Lady Captains Update - September/October 2019

As I said in my last update, the bank holiday weekend at the end of August saw some truly
wonderful weather, but during September we have seen more rain than we would have liked, and rather colder winds, and this has continued into October. 

On 5 September we hosted the county Presidents semi finals, which was a very successful
event, and County officials were extremely appreciative in terms of the course, the food and
the support given. 

The following week saw the Club’s Festival week get off to a good start with the Pro Am on
Sunday 8 September. Various events were held throughout the week; unfortunately the
Ladies Open on Thursday, and the Mixed Open on Sunday, were not particularly well
attended, but other events, such as the Seniors Open on Monday and the Texas Scramble
on the Friday, were. 

On 22 September, the Club hosted the County Champion of Champions events. This is a
prestigious event where the County invites the Champions of Devon Clubs to play against
one another. DCGC entered Tracey as our Ladies Champion. This was a daunting but
exciting event for Tracey; a number of those playing were off scratch or extremely low
handicaps, and there was our Tracey in the thick of it. She didn’t start too well, taking 6 on
the first hole, but then got into her swing (pardon the pun), playing a brilliant round. She
ended up 4th overall with a gross 80, beating some of the scratch players, and winning the
nett trophy. A fantastic result for Tracey – well done.

Our Autumn meeting was held on 26 September and once again, the weather was kind to
us. Lyn Parry won the day with Ying second. Jo Coe won Division 2, with Viv Bailey a close
second. Well done to all. Golf was followed by afternoon tea and many thanks to Amy and
her team for that.

On Sunday 29 September, DCGC hosted the last Dartmoor Mixomes match of the season.
This is a friendly but mildly competitive competition between clubs who take part in the
Dartmoor League. Sue Pearman, who runs the Dartmoor League, is trying to get better
representation from those clubs, but at the moment we are a small, but select, band of clubs, DCGC, Dartmouth, Okehampton and Boringdon Park. We played a Greensomes
Stableford. Unfortunately Dartmouth had to pull out at the last minute because buggies were not permitted, and Okehampton were only able to field one team. So it did leave us rather short. But it was a good game and the end result is that DCGC came a close second to Boringdon in the trophy. The trophy should have been presented at the Dartmoor League
presentation day at Okehampton on Saturday 26 October, but unfortunately this had to be
cancelled due to poor weather. 

Monday 30 September saw 14 of us travelling to Carlyon Bay, with terrible weather forecast
for later in the day. The forecasters were not wrong about the level of weather, but were
wrong about the time of arrival!! The bad weather managed to come in just as the first of our ladies teed off, and it did not stop. We decided to play the competition on the first day over 9 holes only. Some decided to carry on and do a few more holes before retiring to the
spa/pool. We enjoyed a pleasant dinner, good company, good surroundings and good food,
what more could we want. Lyn, Sue J and Annet won the shield, with a front 9 score way in
front of anyone else, so well done ladies. The second day was an early start, Carlyon Bay
having missed making our golf booking!! Our first tee time was 0858, so we were all up
bright and early. Thankfully the weather was rather better, although some of us still had
clothing that was a little damp. Again, the golf was fun, which was the main purpose of the
day. Winners that day were Doreen and Sue (Barr). Quite appropriate as it was Doreen’s
birthday, she very kindly brought a cake with her and shared it with those present. We then
all said our goodbyes and set off for home, tired, a little damp, but happy.

October has been rather quiet with some of the county or vets matches having to be
cancelled due to bad weather; this also caused a problem for DCGC and the course was
closed for a couple of days. The Mapledoram Cup was played for on 10 October with Lyn
Parry the winner. Our breast cancer day saw a mass of pink all over the course as the
ladies dressed up for the day. Although there were not many playing we raised an
astonishing £77, so thank you to all the ladies who did play and donated. None of us played
particularly well but again Lyn was the winner for the day – this is becoming a worrying habit Lyn!! But many congratulations Lyn on both wins.

Our annual match against the seniors playing for the Lin Ashman trophy was played on 8
October. We fared somewhat better this year than in the past winning two of the five
matches. Well done to all who played what is a very tough match.

The mixed Tomkins trophy had to be postponed due to the bad weather, which could be a
blessing as we had a very small field. Hopefully when the re-arranged date is announced,
more people will be able to play. Please look out for an email from Devon with the revised
date.

Sue (J), Fran and I attended a meeting of the Dartmoor Ladies on Monday 21 October. We
discussed what went well and what didn’t in terms of the Dartmoor Ladies’ matches and the
Mixomes. We agreed that we, DCGC, would continue to play these matches, they are fun
events and it gets us to participating clubs throughout the winter months (weather permitting) and playing with new people. It also gives higher handicappers the experience of playing fun, but mildly competitive games. Dates will be announced shortly so please look out for them and put your names down where you can. We will be looking for teams of six for the Dartmoor Ladies and three mixed teams for the Mixomes.

The Club’s presentation evening took place on 26 October. Various winners attended to be
presented with trophies and to be applauded for their contributions to the Club.
Presentations for the ladies included the Championship Bowl presented to Tracey, the Les
Pope Cup for the Championship handicap winner, Ying, the Founders Vase to Sue Barr, and
the Freddies Foursomes presented to Di Parsons. Unfortunately her partner, Sue Bonner,
was not able to attend the evening. The ladies who played in the Western Morning News
Trophy also attended. I gave a short explanation of what we had to do to win the trophy and
I am pleased to say we all received resounding applause. Once more – well done to all who
played.

Dates for the 2020 Sheelah Creasy and Presidents matches are already on the noticeboard
in the changing rooms, so please take a look and add your names against the days you can
play. Sue will also be putting the list up for the mixed friendly matches, so please keep a
look out for that as well – it will be on the ‘mixed’ part of the board outside the changing
rooms.

And so we are coming into November, with shorter days and too many leaves on the course;
and of course, the run up to Christmas. The online booking is open for the Christmas Stableford on 21 November – don’t forget to put your names down for that – prizes for all who play!!

With best wishes
Shirley
Ladies Captain