Bedfordshire County Golf
Ladies Volunteer Awards 2016
2016 Volunteer Awards was held at Mount Pleasant GC on Tuesday 15th November. The awards evening was celebrating the tremendous contribution that all volunteers make to the enthusiastic promotion and the efficient running of our great game of golf and honouring some of those whose efforts have been recognised as outstanding among so much voluntary input.
Ladies Association President, Heddwen Molloy, and our County Union President, David Hawkins, who have kindly agreed to present the awards this evening. Liz Bagshaw presented the evening.
These awards are organised by the Bedfordshire Golf Development Group and Liz opened by explaining very briefly who we are and what we do. The group is made up of representatives from the Union, (Simon Kimber and Martin McDermott,) the Ladies Association (myself, Liz Bagshaw, Gill Westgate and Kim Burnage our treasurer) and the Professional Golfers Association in Bedfordshire (Richard Banks and Adrienne Engleman) our Development Officer of course Charlie Barwis, the Regional Development Officer for the Golf Foundation Jason Sorrell, (you will be hearing a little more from them later) the Regional England Golf Manager Ashley Rump, regional PGA Manager Sam Carr plus Will Hollyer from our County Sports Partners Teambeds and Luton. So that’s the Development Group.
Young Volunteer award for 2016 went Emily Broughton - Emily has been the junior organiser at Mowsbury Golf Club for only 9 months but during that time she has been there every Tuesday evening with the juniors on the Driving Range. Around 20 of them age 7 to 16. Emily has managed to obtain support from the owners and the club to fund lessons for them with the club professional throughout the year, and has arranged other sessions including rules quizzes and etiquette on the course. She helps organize matches against other clubs, the Club Championships and also the very important social events for juniors, a Family Fun day, a Games evening, a trip to Top Golf and a Junior Dinner at the end of the season.
Having overcome her own health problems to continue playing, she has indeed shown outstanding dedication to the juniors at her club - long may it continue!
Junior Development was Tim Glowacki - Tim has been a member of Aspley Guise & Woburn GC since 2003. He volunteered to take over the running of the junior section in 2012, from a standing start as it were, with no previous experience or hand over time! In 2013 he joined main committee so that juniors would be represented and properly involved in the club, and he has encouraged the development of social media such as Facebook and Twitter to reflect the preferred method of communication amongst juniors. Tim has worked tirelessly to create a platform of enjoyment and camaraderie amongst the junior section, both boys and girls, has recruited new members and encouraged them to enter club competitions and represent the junior section externally to foster their development. This year the junior team reached the final of the Tavistock Trophy and were winners of the Vale League supported by Tim who attends all committee meetings and matches and has also managed to gain funding for junior team uniforms and coaching during the winter. He helped with the introduction of the National Skills Challenge organised by England Golf, and on two consecutive years attended and supported juniors who qualified for the finals at Woodhall Spa. He has supported and mentored the 2015 County Champion who has gone on to represent England and sourced funding to help one junior represent the club at the World Kids final at Pinehurst USA. All this commitment has meant often taking time away from his job.
Membership Awardwent to Anne Harris - Anne is considered by members of Bedfordshire Golf Club and by the wider county, to have played a pivotal role in supporting the successful development of Bedfordshire Golf Club. She demonstrates a passion for the game and always takes time to introduce new people to golf with enthusiasm and vigour. She is 100% reliable and invariably steps up to lend a hand when needed. When the club moved from Biddenham to Stagsden Anne produced the club magazine for 4 years keeping current members informed and helping to attract new members She has organized monthly bridge evenings for the last 7 years which have proved to be a great way of helping to retain members after their days of golfing have past as well as creating a lively social element in the club. Her golfing commitment is illustrated by her frequent appearances in shield, friendly and also mixed matches which she has helped to organise again expanding this more social side of golf as well as captaining the more competitive Mail on Sunday teams. Anne has held numerous roles both on the Ladies Committee and the General Club Committee. She was chair of the club Social committee for 6 years, and is now Vice Captain of Bedfordshire Golf Club, ready for her second term as Ladies Captain next year, these positions total over 20 years of service on the committee, and yet she still finds the time to be the club representative to the Ladies Association.
