Apologies for Absence

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE COUNTY LADIES GOLF ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - MINUTES

HARLEYFORD GOLF CLUB - WEDNESDAY - 27 OCTOBER 2010 PRESENT: Margaret Maisey County President Sue Beresford County Captain Sue Lee County Vice Captain Anne Bridges County Training Officer

Cathy Armstrong Second Team Captain Pat Milliner Seniors’ Captain Lynda Hilton Honorary Secretary Georgie Cairns Honorary Treasurer Sue McKeon Competitions Secretary& Midlands South EWGA Regional Representative Pamela Seller Competitions Secretary Di Bovey Handicap Adviser 72 Members were in attendance, representing 23 clubs.

County Captain opened the meeting with a few words of welcome.

1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE 18 apologies were received

2 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS Welcome to the 2010 Annual General Meeting of the Buckinghamshire Ladies Golf Association. Thank you once again to Harleyford for hosting this event especially after a very stressful year dealing with their oil leak and aftermath. A special welcome to those for whom this is their first AGM experience. ° I have had a very exciting first year as your president. What a privileged position to hold, I get to attend many and varied activities from being an ambassador of Bucks Ladies Golf at dinners, meetings and competitions, visiting lots of clubs in the county and beyond (approximately 2000 miles so far). I have particularly enjoyed all the County meetings, junior and senior and finals for the County trophies. It was disappointing that the Spring and Autumn meetings had to be cancelled and I hope there will be more entries next year. Any ideas and thoughts are always welcome of how to improve and offer better experiences for you the majority of our members. ° Two particular highlights were the County Juniors team triumph at Temple Golf Club, winning the BB&O competition and narrowly losing out to Hertfordshire overall. The divisional final having had to be rearranged due to extremely bad weather is being played today in Worcestershire, I am very disappointed not to be there but I hope they are doing well and enjoying the experience. The other major highlight was the County Team Week played at Goring and Streatley. The camaraderie, team enthusiasm and support everyone gave each other were infectious and if that had any influence on the result Bucks would have

1 won by a mile. My special congratulations go to our two juniors Zoe and Annabel who competed in the final of the county championship and represented us and played so well at Goring. ° I would like to express my thanks on your behalf to the County and Junior Committees for all their hard work (voluntary and unpaid). Between them they spend many hours on County Business. We do not always agree but democracy rules and consensus is achieved with humour and fun and what is helpful is the occasional glass of...... ORANGE JUICE!! To those on the executive who are retiring a very big thank you, and to those who are joining welcome I am sure you will enjoy your time on the Executive. ° A particular thank you to Sue our County Captain who finishes her two years on the executive today. More will be said later but I would personally like to say how much I have enjoyed working with her and I wish her well in the future and hopefully very good golfing. ° I will now hand over to the County Captain, Sue Beresford, for the rest of the meeting.

3 MINUTES OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2009 Accepted as a true record, can I have a proposer and seconder?  Proposer - Fran Sturrock - Flackwell Heath Golf Club  Seconder - Olive Vance - Hazlemere Golf Club Taken as read and signed accordingly

4 MATTERS ARISING None

5 PRESENTATION OF TROPHIES

JOINT COMPETITION SECRETARY – BUCKS SHIELD & K/O’S – PAM SELLER Madam President, County Captain, Ladies: It has been another busy year with lots of activity on the competitions’ front. Grateful thanks go to all the participants for their help in ensuring that all the competitions and leagues run smoothly. ° County Champion Zoe Fitz-Costa (Beaconsfield) ° Baxter Bowl Natasha Gough (Ellesborough) ° Junior Champion Gemma Dryburgh (Beaconsfield) ° Girls Intermediate Trophy Emma Hargreaves (Beaconsfield) ° Champion of Champions - Ann Bridges from Mentmore beat Gillian Kinnear from Gerrards Cross) on the 17th hole the final was held at Harewood Downs Golf Club. This is the second year that Gillian has lost in the final. ° The Challenge Cup final for handicap 20 and under was once again held at Gerrards Cross Golf Club the winner was Jo Harrison from Wavendon. ° Challenge Cup Runner-up was Mary Robertson from Ellesborough who lost to Jo on the 17th.

2 ° The Rose Bowl for handicaps 21 and above was held at Burnham Beeches Golf Club the final was between Julie Butterworth (Harewood Downs) who lost in last year’s final and Andrea Vanner (Gerrards Cross). Julie who has only being golfing for two year’s beat Andrea with some outstanding golf. ° Winter Foursomes – The final was between Sue Clutterbuck/Eve Mandry from Ellesborough and Christine Bodey/Linda Rodgers from The Lambourne Club. The winners were Sue Clutterbuck and Eve Mandry. ° Summer Greensomes Knockout Trophy was held at Ellesborough Golf Club. The finalists where Anna Pitfield/Michele Lowden from Harleyford and Phillipa Cook/Sue Ashworth from Woburn. Phillipa and Sue were 2 down walking onto the 17th and eventually won on the 19th with a birdie. ° The Bucks Challenge Shield was held at Lambourne Golf Club. The semi finalists were Elllesborough, Oakland Park, Stowe and Woburn. The final in the afternoon was between Ellesborough and Woburn with Woburn winning who retain the trophy for another year. ° Inter Club Foursomes was held at Mentmore Golf Club the winners were Woburn (Sally Pollock, Julie Clarke, Veronica Astbury and Tina Motherway ) with an aggregate nett score of 143, the Denham team of Diane Wilson, Kathryn Connolly, Gayle Blissett and Nicky Ewart) were second with a nett 144. The best nett pair was Sally Pollock and Julie Clarke from Woburn with 69 ½. ° I would like to thank all the Clubs who have given the County the use of their course for the finals of the knockout competitions. Also may I say a big thank you to all the lady members of the clubs, who without your help my job in running these finals would have been much more difficult. ° I am standing down this year as Competitions Secretary and would just like to say how much I have enjoyed being on the Executive Committee and also meeting many of you Ladies. Thank you.

