Ladies News

The Northenden Golf Club, Palatine Road, Northenden, Manchester, M22 4 FR.

Tel: 0161 998 4738 Contact Us

For the best viewing experience, please use a screen resolution of 1280 x 768 or greater.

Welcome to the Ladies area of our new website. I am really looking forward to an exciting year as Lady Captain, where we will have a full calendar of events, competitions and social events. This area of the website is being updated as we agree our fixtures and competitions, so please bear with us for a few more weeks. It will then be updated on a regular basis, and I want to reflect what the Lady Members want to read, so all ideas are welcome.

Yours,

Judith Snell

SUMMER IN THE LADIES’ SECTION

The year started with a social event in March to raise money for Lady Captain’s Charity, Francis House. We decided to ‘lower the tone’ and move away from bridge to play Bingo instead. We commenced proceedings after the match between the Captains and Secretaries teams – the Captains’ team having a resounding win. We had a good response and a very able and amusing caller in the form of Les Massey. The prizes were Easter Eggs and Easter Flowers and we all had a fun couple of hours and raised just short of £200 for the Charity. The final total raised, I am delighted to say will be upwards of £4,500. A big “Thank You” to all concerned and to Trishia Booth who ran the Manchester 10 k and to the ladies who sponsored her raising a magnificent £900.

Since then we have had eight Mixed Events starting with the Easter Monday Mixed golf and dinner which was followed at the end of April by a St George’s Day Mixed Golf event and Dinner and which raised £1,200 for Francis House. The Timperley Brass Band produced some rousing music in the evening and there were some very rousing renditions of Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and Rule Brittannia to accompany them, especially once the vocal chords had been well lubricated!! There have also been three other Bank Holiday Mixed Golf events and dinners as well as our club hosting the Mersey Bowl, which, we are delighted to say, Northenden won. The last couple in – a make-shift pairing at the last minute in the form of Larry McDonald and Ursula Greenwood who didn’t even know one another before the event – came in with the 33 points needed to clinch the winning place. Additionally, we have had our Mixed Open event and our Mr President’s Day Mixed Golf and dinner which was blessed with lots of sunshine and a most enjoyable day was had by all. In August the ladies returned the compliment when we had the Ladies to Gents Mixed Golf event, where the ladies pay for their partners and provide the prizes for the men. Again, this was a most enjoyable event.

The ladies have also had four of the five dinners which the section has annually. The first one, once the Lady Captain had been elected in November, was the Christmas Dinner. Once the season had got underway we had our Spring Meeting and dinner at the end of April. The season has been a busy one with competitions like the Mersey Shield – this year it was held at Didsbury and it will be held at Northenden in 2011. The Midlred Embelton Trophy, the Massey Davies 36-hole competition, the Ladies’ Invitation, the Jubilee Cup, the Open Day and, a very special event, Mr Captain’s Prize, all were successful competitions. Our Captain, Ian Hynes, and his wife attended the dinner and it was a most convivial evening. The Captain’s prize for the lucky winner was a voucher for a Spa Treatment – a prize well worth winning.

Lady Captain’s Day was a very special day and we were really fortunate with the weather. Apart from a light drizzle early in the morning the day stayed dry, although cloudy, but this did not dampen the spirits of the 58 ladies who took part. Mr Captain did a wonderful job of manning the halfway house and was the perfect ‘Jeeves’ resplendent in pinstripes, waistcoat, red rose in the lapel and white towel over the arm – in fact, the perfect butler and the ladies were bowled over – almost literally!! Not by Ian but by our steward who prepared a very potent “Pimms” for the ladies to enjoy as they came off the ninth green. It turned out to be so enjoyable that some of them had difficulty negotiating the “Pimms Potion”. Tea and cakes were enjoyed in the clubhouse afterwards before everyone came back to attend the dinner in the evening. With the help of the personal guests of the Lady Captain the numbers swelled to 70 with an excellent meal being served and some worthy winners taking the prizes.

In addition to the normal weekly competitions the ladies have also enjoyed two Exchange Days. The first one was held at High Legh and the second one at Leigh. These outings are very popular and great fun and a good time was had by all.

The teams unfortunately didn’t fair too well in the league, but it was not for the lack of a fighting spirit and the overall results did not reflect the closeness of many of the matches. In August we played host to Prestbury, Alderley Edge, Dunham and Birchwood ladies’ teams in one of the quarter finals of the East Cheshire League. It was one of the few sunny days and our course was in a wonderful condition – many compliments being paid by the visiting ladies who played it.

During the year we have had fourteen EWGA Medal competitions, six of these being held on a Sunday to accommodate those ladies who find it difficult to play during the week. Competitions to be played before the season draws to a close include the Daily Mail Foursomes, our Gold Medal championship, the Autumn Meeting and dinner and our Mini-Open which will be held on 14^th October.

All in all we have had a busy and most enjoyable year’s golf.

Mr Captain (Ian Hynes) alias “Jeeves”

Lady Captain

Mrs Jill Gregory—winner of Lady Captain’s Day