Well, a great day was had by all yesterday (Tuesday 29th October2024) at Beedles Lake Golf club where the County Association hosted their first ‘Chip and Chat’ event.

The purpose of the event was to encourage those ladies that are within Club Academy’s, on winter memberships or those newer members who are just finding their feet to join other ladies in a similar position to share experiences and play some ‘fun’ golf

29 ‘new to golf’ ladies attended the event where they had the opportunity to mix with ladies from other clubs and try out putting, chipping and driving skills on the range followed by a few holes on the Owls par three course, all followed by a delicious light lunch. They were  supported by members of the County Executive, Club Charter Champions or Club representatives with 45 ladies in total attending. We were also pleased to welcome our England Golf, Club and County Support Officer, Jordan Dymond to the event.

We had a few small prizes and the winners were-

Putting Competition – Rikki Bigham (Beedles Lake)

‘Castle Putting’ – Pip Godrey (Rothley Park) and Katie Shepard (Melton Mowbray)

Par three Course –1^st was Pip Godfrey (Rothley Park), Penny Dodd (Melton Mowbray) and Pat Barton (Melton Mowbray)

2^nd was  Heather Hart (Market Harborough), Judy Spencer (Rothley Park) and Rikki Bigham (Beedles Lake)

They were all presented with their prizes by County President Alison Horak – see attached photos.

Feedback has been very positive

“Thank  you for a most enjoyable morning. It was lovely to meet all the ladies and would love to do it again next year”

“I just wanted to put in writing how much I enjoyed todays ‘Chip, Chat & Chips’ Day at Beedles.
Meeting so many ladies from an array of golf clubs from across the county,  all at a similar stage in their golfing careers,  was so helpful and gave us newbies the confidence we often lack. We were all made to feel at ease and had a lovely day”

“...they both thoroughly enjoyed their morning and lunch. They both said how useful the help with their game was and they enjoyed chatting to ladies from other clubs.”

We hope to gather more feedback and hope to host another event in the Spring where we hope to encourage even more ladies to join us.

We followed the ‘Chip and ‘Chat’ with a Charter Champions meeting where we identified some excellent good practise and we hope to be sharing those stories over the coming months.

I would like to thank Beedles Lake for allowing us the use of their facilities as without Club support we would not be able to host events of this nature.

Caroline Simpson

LRLCGA Charter Champion

Over the last two Sundays some excellent mixed foursomes golf has been played at Birstall Golf Club, as 30 pairs from across Leicestershire and Rutland have competed for the prestigious Baxter Trophy. 

Some great scores were recorded in the qualifying round with just 3 shots separating the top 8 pairs.  The four qualifying semi finalists from the first week being Steve Sansome and Maz Sharpe (Rothley Park) Gross 75, Clayton Turvey and Joanne Morris-Bourne (Willesley Park) Gross 75, Rachel East and John Fairbrother (Cosby) Gross 76, and Vicky Mayfield and Lee North (Rothley Park) Gross 77.

However in complete contrast to the dry sunny day for the qualifying round on Sunday 13^th October, the semi finals on the morning of 20^th October were played in very wet and windy conditions but as the final started in the afternoon, the sun came out and whilst the wind remained gusty, the afternoon was dry and bright.

In the first semi final the two Rothley Park pairs were drawn together, with Steve Sansome and Maz Sharpe continuing their winning form from the qualifying round to win 6 and 5.  The second semi final was closely fought and went to the 18^th with Willesley Park winning 1 up against Cosby, to set up a final between Rothley Park and Willesley Park.  There was some excellent golf from both pairs in the final but the partnership of Steve Sansome and Maz Sharpe remained on form beating last year’s winners, 4 and 3 to win the Baxter Trophy for Rothley Park.

Thanks to Birstall Golf Club for hosting the competition and for making everyone so welcome and to the referees Phil Askew and Angela Allington.  Congratulations to all those players who reached the semi finals and particular congratulations to the 2024 winners, Steve Sansome and Maz Sharpe.

Other prizes from the Qualifying Day were:

Best Gross – Steve Sansome and Maz Sharpe (Rothley Park) - Gross 75

Best Nett – Joe Hodson and Tracey Griffiths (Whetstone) Nett 69 on countback from Second Nett  - Spencer Sheffield and Jan Yeung (Glen Gorse) Nett 69

Full results can be seen at the following link by selecting the relevant round from the drop down menu at the top:

2024 Baxter Trophy Results

After the very heavy rain early this morning the sun shone on the 2024 Ladies’ County Foursomes Final between Cosby (last year’s runners up) and Lutterworth at Glen Gorse Golf Club today, with Cosby emerging as winners just 1 up overall.

As always the spectators were treated to some excellent golf, in two very closely fought matches with magnificent putts from both teams to finish on the 18^th.

Cosby were represented by Karen Wiseman, Rachel East, Sarah Storer and Jenny Gallacher.

Lutterworth’s team were Jacqui Knight, Lucy Wheeler, Caz and Gemma Parkes-Walley.

Willesley Park represented us in the 2024 English Women’s Champion Club event held this last weekend at Hessle Golf Club. Willesley were chosen to represent Leicestershire & Rutland Ladies County Golf Association as they were winners of the 2023 Scratch League.

The Championship consists of  36 holes of scratch stroke play over the two days, Saturday and Sunday. The winning club being the club with the lowest combined score of the best two players from each day.  

The Willesley team comprised of Jo Morris-Bourne, Tracy Bourne and Tracey Bates

An exciting first day saw Willesley Park as joint leaders with a gross score of 153 in part thanks to Joanne Morris-Bourne’s seventh career hole-in-one, but a difficult day weather wise meant they finished seven shots back of the winners in tied-3^rd  with a gross 317 over the 2 rounds.

The overall winners were North Hants just beating Shifnal (Shropshire) on count back with gross score of 310 over the 2 rounds.

Congratulations to the Willesley team for a great effort and coming a very credible 3rd out of 22 teams

Well - what a wonderful day for us all at MNR Champs in Nottingham!!

WINNER- MNR CHAMPION 2024 - GABBY CROWFOOT - 3 Shots ahead of the runner up!

WINNING SCRATCH TEAM - L&R -GABBY,  SCARLETT & ELLA!

RUNNER-UP SCRATCH TEAM - L&R - GABBY EMILY & EDIE!

We swept the board and took all the trophies!

All our girls were in the prizes - they ALL played their part!

They played magnificent golf in extremely challenging conditions!

Thanks for representing your County so well - and thanks to all the parents who came to support as they do all year!

I am overwhelmed with pride for ALL of you !!

My last MNR event- and what a joyful & successful one it was!

Definitely one for the memory bank!

Anitax