It was great to see so many winners, playing partners and friends turn up for Men’s Presentation Night. Wonderfully managed and organised by Candi and Chris Miller. Many thanks to them both as well as the staff for making it such a success.

Great feedback from guests and attendees.

Well done to all the members who bid for the fourballs in the auction. Your efforts raised an outstanding amount of £1000 for the junior section. Well done to Keith Alexander for his auctioneering skills.

Disappointing that the Meet the Captains event was cancelled due to the weather, but rearranged for 29th January. Hopefully weather will be kinder. Feeding Families boxes have been emptied, delivered and replaced by Barbara.

Hugely honoured to be voted in as Captain at the AGM and delighted to have the support of Chris Miller as my Vice
Captain.

My Drive in day managed to stay dry for almost all the competitors in the Shotgun Scramble event, but then
proceeded to pour down before my drive. Hoping that’s not a bad omen for the season ahead.

Great to see such a good turnout and it was a wonderful day for myself, family and friends.

The event was won by Phil Tennant, Chris Miller, John Watson and Gary Duncan and raised £270 for the Captain’s charity of choice this year which is 'Feeding Families’. Thanks to Lady Captain Barbara Franklin for suggesting and organising this North East charity where a little help can make a lot of difference. Food donation boxes are in the locker rooms if you have any food donations to give. It will be emptied when full.

There’s always a busy start after the Drive in starting with the Newcastle & District League awards at the Crown Plaza where we were presented with the Teams Championship Trophy for the winning team of Andrew Minnikin, Zak Laws and James Walmsley. Andrew also picked up the trophy for the Team Championship Player of the Year.

Captain’s v President’s match was played in pleasant weather on Sunday 6th November. Usually it’s won by the Captain’s team but this time a strong President’s team won the day. Thanks to all the players who took part. We all came back for a meal in the evening and it was marvellous to have the support of all the players of the day

Well done to Jim, nice drive!

Following an excellent 9-3 win over League Leaders Newcastle Untied last week the Team travelled to Tynemouth with 3 debutants this season. In the first two matches the age difference between the City players and Tynemouth players was 40 years plus, a fact which Steve Slater was quick to point out to his opponent on the first tee. Steve, Andrew Broady and Tony Stevenson made their first appearance in the NDGL this season and all 3 returned points, well done indeed. Steve won his game one up with a birdie on 18, Andrew lost 18 to a birdie to finish All Square and Tony narrowly missed birdie but had a solid par to win the 18^th and finish 1 up. I am extremely grateful to the lads for turning out and returning 5 points on a difficult away track. It should also be mentioned that Steve and Ken Cairns had played in the county Seniors event earlier in the day with Ken returning a 71 to finish 3^rd.

Results  Tynemouth 7 City of Newcastle 5

K Mossom Lost 7&6

D Ridley Lost 5&4

A Stevenson Won 1 up

A Broady All Square

S Slater Won 1 up

K Cairns Lost 2&1

We travel to Whitley Bay next week.

Past Captain costs City a point!

It was a difficult cold night at Newcastle United and unfortunately the lads went down 10-2 in some hard fought games, the results are listed below. The main event of the night came on the 15^th hole a short par three. In match No.5 Dave Ridley was fighting back after going 2 down early on. Spectators surrounded the green. The players indicated the ball was heading towards the crowd. Most of us ducked and moved to the right. Past Captain John Fanklin went left and was felled by the ball as it struck him in the back. We rushed to his aid (once we had stopped laughing) and all was well. Unfortunately he had prevented the Newcastle United ball heading into deep rough and instead their player had a fluffy lie which he chipped close and sank the putt. Dave missed his 5 footer for birdie and halved the hole. Apparently John has applied for honorary membership at United and took one for the team, just the wrong team in our case! Thanks again to all of those who travelled to support the lads it was as ever greatly appreciated.

Results

Andrew Minnikin v Mark Wharton               AS

James Walmsley v Cameron Stott              Loss 1 up

Karl Mossom v Simon Lee                             Loss 3&2

Paul Souter v Neil Gasgoigne                       Loss 4&2

Dave Ridley v Mark McNulty                        AS

Ian Davidson v John Simmons                      Loss 4&3

We return to home next week for the match against Tynemouth. Look forward to seeing you there.

Neil Walker

Captain