President:

President Donald welcomed us to Churchill/Waverley Golf Club for the 4BBB competition for the Captain's/President's Trophy. He asked all present to thank the club for the use of their facilities, and their generous donation of our main raffle prize. The weather was pleasant, ideal for a game of golf. The course was in good condition. The lunch and the clubhouse facilities were thoroughly enjoyed by the members.

Our raffle is a very successful fundraiser for the club, given the good work done by Daryl Edwards and the irrepressible John Hiscock, ably supported by our Captain Harold Hayes who continues to secure the extremely attractive main prize from our generous host clubs.  Donald informed the members that we had recently received a donation of a pen-set in the fashion of golf clubs from Elaine Hills, the widow of our sadly departed mate, Neal Hills. It will appear as a raffle prize at the appropriate time.

Number of Players / Guests:

We had a good turnout today, with 53 players involved in the competition. A late withdrawal for today's event was Gary Morland who fell from a ladder, but we have since heard that his injuries were not as serious as first thought. Gentlemen, please take care with the jobs we tackle. Having spent some time around medical people over the last 5 years, the thing they worry about most are we 'oldies' falling down! We had one guest today, Tony French who was a guest of John Molloy. He received a warm invitation to join the Vets as well as our customary golf ball.

Apologies:

There were 21 apologies this month: Al Abraham, Peter Bimbi, Hans Bleeker, John Farrow, Bill Frey, Ian Hoskins, Bruce Keenan, Karl Lindberg, Roland Neef, Roger Prewett, Lindsay Quennell, Ian Richards, Jeff Stevens, Jeff Taylor, Barry Taylor, Christopher Thorne, Malcolm Turner, Kelvin Tyler, George Weaver, Ron Wells and Gary Morland.

Starters today:

Donald and the members thanked Joe Cirnigliaro, John Molloy and Tony Villani for doing a good job of getting the groups away. A special vote of thanks goes to Peter Ross who did a power of work to ensure our pairings were fair and competitive based on our handicaps.   Please take pride in your club and always ensure that you "keep up with the group in front of you". That is the number one priority we have in terms of efficient golf. ('ready golf')

As previously mentioned, we cannot proceed without volunteers to run these events every month, so please consider helping out as a starter, as it is a bit of fun and you will get to know so many more members of the club. Please help your Club.

Membership News:

gentle reminder that the few remaining unpaid annual subs were due immediately, and contact should be made with our Treasurer, David Vine. My thanks to all those members that have paid their subs for 2019.

Spurred on by John Molloy, with assistance from Laurie Comerford, we continue to make progress towards completion of our Members Contact system, via the loading of member's photographs. If you have still to do this, and this includes our new members, please see either John Molloy or Laurie Comerford during our lunches at any of our events. It is important as the Club continues to grow, that we complete this initiative early in 2019. Communication is so important to the wellbeing of our Club, and the photographs help enormously. Get in touch with either John or Laurie by email or at matchday to set it up and they will make sure the job is done.

CoM Business:

There is no report this month as there was no Committee meeting  -  we meet bi-monthly.

Special Achievements:

In the past month or so, we have noted the following successes (in no particular order);

• Laurie Comerford, playing at Patterson River GC on the 12th of March, scored a total of 41 stableford points (h/cap 16) winning the comp. Good golfing Laurie!

Vets Web Site :

The website has been modified to remind members who intend to use a cart at the golf course that they must physically book the cart themselves by calling the pro-shop.

Question time :

There being no questions, President Donald handed over to our Captain. Harold Hayes.