2025 AGM Minutes

MINUTES OF THE BRACKNELL CAVALIERS GOLF SOCIETY

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD AT LAVENDER PARK ON

THURSDAY 16th OCTOBER 2025

Those present:

Graham Pearce, Ray Penfold, Nigel Jackson, Nick Aitken, Steve Faulkner, Philip Faulkner, Richard Faulkner, Alan Papps, Ian Begg, Tim Houghton, Mike Clothier and Kevin England

The Meeting opened at 19.40

1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE:

Trevor Rockett, Barrie Smith, Andy North, Bruce Riddington, Terry Harmsworth (Jnr), Steve Adams and Colin Staunton-Lambert

2. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

Passed

3. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

None

4. CAPTAINS REPORT – Ian Begg

First of all, I’d like to say what a pleasure it has been to captain the society this year. You’ve all made the job really easy with your support and encouragement. Standing up presenting prizes and having your picture taken isn’t exactly difficult, except maybe after two rounds in the blasting heat at Tylney, that was quite a day and we were all pretty knackered.

And then you’ve made it even easier, I don’t have to get up and talk at the AGM! You can read this at your leisure. Downside of that is I might go on a bit, but you can stop reading whenever you want (but skip to the last paragraph if you do please!).

Fresh from watching all the fantastic golf at the Ryder Cup (go Europe!), it seems appropriate to remember some of our golfing highlights of our year. Full results are of course on the websites together with the individual write-ups, and Tim will have lots of stats.

In terms of venues, it was a shame Test Valley was a washout, but the rest of the events went well. I though it was a good mix of old familiar and new courses. Tylney Park and Sutton Green were new to me this year which is always exciting, a while since I’ve been to The Springs and West Berks so good to see them again, and some more local favourites like Winter Hill and Pine Ridge. Please give your feedback on courses to Steve so he can pick the right venues for next year.

As far as stableford competitions go, 3 performances stand out, both Nick Aitken and Trevor Rocket managing rounds of 46 pts, and Mike Clothier closing the year out with a 44 pointer. Warwick Pearce can justifiably feel hard done by with a 43 points total that was only good enough for 2nd. Well done to all our other winners, I hope the wine was good. I feel a new rule coming on, anyone scoring more than 43 pts needs to wear a cowboy/bandit hat for their next round.

As far as Nearest the Pin goes, we’ve had a number of winners, but both Nick Aitken and I have managed to win it twice. A common winning distance seems to be around 5’ something, but if no-one else gets on, Nick will be there with a 20 footer.

The rest of the trophies were concentrated with a couple of winners. Congratulations firstly Nick Aitken for winning most of the trophies, Zsibrita par 5s, Clothier Cup, Staunton-Lamber Mystery 6 and the Mystery prize at the summer trophy.  I did seem to be shaking his hand a lot! Mike Clothier also won a few with the Penfold Par 3 and the Andy Reilly trophy. Shout out for Tim Houghton as well for his wins. Hopefully a few more winners next year.

Thanks for participating in all my competitions for the year, I think we managed to spread the money around. Some highlights I remember included Richard Faulkner winning the putting one having gone the whole round without 3 putting, and our guest Kim Papps hitting most fairways in a round proving big hitting doesn’t always win the dosh. Glad to see another guest also won with Jonathan Davis winning at The Springs. I hope Nick has his thinking cap on for next year for some new ideas, probably the hardest thing he’ll need to do.

And finally congratulations to Steve Faulkner who wins the Grand Prix for the year regaining the trophy I took off him last year. It was a close run thing with Mike Clothier, Tim Houghton and me in hot pursuit but he held us all off. Well done Steve. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact you chose the courses.

Finally on behalf of all the players I’d like to thank the rest of the committee. Steve, Tim, Graham, and Colin, have done a fantastic job as usual, giving up their time and effort to make everything happen and allowing the rest of us to just turn up and play. We really do appreciate what you do for us and it’s what makes this a great society to play in. And finally finally good luck to Nick next year as he takes over the captaincy. Nothing much to follow, should be a doddle ;-).