JOINT COMPETITION SECRETARY – LEAGUES – SUE MCKEON Thank you Pamela ° I would like to start with the winter scratch league 2009-10, the winners of Division 3 are Oakland Park; Div 2- Harewood Downs; Div 1- Buckingham and in the Premier Division - Woburn. ° In the Summer Scratch league Silver Division, Premier Division winners are Ellesborough, Div 2 winners Wavendon; Div 3 Flackwell Heath and Div 4 Harewood Downs. Congratulations to Wavendon who took Division 2 by storm, being promoted last year from Div 3 and only losing one match and halving another from 18 matches played. The Bronze Scratch League Div 1 winners are Ellesborough, Div 2 Woburn, Div 3 Flackwell Heath, Div 4 Datchet and Div 5 Wycombe Heights. Congratulations to Flackwell Heath who were also newly promoted from div 4 last year. ° Charity Eclectic Cup 2010 with a net score below the standard scratch of 103.5 is won by The Lambourne Club with funds raised in aid of our County Captain’s Charity and Beaconsfield has won the Cygnet Trophy 2010 with 242 points, the monies raised going to the Junior section. ° The Silver Coronation Medal for the lowest 4 gross aggregate medal scores returned last year has been won by Christine Watson from Beaconsfield with one under. ° The Bronze Coronation Medal for the lowest 4 nett scores has been won by Barbara Brown from Mentmore with 16 under. . ° Unfortunately both the Spring and Autumn Meetings were cancelled again this year due to insufficient entries and Executive are reviewing these two competitions for 2011. ° Details of all the competitions the Clubs enter can now be found on the website. The Members Handbook will be available in January and copies distributed to all affiliated clubs. We look forward to receiving many entries for the competitions the County organises for members and affiliated clubs alike. ° Thank you. County Captain announced that Steph Gough would be awarded County Colours for her team spirit, her overall demeanour and standard of play, as well as achieving all the criteria set out for achieving County Colours.

County Captain – Sue Beresford

3 Good afternoon Ladies. ° I hope you have all enjoyed your own golf this year and that it is partly due to the county competitions & meetings organized by our hard working Executive committee. ° Like last year, the reports will be a resume of events. Full results, of course, are always available on the website ° My thanks go to all the Exec for fulfilling their roles so efficiently. ° We were very disappointed in January when the county lunch had to be cancelled due to the snow. It was not an easy decision to take. We were particularly sorry that we had to cancel our speaker the former England golfer Dianne Bailey ° The enthusiasm of the junior committee and parents is boundless. Single figure handicap girls are now representing their clubs & county, as handicaps tumble. ° I have very much enjoyed working with Margaret our President this year & thank her for her advice & support. Benefiting from her long experience of county & England Seniors golf. ° For a second year I am grateful to Carole Weir for taking the role as 1st team Captain. She lead the squad in training & County week with dedication. I congratulate her on her own selection as a reserve for England seniors though I think she is still waiting for the call to play. ° Unfortunately Carole has sent her apologies to the meeting so I will be reading her report. ° The charity I chose to support for the past two years is the Chiltern Air Ambulance. Your generosity has been amazing & I am delighted to say that I will be sending them a cheque for over £6,000. A wonderful total of over £7,000 in the two years. Thank you all so much. I shall now read Carole Weir’s 1st report.

1ST TEAM CAPTAIN - Carole Weir – read by Sue Beresford County Week 2010 took place at Goring & Streatley Golf Club during the week which started on the 14th June. As most of you know, we now have to play five other counties during the week and so there is no rest. Our order of play for 2010 was: Berks, Warcs., Oxon., Worcester & Herefordshire, Northamptonshire. We started the week by beating Berks by 5.5 to 3.5 matches and the girls were looking good as always. Tuesday bought the match against Warcs. They were the team to beat based on performance in recent county years. The result of the match was a half at 4.5 to 4.5 matches each. On Wednesday we faced Oxon who have blossomed into a very good side. Sadly they got the better of us beating us by 7 matches to 2. On Thursday we lost to Worcester & Herefordshire by 6 matches to 3 and on Friday Northamptonshire beat us 6.5 to 2.5 matches. We were fifth overall and so I can’t pretend that I was anything other than very disappointed. ° Unusually for us, we had a changing team over the week this year, thanks to the demands of exams and work and also the British which were to be played at Ganton the following week. The lead up to County Week had also been challenging since have grown the team from juniors they are all at the stage in their lives where they are at university, taking exams, starting out on careers and the like. It had therefore been hard for us to get together to practice for any meaningful lengths of time ° When I had been planning before County Week, I felt certain that Bucks had a very good chance this year and I was looking forward to be able to report success but this wasn’t to be. It seems that Goring and Streatley is not a happy venue for us since our results were poor last time the event was there in 2007. ° Whilst the outcome of this year’s County Week wasn’t quite as I planned I am sure we are still on the right path. Our Bucks hostess at County Week, Margaret, was astonished to find that we had a 13 year old (Annabel Dimmock) in our team. I think this is a taste of things to come since there are other juniors who are now, very definitely, heading for the team in the coming years. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the input of many ladies who give their time for the juniors and the training scheme now offered by the BB&O partnership where we have, by far, the biggest number of participants. However, we need to learn from what I have experienced this year and find a way to manage this in future. It is very important that the team is together as much as possible before the match week since this definitely pays dividends. Having spoken to Sue Lee I know that she has some very good ideas to help with this.

