Never one to break with tradition, I’ll start with the weather. “Driest Spring on record”. “Hotter than Faro”. “Only two days rain”. Guess what, both of those days coincided with GSGB meetings. But I must congratulate our members….only one or two dropped out at Isle of Purbeck and as far as I am aware, no-one at Cirencester.

The Isle of Purbeck followed Broadstone for our May meeting and conditions at Broadstone were ideal. The course, however, proved to be quite a challenge to most of us. The most common reaction was “That was tough….love to play it again though”. The next day proved to be a challenge for a different reason, the weather. Such a shame as the views over Poole Harbour are normally quite spectacular.  The Scratch Cups went to Richard Wadkin from Sand Moor and Claire Jenkins from Minchinhampton.

The June meeting was up in the north east, at Northumberland and Hexham. The majority of the Northumberland course is inside the Newcastle racecourse, which makes for a few unusual immovable obstructions but lots of room for spectators! Hexham boasts one of the most impressive clubhouses on our circuit, inside Grade-1 listed Spital House. The weather was perfect on both days and the scores were impressive. The winners of the Aynsley Bridgland Trophies were Sue Lockley from Gog Magog and Alan Ashbee from Scarcroft.

At the time of writing, we have just returned from Cirencester and Burford, two lovely courses in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire respectively. Some heavy showers made Cirencester more of a challenge but the scores were impressive on both courses and it’s a lovely part of the world. Our meeting was days before the Fairford Air Tattoo, so we were treated to the occasional fly-past to recognize our visit. Winners of the King of Morocco Cup and Society Salver were Martin Taylor from Cirencester and Shirley Singh of Gog Magog.

In the past, we have held our AGM in July at a special 2-day meeting. This year the AGM will be immediately before dinner at our August meeting at Little Aston (Aug 19th) and Sutton Coldfield (Aug 20th). At the AGM we will announce the locations and dates of our 2026 meetings. Details will be posted on the website before the end of August.

The last meeting of 2025 will be at West Lancs and Ormskirk (Sept 24th and 25th).  This meeting has a few places available, so if you are interested or would like to bring a guest to try the society before joining, please contact Brian.

There are places too on our upcoming tours, Mauritius in November (contact Pat Bennett) and Scotland next April (contact Ronnie Steedman). Both trips to Costa Navarino in October 2026 are full at present.

Some of you will have spotted that we now have the facility on our website to order Glenmuir golf clothing, carrying the GSGB logo, directly from Glenmuir at discounted prices. Please go online and have a look.

Welcome to all the new members who have joined in the past year. I’m sure you will enjoy the Society as much as I do; visiting great courses and making new friends.

Let me once again thank Ed Devine and Ian Macleod who do such a great job maintaining the website. And, of course, Brian. What would we do without him?

Finally, I have come to the end of my time as Chairman and, with your agreement, Richard Wadkin will be taking over at the AGM. It has been an honour, but more than that, it has been fun, working with Brian and a very capable group of people on the committee to keep the Society running so well. I will be going to as many meetings and tours as I possibly can in the future. See you there.

Best Wishes

Robert Hill

Chairman