News

The Autumn Meeting at Newquay (Thur 30 Sep) and Trevose (Fri 1 Oct) took place in the usual challenging ‘3-season’ weather; rain, equinoctial gales and , eventually, glorious sunshine.

Despite the conditions the 33 members and 4 accompanying wives produced some excellent scores. The winner of the Dartington Trophy for the a.m. Stableford at Newquay, playing off a handicap of 7, was our Captain, Iain Macdonald. Iain, in ‘purple’ form also won the Mister Trophy for the highest aggregate points from the Newquay and Trevose rounds.

The best individual round at Trevose, winning the Wentworth Bowl, came from Peter Eberle, who also won the Ted Horlick prize for the best score by a 70+ year old. (Yes he is, really!) And, finally, a recently re-joined member, John Newlands, took home the prized Janion Trophy (a bottle of excellent Irish whisky) for his ‘nearest-the-pin’ on the 8th at Trevose.

100 years to the day since its inauguration, the RNGS celebrated its centenary with a meeting at Liphook Golf Club. The meeting took the place of the Covid-cancelled Spring Meeting and concluded with an excellent dinner for 42 members and guests at the Club. Speeches were made by our new President, Rear Admiral John Clink, and Captain, Iain Macdonald, expressing the appreciation all members owed, both to the Club and its staff and to those who had served the Society so well over the past century, in particular our outgoing Secretary, Commander Rob Dean.

Our new Secretary, Taf Pugh, who had organised the whole event, managed to add to his laurels by not only winning the Challenge Cup for the morning stableford but also by (very expensively) achieving a hole-in-one on the 12th hole.

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At the instigation of Andy Towens, an RNGS member, an RNGS team was invited to Burnham and Berrow for a weekend of golf and a ‘black tie dinner’ on the 24th and 25th of July. The course, near Weston Super-mare, is one of the premier links courses in the south of England. Escaping the thunder storms and floods which battered the southeast, the RNGS team acquitted itself well against a home team including a number of past club captains, coming home 5¹/₂ – 6 ¹/₂ losers, albeit winning the Sunday morning matches when hangovers from the previous evening might have influenced play. Players on both teams described the meeting as a great success, and both are keen to find ways of both reciprocating and repeating the match in the years ahead.

35 members took part in the Summer Meeting at Tidworth in lovely weather in an otherwise soggy week, and on the fastest greens most have experienced this year. Congratulations to Bryan Burns, winner of the a.m. Stableford and the Daniels Cup, to runner-up Terry Pearce and to Richard Seymour and Ralph Wykes-Sneyd, winners of the p.m. Foursomes.

Most or all of you will by now be aware of the Prime Minister’s 22 Feb roadmap for relaxing Covid-19 restrictions and of its implications for the return of golf in England.  The Committee has been looking at the likely effects on RNGS fixtures, and at what can be done to minimise the loss of society golf this year.   The roadmap envisages the following steps:

• Mon 29 March (Step 1)  –  Fourball golf permitted.  No catering, but takeaways may be provided
• Mon 12 April (Step 2)  –  Fourball golf permitted.  No indoor catering.  Outdoor catering subject to Rule of 6.
• Mon 17 May (Step 3) –  Fourball golf permitted.  Indoor catering subject to Rule of 6.  Outdoor catering subject toa maximum of 30 people.
• Mon 21 Jun  –  All restrictions end.

With this in mind:

1. The Spring Meeting at Liphook has been postponed and will become the Centenary Meeting, to be held at Liphook on Wed 25 and Thur 26 August, with the Centenary Dinner following play on Thursday 26. 
2. The Huntercombe match (16 April) has been postponed to Thursday 29 July, concurrent with the East Devon match.  Nick Harris, the MM, is in touch with previous applicants.
3. The Scottish Tour in late May has been cancelled, after consultation with the members who had applied, due to the number of uncertainties involved.
4. The Marches Tour has been moved from 25/26 Aug to Wed 11 Aug (South Herefordshire) and Thur 12 Aug (Ross-on-Wye)
5. For the remaining matches before 21 Jun (FAAOGS, THUR, BIGB, BROK, RAGS, RAFG) match managers are liaising with host clubs to see under what conditions, if any, matches might be permitted.  Thus far (8 Mar) the FAAOGS(Yeovil), Thurlestone, Bigbury matches have been confirmed as going ahead with some restrictions on catering. Further information will be promulgated by email and on the website as the situation becomes clearer.