4 ° We have introduced golf psychology into the training for the 1st team for the first time this year and I know those that attended have taken a lot from this. I had not expected this to have an effect this year since, like a golf swing, the techniques we were taught, have to be practiced. However, throughout the week several of the team mentioned drills they had been given individually so I know that these sessions were worthwhile. I certainly benefitted from them. ° I would very much like to thank Sue Beresford, Margaret Maisey and Jenny Marshall before Margaret, for their support in what is a fairly difficult job. As already mentioned the team now passes into the hands of Sue Lee our new County Capitan. I wish her and team every success. I will no longer be involved next year but I have really enjoyed being a part of the Bucks team both as a player and as Captain and I am still positive that it is just a question of time.

2ND TEAM CAPTAIN – Cathy Armstrong The county 2nd team played in the Midlands South league this year. Like the 1st team they competed against Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Hereford and Worcester and Northamptonshire. ° The purpose of the 2nd team is to give the opportunity for young, up and coming players, the experience of playing County golf with the view of eventually breaking through to the 1st team. With this in mind there was a spread of players introduced this season. ° 18 players from 10 different clubs played. A lovely mix of juniors and adults were included, for many of whom it was their first experience of 2nd team. All the players were a credit to the County and performed to the best of their ability and above all struck up lasting friendships with players from other counties. ° The County had mixed results with wins against Berkshire and Northamptonshire, losses against Oxfordshire and Warwickshire and a halved match against Hereford and Worcester. This placed us 3rd in the league out of the 6 teams. A creditable finish but one I think we can improve on next year. We congratulate Oxfordshire who won the league this season for the 2nd year running. Watch out Oxfordshire, we will be on your tails next year! ° Our 2 home matches this season were at Flackwell Heath and Ellesborough. I should like to take this opportunity of thanking those clubs for hosting us. In particular I would like to thank the Lady Captains, Lorraine Scevity from Flackwell Heath and Gill Read from Ellesborough for being so helpful and making us feel very welcome. Both clubs provided ball spotters who were invaluable so our thanks go to them as well. ° Please do come along and support the 2nd team next season. I can guarantee that you will see some fantastic golf from these young ladies. They are the future of Bucks golf. ° I have enjoyed being 2nd team captain this year and look forward to next year and even greater success. ° Finally I should like to thank Margaret Maisey and Sue Beresford for their tireless support and hard work on our behalf and to wish Sue Lee a happy and successful 2 years as County Captain.

SENIORS CAPTAIN – Pat Milliner The Senior’s Team has played seven matches this year. We have won three and lost four, which has resulted in us being placed fourth in the overall league table for 2010, I have called on a few people just outside the handicap limit to make up numbers everybody seems to have had such a busy time. ° Hopefully next year everyone will be fit, available and raring to go, I have some super venues lined up for the 2011 season, including Stoke Park and the Buckinghamshire. ° This is a great team to play in and anyone is eligible as long as they have a maximum handicap of fourteen and a minimum age of fifty. I have had some new ladies come forward this year , but there is always room for more. ° The season finished at Richings Park when 48 ladies competed for the Autumn Cup, the team prize was won by, Pauline Olliver, Joan Somerville and Pat Samson from Burnham Beeches, the singles cup was won by Marylyn Plummer from Ellesborough. ° Next Year this event will again return to Oakland Park, a very popular venue and always very well

5 supported so look out for the date to avoid disappointment. ° There are some benefits being a ‘senior’ lady golfer, and playing in this team is one of them, the Seniors Team is sponsored by the County and the clubs we play at are always very generous giving courtesies for our matches home and away. If you qualify to play in this team, don’t be shy; take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to play for your County. ° The Seniors Captain position is a two year post and at the end of next year I will need a successor, I will be happy to speak to anyone who feels that this is a job they would like to do, I mention this now while we are all gathered to give everyone the chance to think about joining the Executive Committee and taking on this role at the end of 2011. ° I have enjoyed very much working with Sue Beresford and wish her well. I also look forward to next year working with Sue Lee and the rest of the committee.

