Bye for now from the outgoing captain ...

I have been a member at Witney Lakes since 1996, and have played golf in the Seniors' Section since 2004. Over that time I have made many friends at Witney Lakes and enjoyed the camaraderie, friendship and good humour of many seniors. I thank you all for your great company.

Next week I shall be off to Devon, and hopefully if you are passing my way you might like to pop in for a drink, chat and maybe a game of golf. I will leave my contact details with a few so word will soon spread as to where I can be found.

Hopefully, I will return for the presentation evening at the end of the month.

Bye for now!

I leave you with a copy of my report for the AGM.

Firstly I would like to thank all members of the Seniors' Golf Committee for assisting in the running of the Seniors' Section this year. My thanks also extend to the senior golfers for making my year as captain run smoothly without too many hitches.

We must never forget the hard work of the green keepers for giving us a course well-fit to play on, day-after-day, month-after-month. Visiting teams had plenty of praise for the condition of the course - a big thank you to Martin Burbanks and his green keepers.

A thank you to the cooperation of the management at Witney Lakes for their support of the Seniors' Section in running our weekly programme of golf, the Charity Open and the numerous home fixtures.

The number of senior players is considerably down on previous years – 5 years ago we had about 60 regular players, now we are down to half the number.

I URGE MANAGEMENT TO OFFER INCENTIVES FOR PLAYERS TO JOIN THE SENIOR SECTION.

Owing to the reduced numbers of senior players it has proved a struggle on many occasions to get a full team of 12 players for a fixture. Only after some nagging did we get a full compliment every time. I cannot thank enough those seniors who time-after-time supported the fixtures. You know who you are and without you the fixtures would have collapsed! The fixtures provide a great opportunity for seniors to play on other courses in the region and I would have thought that this would have been a great incentive for all seniors to play in matches.

The Seniors play 21 fixtures with other clubs over the season. At the time of writing we had won 12 matches, drawn 1 match and lost 7 matches. I wish Kevin and his team success against Shrivenham and hopefully we can make that 13 wins!

Our home matches bring in a minimum of £3600 in revenue to Witney Lakes through catering, not to mention an increase in revenue at the bar. If senior numbers dwindle and we play fewer fixtures this will impact on the revenue to Witney Lakes. Surely this is a good reason for the Lakes to promote the Seniors' Section?

The Senior Captain's Charity this year was Prostate Cancer UK and you have raised £1280, a cheque to be presented to the charity at the presentation evening on the 28^th October.

The programme of golf offered to seniors is very varied with formal and informal, individual and team competitions. I know that a few have moaned about the number of team competitions, but many have enjoyed the camaraderie of playing team games and the opportunity of winning as a team. I hope you continue the format. I know there will be much debate about the number of 'white tee' competitions. A re-balancing is probably needed and I would support both the Winter and Summer Stablefords being played off the yellow tees.

Finally my term as Seniors' Captain is finished and I urge you all to give Kevin Timms your maximum support in running golf for the section over the next year.

Barry Holmes – October 2016