Match Secretary: Phil Rajotte
Secretary: Nick Serrecchia
Past Captain: Terry Mizzi
Competition Secretary: Tim Whitwham
Tim Bailey Takes the Helm in the Men's Seniors' Section
Tim Bailey has now taken over as the Men's Seniors' Captain from Terry Mizzi. Delighted at his appointment, he said "...it is a honour and privilege to have been selected as Seniors' Captain for the forthcoming year".
A 'local lad', Tim was raised in Lavendon and now lives in Broughton, Near Milton Keynes. A relative newcomer to golf, (having picked up a club less than 4 years ago) he has experiencing all highs and lows of golf in a short space of time. Tim says he has made many new friends in the Seniors', and can only hope that when he gets to the age of some of them, he is still enjoying the game as much!
He is away celebrating his 60th Birthday over the coming weeks, but plans to be on the course as much as possible in 2018.
Tim asks that everybody abides by course rules and etiquette, and accepts decisions that sometimes have to be made by others. If anybody has any issues, or just wants to say hello, he'd be pleased to hear from you. Tim says that he has some ideas which will hopefully be beneficial to our course and members and will post these early in the new year, but if others have any suggestions, he'd like them to get in touch with him to discuss them.
Finally, Tim commented, "l wish you all good health and good golfing, and an exciting year ahead and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible, either on the course or in the bar".
2018 Seniors Matches & Events Diary
January
Wed 17th Four Club Competition
February
Mon 5th 13 Hole Stableford
Mon 12th Greensome Stableford
Mon 19th Pairs BetterBall Stableford
Mon 26th Yellow Tee Stableford (Q)
March
Mon 5th Stephenson Cup Draw
Wed 7th White Tee Stableford (Q)
Mon 19th The Bedford (AWAY) Postponed
Wed 21st March Hare Trophy Medal (Q)
Wed 28th Kettering (AWAY)
April
Wed 4th Ken Savill Salver (Medal) (Q)
Thu 5th Brampton Park (AWAY) Postponed
Mon 9th Scott Cup Draw
Wed 11th White Tee Stableford (Q) Postponed
Mon 16th Seniors President's Putter
Mon 23rd Kitchen Trophy Draw
Wed 25th Leighton Buzzard (HOME)
May
Wed 2nd South Beds (AWAY)
Tue 8th Pattison Salver Draw
Mon 14th Seniors Championship Rnd 1 (Q)
Thu 17th White Tee Stableford (Q)
Fri 18th St Ives HOME
Mon 21st Young Plate Draw
Wed 23rd Seniors Championship Rnd 2 (Q)
Thu 24th Pavenham Park (AWAY)
Thu 31st Wellingborough (AWAY)
70's PLUS 3x9 hole 9 (see bottom of page **)
June
Wed 6th Luton Hoo (HOME)
Tue 12th Luton Hoo (AWAY)
Wed 13th S.Kenny Trophy over 70's
Mon 18th South Beds (HOME)
Wed 20th SENIORS INVITATION DAY
Fri 29th Jim Baxter Memorial Salver
July
Mon 2nd Senior Men's White Tee Medal
Thu 5th TATS Summer Comp & Lunch
Mon 9th Beds & County (HOME)
Tue 17th Beds & County (AWAY)
Mon 23rd Aspley Guise (AWAY)
Thu 26th Wellingborough (HOME)
Mon 30th Mixed Texas Scramble
August
Wed 1st Autumn Eclectic Begins
Thu 2nd Pavenham Park (HOME)
Mon 6th Leighton Buzzard (AWAY)
Mon 13th Bert Hurley Salver (Medal) (Q)
Wed 15th Kettering (HOME)
Mon 20th Brampton Park (AWAY) Rescheduled
Thu 23rd St Ives (AWAY)
Fri 31st Abbotsley (HOME)
September
Wed 5th SENIOR CAPTAIN'S DAY (Q)
Mon 10th Brampton Park (HOME)
Mon 17th Senior Mixed Waltz
Thu 20th Aspley Guise (HOME)
Mon 24th The Bedford Challenge Cup
Wed 26th Captain v Vice Captain Match
Fri 28th LADIES NIGHT
October
Mon 1st Barry Allen Trophy (Stableford) (Q)
Wed 3rd Buckingham (HOME)
Mon 8th Bedford (HOME)
Fri 12th Autumn Eclectic Ends
Mon 15th White Tee Stableford (Q)
Fri 19th AGM and DINNER Postponed
Tue 23rd Buckingham (AWAY)
Mon 29th Yellow Tee Medal
Notes **
70's PLUS - Veterans Bedfordshire Trophy (May)
Played over 27 holes
9 on Academy course
9 on Front Main course
9 on Back Main course
Played during May June July
Card to be nominated before play
November
Mon 5th Absent Friends Cup (Stableford)
Mon 12th Texas Scramble
Mon 26th Greensome Stableford
December
Wed 5th 9 Hole Stableford & Xmas Lunch & AGM
Thu 13th TATS Xmas Comp & Lunch