JUNIOR CO-ORDINATOR – Debbie Fitz-Costa – read by Sue Beresford Madam County President, County Captain and ladies. Good afternoon to you all. ° Another busy year within our junior ranks and thanks to all the hard work the junior committee have done to enable that we can continue to offer girls within clubs in Bucks great opportunities to join in our activities, get to know other girls and make friends while playing golf. ° We know of 30 girls with handicaps below 20 of which 11 have single figure. ° Handicaps! Many have improved this year and I wish to mention some of those who have achieved. ° Luan Skeates (The Buckinghamshire) only gained her handicap in 2009 and is now playing off 8. She was awarded the Gill Batchelor Trophy for the best reduction on a new handicap and qualified as the area winner for the Abraham Trophy played at Market Rasen GC in July. ° Annabel Dimmock (Beaconsfield) at the age of 14 is playing off 4. She won her age group at US Kids European championships played at Gullane GC in May, was runner up in the ladies county champs and finished a creditable 17th in U15 English girls. She has just retained her place in EWGA super birdie training squad. ° Charlotte West (Ellesborough/Harewood Downs) age 13 has just got to a single figure handicap this year reducing from 16-8. She played at U13 English girls and has just been offered a place in EWGA regional birdie training squad. ° Megan Dennis (Woburn) age 11 won the BB&O handicap trophy with a nett 68, her handicap has reduced from 24-14. She has recently won the Bedfordshire schools U16 title representing her middle school. ° Amy Staniford (Datchet) won the handicap event at the St Andrews junior open and reduced her handicap to 13. ° Charlotte Nutt (Beaconsfield) got to single figures this year and representing Farnham Park won NAPGC ladies championship in August. Charlotte and Evie Ing have just been accepted into the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence programme. ° Zoe Fitz-Costa (Beaconsfield) playing now off 3 retained the BB&O championship trophy and became Bucks ladies county champion. She has just started at Birmingham University and has received an R&A foundation scholarship bursary. ° Zoe and Emily Marler have been joint junior captains this year and have been great role models for the juniors. They recently won the EWGA Midland South Foursomes title beating the entire field by over 20 shots! ° Gemma Dryburgh (Beaconsfield) continues to be based in Florida at the IMG Golf Academy but returned in the summer and was a semi finalist in Scottish girls closed championship and won the Bucks junior championship. ° Players with handicaps above 20 are having great successes too. ° Emma Norris (Denham) and Rachel Goodwin (Harleyford) were given Academy places this year and have gained their handicap and have both reduced it to 24. They both played at the Midland South Handicap Stableford and finished 1st and 2nd, today with Emma Simmons, Lucy Matthews, Rhiannon Randall, 6 ° Katie Porter, Lianne Smith, Manami Baba they are playing in the BB&O academy champion of champions event. ° All county junior competition and match results along with individual news is always posted on the county website thanks to Helen Mines and a lot of local press coverage is coordinated by Louise Dimmock. ° The hi light of the summer is junior county match days and due to cost saving measures it is now played over 2 days and was hosted this year by Berkshire at Temple GC. It produced a nail biting finish in torrential rain and Bucks finished 2nd to the winners Herts. The consolation was that the girls would go forward to the regional team finals as we had finished above Berks and Oxon. Our handicap match team had already qualified via our friendly matches earlier in the year. Unfortunately the weather saw the postponement of that event and as I speak those 2 teams are playing against Warks., and Worcs., today! ° A few of us on the junior committee are stepping down this year. Jane Etheridge, Alex Camp, Sue Carter Roberts so I thank them all for all their hard work and time and sadly I am unable to continue as well. ° I hope you will support the junior committee in the future and thank all clubs that have allowed us the use of their course and made us feel most welcome and especially a big thank you to all the ladies that help at the events and to Sue Beresford (captain) and Margaret Maisey (president) and the Exec for showing an enormous amount of support for the juniors during this year.

COUNTY TRAINING OFFICER – Anne Bridges I began my role last year with the intention of building on and developing the great training put in place for the elite juniors by some of the previous CTOs. Training requirements are changing and we constantly need to reassess what is needed for the girls to compete at all levels. ° We invited 15 girls to join the elite training squad with handicaps ranging at the start of the year from 4 – 15. Sessions were held once a month from November to June followed with practice rounds at GX (for the championship) and Temple (for County Match Days). Content of the programme was comprehensive and included fitness, nutrition, mental skills, short game coaching, short game challenges and competitions, 9 hole competitions and a session on rules. The girls were asked to complete a feedback form that will assist in planning the training for next year. They have worked very hard during the year and have been rewarded with many successes that Debbie will refer to. Just as important, a lot of fun has been had along the way – notably at Temple where we had to fill in 2 ½ hours before our final game and they were introduced to a hilarious game called “Spoons” much to the amusement and a bit of jealousy from some of the other teams. More recently when we visited Cadbury’s World when a competition was cancelled due to overnight rain – who says golf can’t be fun! ° Another level of training for juniors (pre-handicap up to 18) is covered by the BB&O Academies. We were able to offer 36 girls places at 3 different venues. These comprised 6 x 4 hour sessions planned and organised by the BB&O. This year we included some pre-handicap girls in the programme. With very few exceptions, the girls have shown improvements with their handicaps, some quite considerable. Several of the less experienced girls have also gained handicaps. One objective of the BB&O is to encourage long term participation in the sport but also to create a way of developing talent and I think it achieves both. It also provides Bucks as a county, the opportunity of providing coaching to a large number of girls. ° The final opportunity for some juniors was our Cygnet Training – this was offered to 8 girls aged 9 and 10 who had either shown interest in attending the BB&O Academy sessions or were recommended by their coach/club. We felt they were either a bit too young or lacked experience for the more formal coaching provided in the Academy. It consisted of 4 sessions with 90 minute fun based coaching plus a game on par 3 course at Wycombe Heights. The content of the coaching included balance, hitting balls right and left, high and low and off downhill/uphill lies, ball below and above feet and from bunkers – very impressive at such a young age. ° At other levels in the county, Cathy Armstrong and I tried to organise some sessions for some 2nd team players that slip through the junior training and 1st team opportunities. The sessions unfortunately had to be cancelled - this was quite disappointing but probably reflects the time commitments of those working that would fit into this group.

7 ° 1st team – 4 sessions were arranged by Carole Weir with Karl Morris and Lawrence Farmer. This was a joint approach on mental skills and short game. It proved popular and very informative for those attending, but unfortunately captured a limited audience. The biggest hurdle is having many of the squad at university either in UK or USA which proved one barrier to many to have meaningful squad training sessions. ° I have attended some very informative seminars and conferences on coaching run by EWGA and EGU and after gaining the Level 1 PGA Coaching Award, assisted at the BB&O Academy sessions during the year. ° So it has been a busy year on the training front and working with Sue Lee and Cathy Armstrong we are beginning the process of planning training for next year across the county teams. Things are definitely progressing with what is required from training but I think we have built a good basis from which to go forward. ° My thanks go to Burnham Beeches, Mentmore, Wycombe Heights and Gerrards Cross for letting us use their facilities for various training sessions and also to members of both the junior and exec committees for attending and assisting as some of the sessions.