County Service Award went to Martin McDermott - Martin was appointed Junior Manager for the Union in 2014 and has been co-ordinating the county Junior programme. He has dedicated just about all of his spare time to the Junior programme culminating in the creation of a training programme over the winter periods to elevate the boys’ and girls’ abilities, so that they can compete with confidence at higher levels and has been pivotal to the success of the county juniors from under 12’s to under 18’s. He a very good communicator with pupils, parents and coaches, keeping everyone in the know which in turn improves attendance during coaching sessions, keeps the parents up to date with any changes, and we now see that more players are benefiting from the better programmes. All this while carrying out his duties as Club Captain in 2014.
Martin played a leading role in creating the Talent Pathway model for Bedfordshire and has been happy to go away from the usual routine and try something different introducing golf psychology, fitness, and rules into the programme. He encourages and harnesses the enthusiasm of the team managers be most effective and is rising to the challenge of engaging with all the club junior organisers in the county, to bring them together to provide coordinated support. Martin is also a member of both the Bedfordshire Golf Union Management team and their representative on the Development group. His contribution to both these groups is usually direct and succinct, as all of his fellow team members will know, but he is also very perceptive and constructive. Martin is a driver so we know if he says he will do something it gets done!
Lifetime Services award for Ladies goes to Maureen Clark - Maureen has worked as a volunteer within golf, in both club and county for over 40 years and is described by her fellow club members as always helpful, unassuming, and supportive, a real stalwart! She was a founder member of Stockwood Park Golf club in 1973. Her commitment to building the Ladies section, which had a small membership, saw her take on the Captaincy on two occasions and in between she spent many hours helping to arrange matches and fixtures as well as approaching businesses for sponsorship for the Ladies section. Meanwhile Maureen also assisted with the recruitment, organisation and coaching of junior girls in order to establish and maintain an active Junior Girls section at Stockwood Park Golf Club.
In 1983 Maureen joined South Beds Golf Club and was appointed Ladies Captain in 1987. She then became Handicap Secretary for 3 years whilst again assisting with the organisation and coaching of junior girls. A role she continued for the next 22 years until 2012! Now that’s dedication! Maureen has also volunteered and served with our county ladies Association, initially as Secretary and again helping with the junior girls. She was then elected County President in 1998 serving more than her 2 years to help out and meanwhile still found time to volunteer at the European Tour events at Woburn as a scorer for 25 years only retiring last year. A hall mark of all of this voluntary service has been Maureen’s diligence and commitment to all the roles and responsibilities she has undertaken, always being dedicated to promoting and representing Ladies Golf in the best possible way, for the good of the sport. Maureen is still an active member of South Beds Golf Club and a very worthy winner as the female 2016 Lifetime services Award.
Lifetime Service for men went to David Parrett - David has served golf in Bedfordshire for many years. He was instrumental in founding and developing Griffin Golf Club, which later became Caddington Golf Club in the 1970’s and served on their committee and as the County representative on the Executive for many years. He was County President in 2000/01 and took on the role of County Secretary and England Golf Voting member from Clive Allen in 2005, a position he held until 2010 and during which time he expanded these roles to meet the new challenges emerging through many changes at national and local level. David was a major driver in the setting up of the original Bedfordshire Golf Partnership so without his impetus we would not be sitting here today presenting awards organised by our now re-named Development Group. Throughout his tenure in all these roles he has used his skill as a politician and diplomat to best effect. He is still involved with the County Union now as their representative on the South East Group, acting as a conduit of information between region and county, as he previously did as a Voting Member.
Liz concluded with the following thanks;
* Mount Pleasant Golf Club for their excellent hospitality this evening and to
* Everyone who has contributed to this evening,
* The panel of judges from the Development group,
* Steve Bigrave who did all the initial administration,
* Steve Burnage for taking the photos,
* The speakers, especially Rob and Adrienne who were volunteered to contribute
* Charlie for his support and presentation execution
* County presidents who kindly presented the awards to our winners.
Congratulations to all of the winners, I hope you have all enjoyed celebrating with them and hopefully we have also celebrated the whole army of golf volunteers throughout golf in club and county that these ladies and gentlemen represent.
David Hawkins President of Bedfordshire County Golf Union to close the proceedings.
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