5. SECRETARYS REPORT

Well that’s my first year as secretary completed after taking over from Ray. There was a bit of an dodgy start with the Downshire being washed out and a last minute change to Bird Hills, which should also have been closed and then with Test Valley cancelling at the last minute it wasn’t a great start.

Fortunately the next event at Sutton Green went well as did all the subsequent events.

This year the format of the events changed from some being 27-hole to all being 18-hole events (apart from the Summer Trophy) and booked in the afternoons so that the workers could take less time off work. We can discuss later whether this change has worked or needs revising. The Summer trophy was held at Tylney Hall on one of the hottest days of the summer and seemed to be a popular venue so is in line to host the Summer trophy next year, assuming we get as good a rate as we have the last two years. Due to the weather issues we had with the Winter trophy last year we’ve brought forward the date for this year to mid’ November and moved it to Huntswood.

There were visits to a few courses that were new to most members but have been used by the society before which were Sutton Green, The Springs and Winter Hill. All of them seemed to have been well received.

Membership has dropped to 26 players and there has been some low turnouts at some of the events. We had just 10 members (plus one guest) at West Berks in June.

This years weekend away was a revisit to The Cotswold and was attending by 16 members. This was Steve Zsibritas final event and Alan Papps has kindly agreed to step up and arrange future events, the first of which will be at Dale Hall in Sussex.

Many thanks to Graham and Colin for their help putting the list of courses together and their support over the year.

I’ve started planning the schedule for next year and have received a few course suggestions and happy to take more suggestions, that is assuming everyone is happy for me to carry on as Secretary 😊

 

6. TREASURERS REPORT September 30th 2025

We have a balance of £ 1638.57 to carry forward into the coming golf year. This is an

Increase of £ 363.91 on the previous year.

We had an income of £720.00 from members annual subscriptions.

The main expenditures were as follows.

Subsidies on outings totalled £ 132.00

Wine, golf ball prizes and website costs totalled £ 264.09

The subsidies for outings did not really go to plan this year mainly because of the low entries on the subsidised outings and Test Valley being cancelled which was to be subsidised. However, this does give us better scope for subsidising this coming year.

The increase in subscription has improved funds but at the same time member numbers are down by three on the previous year. Would recommend keeping at £30.00

The references to Dale Hill are for the annual golf weekend.

Please remember to copy both Colin and myself in on emails related to outings. Please don’t send separate ones to us, copy us in.

Many thanks to Colin, Tim and Steve who has done a great job stepping up to take over from Ray.

7. HANDICAP SECRETARY’S REPORT

A copy of the Competition and Handicap report for 2025 is attached to these minutes.

8. ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Captain: Nick Aitkin Agreed by all

Vice Captain: Terry Harmsworth (Jnr) (Nominated Ray Penfold, Seconded Nigel Jackson)

Secretary: Steve Faulkner Agreed by all

Treasurer: Graham Pearce Agreed by all

Handicap Secretary: Tim Houghton Agreed by all

Competitions Secretary: Tim Houghton Agreed by all

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

A. Numbers dropping. There was a discussion on the low turnouts and how we can increase membership. It was pointed out that we have some regular guests who can’t commit to becoming members so it was suggested we make these people aware of future events so they could attend a few events.

B. Subscription fees. Discussed during the treasurers report it was agreed to keep the membership fee at £30

C. Captains prize. There was a discussion about the captains prize still relying on cash. It was decided that handing over a bag of cash to the winner was still preferred we’d continue with the requirement for pound coins.

D. Bacon Rolls. Steve raised whether we still require bacon rolls for the afternoon matches as he’d noticed some people, working half days didn’t have time to make it to the course on time and missed out and also had a request to vary the food options. It was agreed to maintain the bacon roll option as it was a good way to get together before the rounds started.

There being no other business, the Meeting closed at 20.20