EWGA MIDLANDS SOUTH REPRESENTATIVE – Sue McKeon Madam President, County Captain, Ladies ° We held 4 delegates meetings this year and the Minutes with full reports are available on our website for you all to read. In this report today I aim to highlight general issues of interest. ° Merger talks with the English Golf Union are still in progress. I would like to thank the members for their input on this important issue – as I said this time last year whether a merger takes place or not the face of ladies golf will change forever. Memorandum and Articles of a merged body are nearing completion, as is the proposed makeup of the Board. The EWGA Operational Board will cease to exist and general meetings of the Board attended by County representatives will be more frequent. The role of the regional representative is likely to develop with more responsibility in running the Region with the other Counties, in our case W&H, Northants, Warks, Berks and Oxon. Road shows will be organised once agreement has been reached in principle by the Steering Group on these issues. The ladies membership will be kept up to date when there is something more concrete to report. ° Observer/referee courses have been held with several ladies from our county attending. I am sure they will be ready volunteers at EWGA and County events in the coming years. ° Registration of Clubs on the Central Handicap Data is progressing well. ° EWGA diaries are proving very popular and are available through the club delegates or from the EWGA website. The Trust has launched “Cash For Cartridges”. Full details are on the website but if you return empty ink cartridges from your printers a donation is made by the recycling company into EWGA Trust Funds ° EWGA are organising their first overseas competition at La Manga which was enjoyed by all the participants. ° There were some fundamental changes introduced in the EWGA Medals last year. There was a great deal of disquiet felt across the country with the lack of consultation and time to implement these changes. As promised EWGA are reviewing the changes – overall there are more ladies playing in the medal. A Medal Questionnaire was sent out to every Club for completion and I hope they have been returned. Copies were sent to the delegates recently as a gentle reminder. The use of distance measuring devices is now permitted at Club level but not in regional finals, nor in County Match Week. I should add that a trolley which tells you how far you have walked is considered to be a measuring device for EWGA purposes – the display must be turned off or taped over in a regional final or during play at County Match week. As an Association BCLGA do allow their use in our competitions. ° Participating numbers in Regional Championships across the country are still a little low. There has been a slight rise in participating numbers in the Seniors’ Championships. The PING competition has remained very popular, as have the other major events EWGA organise.

8 ° Instead of giving you a full rundown of all the winners of EWGA championships and competitions throughout the year I would like to highlight some outstanding performances by our county members in 2010. Many county members qualified for final rounds/match play stages/finished runner up or just outside the prizes in various championships but the following deserve mention. ° Carole Weir (Beaconsfield) who was runner up in the Senior Women’s English Close Championship at Littlestone in April. Carole was named as a reserve for the English Seniors’ Team. ° Pauline Olliver (Burnham Beeches) who won two Senior Regional events, Walmley in the Midlands and Warrington in the North. ° In the Grand Final for the EWGA Medal at the Worcestershire Christine Bishop (Magnolia Park) was the sole representative from Bucks, finishing in the top half of the field. ° Zoe Fitz Costa and Emily Marler won the Regional Foursomes at Kidderminster. ° Rachel Drummond who is in 15th position in the EWGA Order of Merit. In the English Mid Amateur she finished in 3rd place in qualifying for the matchplay, a beaten quarterfinalist. She was 3rd in the Liphook Scratch Cup, 3rd in the English Womens Close Amateur Championship and was awarded points in the Hampshire Rose, Critchley Salver, Astor Salver and Porters Park Centenary competitions. ° Full details of these and other results can be found on the EWGA website. ° Looking forward to 2011 EWGA will be sending out details of competitions and Regional Championships in the New Year. We are hosting the Regional Foursomes on October 5th at Burnham Beeches GC which has been reduced to 18 holes to encourage entrants. The Regional Championships are in Northants at Peterborough Milton in August, the format has been changed too with an 18 hole qualifier and two flights of 8 players going through to the match play stages, Girls Championship at Coventry, Australian Spoons at Carswell in Oxon, Medal Final at Caversham Heath in Berks. Entry forms will be on our website as soon as they become available. County Match Week is at the Worcestershire from 19th to 24th June. ° Looking forward to 2011 EWGA will be sending out details of competitions and Regional Championships in the New Year. We are hosting the Regional Foursomes on October 5th at Burnham Beeches GC. The Regional Championships are in Northants at Peterborough Milton in August, Girls Championship at Coventry, Australian Spoons at Carswell in Oxon, Medal Final at Caversham Heath in Berks. Entry forms will be on our website as soon as they become available. County Match Week is at the Worcestershire from 19th to 24th June. ° Ellesborough Golf Club is hosting the English Girls Championship in 2011 from July 26th to 28th and the English U13 Championships and U15 Championships with the Abraham Trophy are being held at Mentmore Golf and Country Club also from July 26th to 28th. This is a wonderful and rare opportunity to come along and see some fabulous golf from the best juniors in England on courses we know and play, on our door steps. I hope to see many of you there. ° Please register to receive the EWGA publications directly to your computer – the newsletters and Links magazine contain interesting articles, quizzes and news of all golfers as well as special offers available through their sponsors. ° In finishing my report I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, the members, club delegates and Executive for your help, interest and support in EWGA and Regional matters this year.

HANDICAP ADVISOR – Di Bovey Madam President, County Captain, Lady Captains, Ladies: Good afternoon. Handicaps: The Active/Inactive system came into effect on 1st January this year.

The EWGA Handicap Committee sent out a memo in September, to all the County Handicap Advisers requesting feedback from the Clubs in their County on the requirement that 3 qualifying scores are required during the year to retrain an Active handicap, or should this be increased to 5. The majority of Clubs in Bucks decided that the number of cards should remain at 3. I would like to thank all the Lady Captains, Clubs and the Delegates for their response to my email about this. I have not as yet heard the

9 result from the EWGA. ° Rules: During the year I have been to a number of Clubs: Risborough/Oaklands/Harewood/ChilternF/Hazlemere/Lambourne/Harleyford/Ellesborough) to show the R&A “Rules of Golf” DVD, followed by some quiz questions relating to the DVD. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed seeing the pros getting into trouble and how they use the “Rules” to their advantage. I was fed very well with either a delicious tea or supper and I would like to thank all the Clubs for their wonderful hospitality.

