117 people played in my Pro's Cross Country on Saturday. I think most people enjoyed what was another variation, and a more difficult layout than in previous years. The 1st hole (6th tee to 17th green) certainly made a change to the normal 1st, and caused some real head scratching. Most people knocked one down the 6th and then hit over. Adam Stott fancied having a go at the 340 yard carry straight at it, but when faced with the task and into a stiff breeze, Adam seen in the photo played to the left.

I must admit that multiplying stableford scores on each hole rather than adding them, did further increase the pressure, as two players must score to get anything! The cards took a bit of checking and on the whole weren't too bad but don't be surprised if the score you thought you had has changed. My thanks to Nick and the greens staff for setting up the course on the morning. Paul Bruckshaw, Graham Briscoe and Phil Bell won with 108 points, second with 104 was Paul Kerrigan, Phil Frankland and Dave Machin. Click here to see full results sheet.

Order Of Merit Winners

The new winter OOM has been very close all the way, and the winners could not be confirmed until the results from the Cross Country were known. As it turned out, if Derek Simpkins had managed to finish third we would have had a three way tie - but Derek's team finished fourth and Paddy Weadick and Alan Finney were joint winners of the OOM by a mere two points from Derek. Paddy and Alan each win a voucher for £95. They looked quite serious after finishing their round on Saturday, but once they were told the results we soon saw a smile appear on their faces. Click here to see the final standings.

Pro's stableford

We had a stableford for the early players on Sunday in which nearly 30 played. Chris Byrne didn't exactly look a picture of heath first thing but somehow recovered and won with 36 points. Second was Jonathon Knight who just got pipped on a card play-off.

2's were worth £13.00 each. See all voucher winners and 2's here.

Welcome New Captains'

Congratulations to our new Captains' and President, and I would like to wish them well for a great year ahead. As you can see in the photos, we had a beautiful day and The Captain's Drive In was very well supported indeed. After the photo's it was time for the serious stuff and Lady Captain Sheila Brookes was first to go. Sheila played a well struck tee shot well away from the crowd. The Captain John Seaton then played an excellent shot down the fairway, three generations of the Seaton family were there in support. 15 teams play in the Captain's 2 from 4 to count Shotgun. Barry Hammond, Nigel Ashworth, Macauley Dentith and Lewis Cooper took first prize with 86 points. Second with 85 points were Lindsey Warburton, Graham Warburton, Ian Mottershead and Ryan Swift.

Wednesday Section

The season is underway and Wednesday's stableford was the first of this year's Wednesday Section. Play golf on a Wednesday if you can! Any member eligible to play in club competitions can join the Wednesday Section. Just a reminder of how things work; we alternate qualifying medals and stablefords through the playing season. Play is from the white tees. The field is split into three divisions according to handicap. Entries are taken here in the Pro Shop, on a roll up basis on the day. It is a mere £3 to join the section for the season. If you want you can sign in and tee off at 6pm, so make the effort to do so. If you are looking for a game, and wonder what goes on and who is about at what time, please contact me as I can help you.

Curtis Brokenbrow won Div 1 with 36 points, Peter McDonald won Div 2 with 37 points and Graham Taylor won Div 3 with 33 points. Next week will be a Medal; it's a one off fee of £3 subs for the year and £3 entry each week.

Always hand your card in

Whenever you play in a competition you must hand your card in, whatever your score. If you read the bye-laws of Reddish Vale Golf Club you will see that the punishment for not handing a card in is a two competition ban. The reason I am bringing this to your attention is because some people have been failing to return their scorecards, and new handicap Chairman Gary Inman is going to have a crackdown on it - and rightly so. On Wednesday a staggering 30% of players failed to return their scores which is poor.

Perhaps this was so poor because it was a non-qualifier, but over the last couple of years too many players have failed to submit cards in qualifiers as well. Failure to submit poorer scores means that the standard scratch for each competition is affected as it no longer represents a true reflection of the scores and how the course played on the day. The SSS will be too low and prevent those scoring well from being reduced accurately. It is the players' responsibility to ensure their score is submitted.

Knockouts

The deadline for the knockouts is Monday 7th April. Enter in the Pro Shop, the entry fee is £5 per person per competition, pay on entry.

All summer tees and greens now, and the greens are excellent.

This Sunday at 10am Mr Captain and a few volunteers are going to be divoting on the course. If you are free then please come and join them, the more people that can help the faster the work can be done. Please bring your own bucket!

You may see around the 6th that there are some boxes in the trees; Nick has been putting up some Bat boxes. Here is a picture of what you should look out for in the trees.

In recent weeks I have featured a bit of history, with some old pictures of some people and the course. It proved really popular and generated lots of responses thank you. Reddish Vale has a fantastic history to be proud of, and there is lots of it, so I will be featuring some more over the coming weeks.

Wouldn't it be nice to think that in X number of years, future generations will still be playing golf here and could enjoy looking back, perhaps at pictures of us.

At present we have less than ten junior members in the club. With the average age of golfers ever increasing, it is obvious that not enough young people are taking up the game. There are a number of reasons for this, one of them being we have a predominantly 'indoor generation' of youngsters. Whatever the reasons, this is not sustainable. There are golf clubs with flourishing junior sections, and my opinion is that their future is brighter.

Anyone who doesn't understand the above; and the necessity to encourage and help the growth of junior golf is living in a bygone age.

Kevin Seaton has volunteered as the new Junior Organiser. Kevin currently runs two junior football teams and has two children under the age of 10. This year we are planning how to rebuild the junior section.

We are looking for the next generation of juniors at Reddish Vale. I would like to ask all members to consider any young person that you may be able to introduce to golf, and to Reddish Vale.

Regular competitions, lessons and above all making juniors feel welcome here, will all help. More details to follow.

Did you know? If you are a full member of the club, children up to the age of 18 can play golf with you free of charge.

4 for 3 Offer

Many people are taking up the offer for 4 for 3 Pro V's with free personalisation, if you are interested in this deal then please contact myself and I will order them in for you. You can have anything you like printed on the balls (within reason) which should keep you going for at least a couple of rounds! Ignore the advertised price below, mine is cheaper at £42 a dozen.