USGA Rating - Phillipa Cook It has again been a very quiet year with regard to USGA rating. The only on-course rating has been at clubs where changes have been carried out to some of the holes. The paperwork is going through at the moment for the last of the courses and for those courses with changes. Whilst a good number of counties have now finished rating their courses, there are some counties who still have a large proportion to rate. ° Any club that has changes done to their course, should contact me with an outline of those changes so that I can assess whether a visit is required to carry out a review of the holes concerned. My contact details are on the website. WEB-SITE - Phillipa Cook As most of you will know the BCLGA website was hacked into on two occasions in August by Muslim extremists. On the first occasion the site was up and running again later the same day. To avoid further problems arrangements were made to make the site more secure. ° Unfortunately before this work could be completed the site was hacked into again on 23rd August. The website was then not accessible for a few days until all necessary work was done to upgrade the system. Some of the recent additions to the content of the site were lost, but those were re-loaded as soon as possible. ° The BCLGA website was not the only one to be targeted; millions of other sites were similarly affected. I would like to record a note of thanks to the technical team who look after the site for all their hard work in getting the site working again at the earliest opportunity. I am told that of all the sites they deal with, our site was the most affected because of the volume and frequency of updates that we had made during the period. (As a comparison, another county’s website that I had cause to look at recently, is updated just once a week on a Sunday – rather limiting especially during County Week!) ° I apologise for any inconvenience caused by the site being down and thank those who reported the problem to members of the Executive. Without being able to access the website it was difficult to let people know that we were aware of the problem and it was being sorted out! ° Regular back-ups are taken of all the data to ensure that information is not lost if there is a major breakdown within the site. The problems encountered this year show just how important those back-ups are. The site is now much more secure but there is always a chance that hackers will increase their knowledge to target us again. The only way to make it totally secure is if we ourselves do not do the updates, which would destroy the point of having a website that we can easily update on a daily basis. ° Members will recall that additional software was installed last year to enable the “Login” section to be set up. This resulted in some technical difficulty with the site and so the “Login” section was put on hold until all the problems were resolved. When up and running the section will allow team players (ladies and juniors) to have access to their “own” page so that they can update their contact details and playing records, which the team captains can have access to. We are now in a position to look at this again – I will consult with the new County Captain, the Training Officer and Junior Organiser to see if this would still be a useful tool, and then either set up the section accordingly or endeavour to “hide” the “Login” box on the “Home” page until it is required. ° I would like to thank Helen Mines who does a superb job of helping me out generally with the updates, and specifically with uploading the Junior information and photos, which come through thick and fast during the summer months. ° Following today’s Meeting the site will be updated to include the new contact list for the Executive and Junior Committees. The list of advance dates for 2011 will be uploaded as soon as they are available.

10 7 TREASURER’S REPORT – Georgie Cairns Madame President, County Captain and Ladies – good afternoon. I have no doubt that many of you may have blinked twice as you scanned the accounts with your eyes coming to rest on this year’s substantial deficit and resultant drop in total assets. While my report will do nothing to improve the figures, I hope it will provide an explanation of the increased expenditure and at least a little reassurance that this is not the start of some uncontrolled downwards spiral - £5000 of the additional expenditure was intentional and the remainder unavoidable. So let’s go through the figures to put them into context. ° The County Capitation fee was increased by 25p to £5.25 this year, which compensated for the projected drop in membership numbers – although this drop was only 2.5% overall, which suggests that club membership numbers have survived the recession relatively unscathed. ° The drop in Bank Interest is the fault of our friend Mervyn King and is probably unlikely to recover in the foreseeable future. ° The Spring and Autumn meetings were both cancelled due to lack of support but the Seniors Autumn Meeting did run at a small profit. However the other Competitions, which include all the knockouts and leagues, were extremely well supported with entry fee income rising by over £600. ° The BB&O County Card scheme remains popular and provides a welcome contribution. ° You will recall that the County Lunch was cancelled at short notice due to ice and snow – and no charge was made to any of you who were attending. Last year’s profit would have contributed to this year’s speaker’s fee. Fortunately she charged no cancellation fee, but (see Expenditure) a cancellation charge of £480.00 (just £4/head) was made by the caterer at Harewood Downs to cover the costs of foodstuffs which could not be utilised elsewhere. This was paid by the County rather than being passed onto individual members. Next year’s County Lunch is being held a little later, when hopefully the weather should be more reliable, but nonetheless cancellation insurance has been taken out as Woburn Sculpture Gallery would doubtless charge full whack if nobody could get there. So although this will add an extra £1.50 to the ticket price but it will mean that you’ll get your money back should storm and tempest strike again. ° Charity income appears substantially less than last year, but the 2009 figure represents two years’ accumulated income with a final payment to the previous County Captain’s charity being made at the 2008 AGM. Similarly today, the final cheque to the County Captain’s charity (£7,081.40) includes the balance here plus a further £2,700.00 accumulated since July from the Summer Eclectic and other donations. ° County Merchandise income has dwindled following the disposal of the old stock but a few residual items have been sold. ° Moving onto Expenditure: ° The BB&OGP had requested an annual funding contribution of £1000 for 2009 and 2010, but what had not been budgeted for was the repayment of the £1500 loan for setting up the Club & Coach fund, which was not scheduled to be repaid until 2012. The original loan was paid direct to the Junior Account in 2008 but has been repaid from the parent account rather than leaving then strapped for cash midway through their hectic schedule and amidst ongoing uncertainty and delays with junior grants. We have been advised that the funding contribution to the BB&OGP will increase to £2500 for 2011 and probably to ~£3300 for 2012. However, as you will have already heard from the CTO, this is money extremely well spent – and it would undoubtedly cost the County an awful lot more to run equivalent training schemes independently. If anyone has any doubts about this do please look at the BB&OGP website for an insight into just how brilliant these academies are. ° The increased funding transfer to the Juniors includes an additional £1900 from the previous year’s Cygnet Trophy as this was not transferred until after the end of the financial year. ° The Charities figure obviously matches the income figure and comprises the balance due to Creditors that

11 appears under Assets & Liabilities. ° OK, so here’s the big one – Team Expenses, which includes Team Coaching costs. As you will by now have heard from the 1st Team Captain, the decision was made to upgrade the training schedule to include psychology coaching, increasing the total coaching costs to over £4000 – the remainder of the expenses for 2nd and Seniors teams remained very similar to previous years. The coaching budget had not been approved at the time that the Capitation levy was set for the year, but it was felt to be justified use of some the County’s capital reserves. The question was asked “What was the objective of County golf if it wasn’t to win County Week?” Obviously this level of expenditure could not be supported year-on-year without an increase in income, which would inevitably mean ramping up Capitation fees at an unacceptable rate. Next year’s coaching schedule, I am assured, will be very comprehensive but will cost a lot less. ° Next big number – County Week. EWGA has received complaints from a number of counties about the escalating costs of County Week and they are conducting a nationwide survey of how counties might prefer to see inter-county matches organised in an attempt to cut back on budget, as there is little that can be done to reduce costs while it remains in its current format. However it is doubtful whether any significant restructuring will happen within the next year or two, so we must budget accordingly. ° The other financially worrying issue is that for any county that wins County Week and progresses to the County Finals, they are looking at equivalent costs again – so maybe it was just as well this year’s coaching programme did not achieve its objective or we’d be looking at an even bigger dent in reserves. ° Office Expenses all remain similar to last year. ° Website costs include two years’ maintenance charges as payment of last year’s was delayed due to ongoing problems with data input, and some additional upgrade charges. ° Under the Miscellaneous umbrella is included £1080 spent on a laptop, specialised computer software, a projector and screen for use on County competition days, particularly for the Juniors, and this has already proved very worthwhile expenditure. There was also the purchase of trophies for the new knockout competitions. ° So all this contributes to this overall deficit which is well out of the usual comfort zone – but just to summarise where it came from –i.e. where we spent the extra: BB&OGP - £1500; Juniors - £2500; Team Coaching - £3500; Laptop etc - £1000 ° However, £30,000 of capital reserves remains and clearly safeguards need to be in place to prevent further erosion of funds in the forthcoming year. Those of you who were present at the last Delegates’ Meeting will be aware of the fee increases proposed and there were no objections voiced at the time. ° The Capitation fee for 2011 will increase by a further 25p to £5.50, which will generate an additional £800 based on current membership numbers. In addition an increase in entry fees for the leagues and knockout competitions is proposed, and is probably long overdue as they have remained static for at least the last 10 years. It is therefore proposed that entry fees for the knockouts will increase from £5 to £10/head (£20/pair for foursomes and greensomes) and for the leagues from £10 to £15/club. This will generate ~£1500 additional income based on current entry levels. It is hoped that those who participate in these will find this acceptable – after all you get to play some great competitive golf on some lovely courses at no extra cost. The Bucks Shield entry fee is likely to face a larger increase. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find clubs willing to give courtesy of the course for events such as the Bucks Shield Finals Day. A facility fee of £250 has been quoted by the club scheduled to host next year’s final – and it is likely that other clubs may demand similar fees in future years - they are after all giving up the course for a large proportion of the day. It is therefore proposed to increase the Bucks Shield entry fee to £25 per club to cover these costs. ° Moving on (or turning over) briefly to the Junior Accounts: ° Our thanks go to Alex Camp for keeping the Junior Section under meticulous financial control in the ever- changing scheme of junior grants, never quite knowing how much they will receive and when. ° There is a slight increase in total income but it does include two years’ Cygnet Trophy income. The final cheques are all now in for this year’s Cygnet Trophy with a total of £2045.50, so thank you to all clubs who participated to support the Juniors. ° “ ELGA Donations” is obviously a misnomer and its not even EWGA Donations – in fact it was more

12 money transferred from the main account: the annual £1000 transfer plus £770 from Capitation income. It will be ensured that the auditor understands this next year. However they received no grant income from EWGA or the BB&OGP during the financial year, although they have subsequently received ~£420 from EWGA and £1350 from BB&O which will appear in next year’s accounts. ° The increased expenditure on coaching includes some of the summer coaching costs from 2009, the new Cygnet scheme and some added expense on prizes for the Pre-Handicap events – but all money well spent as you will have already heard from CJO and CTO. ° Mileage claims have increased by £1000.00 and this reflects the vast distances travelled by members of the Junior Committee involved in organising their events and meetings – and it seems that the more successful the junior teams become, the further they have to travel. But we can’t blame those concerned for being more diligent than of old about submitting travel claims – don’t we all now flinch at the price every time we fill up with petrol. ° So an overall deficit of just over £2000, which emphasises the need for continued support for the Junior Section. It seems the more successful they are, the further they have to travel. ° Today concludes the fifth and my final year as County Treasurer, and while I would have preferred to finish on a high, it’s more a case of add this, subtract that, multiply by something and divide by the other, which brings you back to the number you first thought of. The end of year balance in 2005 was £215.00 less than it is in 2010 – so while the previous four years have maybe given rise to a feeling on complacency, the fifth has been a wake-up call to how easily funds can be eroded if the temptation to enter the mega-bucks league is not resisted. ° I suspect you’ve heard enough already but if anyone has any questions ….  Valerie King – Hazlemere: Who benefits from coaching?

Anne Bridges CTO – all the squads from the tiddlers to the first team.

 Do the squads contribute anything to the cost of their coaching?

The juniors contribute £30 to the BB&O and the Birdies £5 per session to BCLGA but the first do team not contribute. ° If there are no more questions I would like to propose adoption of the accounts –  Seconder: Glynis Lawrence - Mentmore

8 ADOPTION OF AUDITORS I would like to propose adoption of Stiles & Co of Maidenhead as auditors of our accounts for the current year.  Seconder: Margaret Lindsay – Denham-

9 CONSTITUTION – Sue Beresford If anyone has any questions Sue McKeon is happy to answer them. - No Questions  Proposer – Amanda McCallum – Denham Seconder- Fiona Rob- Buckingham

10 ELECTION OF OFFICERS – Lynda Hilton Pia Davies – Treasurer – proposed by The Lambourne Club Janet Beal – Joint Competition Sec/Bucks Shield & K/o’s – proposed by Beaconsfield  Could we please have a vote for the election of the above? Unanimous show of hands in favour.

13 ° The following Executive members are staying on the committee to complete their term of office. Margaret Maisey – President; Lynda Hilton – Secretary; Cathy Armstrong – 2nd Team Captain Pat Milliner – Seniors’ Captain; Sue McKeon – Joint Competition Secretary/EWGA Representative ° PRESENTATIONS – Sue Beresford. Leaving presents from the County were presented to Georgie Cairns; Pam Seller; Di Bovey & Debbie Fitz-Costa as a thank you for their work on the Executive Committee. ° Sue Beresford announced a special presentation; to show the appreciation of the BCLGA to a lady member who had worked tirelessly over the years on behalf of our county, both on the Executive Committee and off it and she is still working hard on our behalf. I would like to present Phillipa Cook with an Honorary Membership. ° Sue Beresford presents Sue Lee with the County Captains broach. ° Sue Lee presents Sue Beresford with the past Captains broach and leaving present on behalf of the County.

11 ANY OTHER BUSINESS None

12 VOTE OF THANKS Glynis Lawrence - Mentmore

13 CLOSING ADDRESS - Sue Lee, New County Captain I started playing golf in 1990 and in 1994 became a full member of Bucks County. In 1997 I was County delegate for Mentmore and then became Membership Secretary in 2000 and during that time on the committee I was 2nd team Captain for 2 years. I finished on the exec in 2006 as I was to be Vice Captain and Captain at Mentmore so I had a couple of years off! ° As I take over the role of Captain I promise I will do my very best to continue all the hard work done by all the past Captains, Presidents and committee members over the years. This current committee has some experienced ladies on it and I look forward to working with them and of course the new members that have just come on board. It has been a pleasure watching Margaret at work this year and I look forward to having her with me for the next year. I enjoyed being Sue’s Vice Captain and I will take forward some of her ideas and suggestions. ° My approach to the training and practice of the County Squads is a little different to what has been done in the last couple of years but time will tell whether it will work or not. ° The main coaching will be directed at the juniors and the training program first put in place by Christine Watson and continued by Carole Weir is in very safe hands with Anne and she is moving everything forward and bringing more girls through the ranks to 2nd and 1st team places. I hope to have one or two get togethers combining the 1st team, 2nd team and the elite juniors so that we can get a good County squad feel to our practices and hope that will produce the much needed team spirit. For the potential 1st team squad the emphasis will be more on playing practice and some squad matches with Counties outside our region and hopefully some practice matches at the County Week course that is to be played. For 2011 County Week will be from June 20th to June 24th at The Worcestershire and in 2012 Bucks are to be hosts and I’m really pleased to say that the matches will be played at Mentmore. ° I am of course aware that it is the many members of the Bucks clubs that pay for all of this training and coaching and I will do my very best to make it money well spent and to produce teams that we can all be very proud of. ° I will endeavour to visit as many of the Bucks clubs as I can during my two years so that I can get to meet as many members as possible. 14 ° As mentioned in some of the reports we will continue to offer our members many competitions but we do realise that with so many opens on offer at such competitive prices our Spring and Autumn meetings are not getting the numbers needed. We have decided to have just one meeting a year in the Summer and to hopefully keep the costs more attractive by having the County Captain and County Presidents home courses as venues. For 2011 the Summer meeting will be at Mentmore on July 21st and will probably be a team competition. ° The County lunch for my two years will be held at the Sculpture Gallery, Woburn Abbey and we have moved it to March which as Georgie has said may help us get more favourable weather conditions. For 2011 it is to be held on Wednesday 2nd March. I can’t confirm my guests until January because of their work commitments but I’m hoping to be joined by Jo and Sam Head who are twins that have played on the European tour. Another of my guests will be Pat Pearce MBE who is co founder of Dreamflight which is my chosen charity. Pat is a very entertaining lady and has many stories to tell of her years as a BOAC stewardess. Dreamflight is a wonderful charity that annually charters a 747 to take children that are handicapped or seriously ill to Disney World, Florida. I believe a couple of the Bucks Captains are also supporting Dreamflight. The web address for the charity will be on our web site; so please do go online and check it out. ° Just before I finish I thought you might like to see my track suit top that I had when I was at senior school in Chesham way back in the days when my Mum would have had to sew the BUCKS letters on to the back. I represented Bucks in Athletics and as you can see I was quite a lot smaller then. ° I was born in Bucks and spent a large part of my life in Bucks and have always been very proud to be a Bucks girl so I will conclude my ramblings by saying that I am going to be immensely proud to be your County Captain and I will do everything I can to make you proud to be members of the BCLGA

14 DATE OF NEXT A.G.M. Wednesday, 26th October 2011 – Harleyford Golf Club – 2pm.

Meeting closed 15.40

Signed………………………………………………………………………

Date…………………………………………………………………………